Discuss the global nursing shortage and effective strategies for recruitment and retention

Global Nursing ShortageNameUniversity
1.0 Introduction
Nursing shortage is an issue which affects each and every country across the world. The worldwide shortage of nurses leads to helplessness and suffering among patients. This occurs mostly due to the inability of the available healthcare workforce to attend to the health needs of the patients. However, less is known on the global and regional causes of a receding professional and unprofessional nurse workforce CITATION Ros121 \l 1033 (Rosseter, 2012). According to projections, the nursing shortage situation is set to worsen significantly over the next two or so decades. If this is true, the present trends continue. In 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States prepared a report titled Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortages of Registered Nurses on nursing shortage. According to this report, the current shortage will continue to deepen since huge numbers of professional nurses are continually retiring from the nursing field compared to few nurses who continue to join the profession CITATION Hay12 \l 1033 (Hayes, et al., 2012).
2.0 Definition
To achieve the objective of this paper, a newly recruited Registered Nurse has been interviewed and a literature review performed using published sources mostly online peer reviewed journals, textbooks and nursing periodicals. Main search areas involved global nursing shortage, general international nursing, global nurse migration, world brain drain, and world health care related systems CITATION Mig10 \l 1033 (Breier, Wildschut, & Mgqolozana, 2010). Understanding the definition of the nursing shortage is crucial and very important. How can we define nursing shortage? For purposes of this paper, nursing shortage is defined as a situation where the demand for professional nurses is higher than the supply in the nursing industry. This is the current case in most of developing and developed world and especially in the United States CITATION CDC09 \l 1033 (CDC, 2009).
3.0 Global nurse shortage
It is argued that nursing shortage can be caused by a situation where we have fewer nurses who are very willing to work as professional nurses in the present conditions. This can either be absolute or relative. An absolute shortage of nurses can be said to be a situation where some or most skilled nurses are indeed not available for any specific vacancy in the nursing field CITATION Cla111 \l 1033 (Clark & Allison-Jones, 2011). For instance, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals outlines eight major objectives: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empower women, reducing early child mortality, improving maternal health care, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other related diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development CITATION UN11 \l 1033 (UN, 2011). Thus sustained shortage of nurses can hinder the achievement of the MDGs by negatively affecting child mortality, maternal health, and fight against HV/AIDS. Therefore, a human resource crisis looms in the health sector and hence, the need for urgent preventive measures CITATION Mig10 \l 1033 (Breier, Wildschut, & Mgqolozana, 2010).
As outlined in the 2010/2011 report of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), about 75, 587 qualified applicants were unpredictably denied entry into graduate and baccalaureate nursing programs and colleges due to insufficiency of the available faculty resources CITATION Ros121 \l 1033 (Rosseter, 2012). Over the years, government chief nurses, nursing professionals and delegates from different countries have met to discuss and chart ways of resolving the common issue of nursing shortage. It has been noted that nursing shortage in some countries such as the United Kingdom and its neighbors constitutes an ongoing phenomenon. This has mostly been attributed to increase in demand for nurses which in effect overwhelms the slowly growing nurse supply. Today, nurse shortage is a glaring issue in the health sector given that demand for nurses continues to grow CITATION Hay12 \l 1033 (Hayes, et al., 2012).
Furthermore, supply of qualified nursing staff characterized by a significant reduction in the availability of professional nurses is clearly evident in some of the developed and the developing countries CITATION Cha131 \l 1033 (Winters, 2013). Nevertheless, the global and regional crisis of shortage of nurses has been addressed in the policy agenda. Different initiatives have been ongoing in four different areas. Firstly, adoption of efforts aimed at improving nurse retention. This involves preservation of the already employed nurses. Although a lot of research has been done on the initiative, further investigations in these are desirable CITATION Eco10 \l 1033 (Econex, 2010). Even so, available research shows that nurses are usually attracted and motivated to work and remain in employment by opportunities purposed to develop them professionally. They are obligated to gain sovereignty, and to participate in various decision making processes, and at the same time be fairly and equally rewarded. Different work environment factors are also very crucial and hence, a decentralized style of management, flexible and adequate employment openings or opportunities, and increased access to professional development are vital as they can improve nurse retention and lead to improved patient care CITATION Ins11 \l 1033 (Institute of Medicine, 2011).
Secondly, countries can increase their recruitment base. Nursing sector has been recruiting from a specific delineated group especially of the young women. It has been noted that some of the countries do try different access routes in the field of nursing for a wider range of recruits; this might include all the mature entrants, other entrants from ethnic minorities groups, and more and less qualified new entrants. The last categories have some vocational qualifications or some work related experience. The third proposed strategy may involve attracting returners into the nursing profession. Most of the countries have shown relatively greater pools of former employed nurses who possess the necessary nursing qualifications to go back to or re-enter nursing. Such groups are very attractive to all governments since they offer relatively a quick solution. Nevertheless, very close attention must be paid to reasons why such nurses had left the health system and what can be done to bring them back. Last but not least, nurses can be imported from other well endowed countries. Today, international recruitment is happening all over as employers target nurses from other countries. The developed countries have a tendency of exploiting any push factor from the developing countries that are capable of causing brain drain into their country and this helps them to import nurses CITATION Hay12 \l 1033 (Hayes, et al., 2012).The push factors may be due to low pay, unclear career structures, insufficient opportunities for quality basic and further education, while in some, the great threat of recurring violence CITATION Ins11 \l 1033 (Institute of Medicine, 2011).
Therefore, the ethics shown in some of the discussed recruitment practices are questionable, mostly if scarcity is not solved, and is only being restructured to a country that is poorly equipped to handle it CITATION Gav12 \l 1033 (George, Quinlan, Reardon, & Aguilera, 2012). The drawbacks of the above situation are at the center of the nursing system. In a real sense, nursing shortages are frequently a symptom of greater health system or community ailments CITATION CDC111 \l 1033 (CDC, 2011). Nursing in a lot of countries keep on being undervalued and it is perceived as the work of women. Nurses are often given limited access to available resources aimed at enhancing their professional development, thereby rendering them more ineffective in their jobs and career lines CITATION Gav09 \l 1033 (George, Quinlan, & Reardon, Human Resources For Health: A Needs and Gaps Analysis of HRH In South Africa, 2009). For concrete and sustainable solutions, other effective interventions ought to be adopted. All these interventions must be based on the recognition of the fact that the health care initiative is very labor intensive. In spite of these efforts, the available nursing professionals should be used widely and effectively to improve the functioning of the health system and to enable nurses to fully utilize their skills CITATION Hay12 \l 1033 (Hayes, et al., 2012).
4.0 Questions and responses from a newly registered RN
Interviewer: Ho...