2007-09-11 02:16:54 · 11 answers · asked by Rose 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Careers & Employment ➔ Health Care
Nursing schools don't have enough faculty or clinical sites to provide training.
Increasing health demands of the population - obesity, heart disease, drugs, etc.
Baby boomer population is aging, creating a strain on the all levels of health care.
Nurse / patient ratios leading to decreased job satisfaction and nurse burnout, nurses leaving the profession or leaving bedside nursing for other administrative positions.
One other thing I wanted to say is that it is still the stereotype that nurses are devalued by physicians and are treated poorly. At least, I have not encountered that in my experience. Nursing as a profession has gained a great deal of respect in recent years, and no longer are nurses viewed as bed pan emptiers and pill passers. Our jobs are far more technical than that, involves far more responsibility than that. The image of nursing is improving and it's mainly just the old-fogey physicians who still treat nurses as inferiors.
For nurses who feel like they don't make enough money for what they do, or that they feel disrespected or devalued, it's time to get another job with another employer. It's not nursing that sucks, it's your work environment.
2007-09-11 06:37:42 · answer #1 · answered by Take A Test! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Firstly, RN's make a bundle- upwards or 75K. I happen to know plenty of nurses 'cos a lot of them come from my corner of India and some of them work only like 4 days a week (12 hour shifts, though) to make a very good living.
But you are looking at the shortage from the other end- it is not a shortage due to a reduced number of nurses, it is a shortage from the increased demand.
Thanks to the vagaries of the US Health system and an ageing population (baby boomers), more people are spending time in hospital. So the demand for nurses is increasing.
Since traditionally nursing was not very popular, there is no increased supply from w/in the country and hence the shortage.
And nursing unlike call center work cannot be outsourced.
Ditto for pharmacists- qualified pharmacists are guaranteed 6 figure starting salaries in parts of the country!
There is a shortage of doctors, especially GPs, for another reason- the AMA forces an artificial shortage by making it very difficult to become a doctor. In many parts of the world you can join med school straight out of high school (12 years)- here you have to do 4 years of undergrad and only then go to medschool. If you are qualified from outside the US they make it horribly hard to start practising here.
So anyone who does become a doctor wants to become a specialist and rake in the moolah!
2007-09-11 02:31:08 · answer #2 · answered by sumithar 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nurses can make ok pay depending on their position but pay levels are an influence on why there is a smaller supply of nurses.
Nurses are often treated as inferior by doctors which makes them feel less valued.
The nurse:patient ratio is bad enough that a nurse is greatly overworked.
Pay isn't enough to offset this so getting people to enter the workforce as nurses is an increasing difficulty.
I have a sister and a friend becoming nurses, they are both focused enough on the 'helping patients' angle that they believe they can overcome the obstacles they will face.
2007-09-11 03:40:24 · answer #3 · answered by Blicka 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The pay as a nurse is outstanding, actually. It wouldn't matter if we had a country full of nurses, there would still be a shortage, due to the amounts of injuries people end up enduring, and not to mention, natural health-related illnesses.
2007-09-11 02:26:03 · answer #4 · answered by How could I have burned paradise 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nurses are treated as second class citizens by doctors (actually many doctors treat all others as second class citizens).
Nursing requires a very long and hard training period and frankly although pay and opportunities have improved a lot in the past 30 years, they haven't improved enough. Many will start a nursing program and when well into it will realize that they can switch to a medical program and become a doctor instead.
Unfortunately the system will have to change before the supply will catch up with the demand.
2007-09-11 02:25:11 · answer #5 · answered by Glennroid 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
RN's can make phenomenal money, I don't know where the above people get their stats. Job security, good pay, pensions, doesn't sound bad to me.
The main reason for the shortage is our aging population, ever-rising obesity rates and our new pill popping generation thanks to sleazy marketing techniques from pharmaceutical companies.
Not to mention, that it is tough work and most Americans want the lives of the rich and famous, not hard working & industrious.
2007-09-11 02:25:12 · answer #6 · answered by Gem 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nursing is physically demanding work requiring a large amount of highly technical training and doesn't pay all that well for the training/education required.
2007-09-11 02:20:54 · answer #7 · answered by Ted 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I see some answers saying low pay... Not so fast...the pay is great and the work is demanding. The schooling is demanding. Guess what folks. It's called work. Remember that?
2007-09-11 02:24:12 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
President Bush sent them to war.
2007-09-11 02:42:02 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Low pay and putting up with peoples shite day after day,, gotta remember humans whine alot,,,
2007-09-11 02:21:04 · answer #10 · answered by rich2481 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋