Nursing in Critical Condition

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, for Talk Radio News Service

Susan Reinhard, of AARP’s Public Policy Institute helped found the new Champion Nursing Coalition in response a critical and worsening shortage. Thousands of qualified prospective students are being turned away from nursing programs for lack of enrollment capacity, she said. At the same time, she continued, there will be a deficit of 500,000 to a million nurses by 2025.

John Lumpkin, MD, MPH, of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation described a few of the many roles nurses fill, clinical, social, chronic care, and administrative. He called the shortage unprecedented.

There is some good news, however, according to Nancy LeaMond Ex. VP at AARP. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) polls show overwhelming positive ratings and public support for the profession. AHRQ is a federal agency tasked with studies of healthcare improvement.

Citing Institute of Medicine Studies, Nancy Reller, representing Consumers Advancing Patient Safety, said that understaffing of nurses is associated with worse outcomes.

Jerald Newberry, for the National Education Association, said that asthma, obesity, and diabetes are so common in elementary schools that every one of them should have a nurse, but that many do not.

The panel recommends that funds be used to expand nursing programs, which would require about twice as many instructors as now. As it stands, about half of current instructors are expected to retire over the next decade.

Nursing shortage could hinder health care reform

Nursing Economics held a discussion at the National Press Club to discuss the plight of the current nursing shortage and its impact on the availability and effectiveness of health care. The presenters released a report called “Nursing Trends: 2007: Key facts about a changing workforce” complete with graphs showing results of surveys and statistics relevant to the shortage.


Peter Buerhaus, RN, professor of Nursing, and Director said that the shortage of registered nurses began in 1998 and has continued to be the longest lasting shortage on record. He said the number of registered nurses continues to grow, but at a rate that is too slow to meet demand. Citing that less than one percent of American men and Latinos are RNs, Buerhaus said that an increase in RNs from those demographics would help alleviate the shortage.

Beth Ulrich, RN and Senior Vice President, surveyed nurses about presidential candidates’ positions on health care and nursing and found that while Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) received the highest endorsement, 31 percent of participants did not believe any candidate had an adequate reform plan.

Karen Donelan, Senior Scientist in Health Policy, surveyed public perception of the nursing field and found that the public views registered nurses in extremely high favor, second only to teachers. She said responses also showed that the public believes physicians are overpaid and nurses are underpaid, and that this contributes to the shortage of registered nurses.