A brief search for articles relevant to nursing shortage was completed and the oldest date sorted the articles. Articles referencing nursing supply and demand dated as far back as 1940's including relevance to military nurse demand during World War II.
In 1955, a small town council member in Pennsylvania had the idea of creating scholarships to address the nurse shortage at the local hospital (Irwin, 1955). This initiative worked to increase patient volume and other services of healthcare. According to the Training & Development Journal (1968) AHA and ANA had discussion of critical staffing for the nursing profession. This was over 60 years ago and today the same discussion is being kicked around. I don't believe it is a lack of motivation. The matter has multiple forces and a diverse web of individuals influencing the shortage.
I sum it down to poor accountability and ineffective role performance. Nurses need to keep nurse leadership honest and accountable. Nurse leadership needs to exhibit a pattern of responsibility to the role of nurse leadership, which differs from hospital leadership role. Nurse population needs to portray self accountability to support nurse leaders to enact those very roles.
The final recipient of good or bad nurse staffing is the patient. Substandard, unsafe, and inappropriate staffing is an acceptable risk for many hospitals and nurse leaders. If it was not acceptable, then why are we still talking about nurse staffing shortages? Over 60 years of poor accountability and ineffective role performance!
References:
Irwin, T. (1955). Allentown, Pa., Has Its Own Plan to End the Shortage of Nurses. Saturday Evening Post, 227(35), 12.
Shortage of Nurses. (1968). Training & Development Journal, 22(7), 9.
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