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Nursing shortage

Nursing shortage is a problem in several districts of Norway. This nurse is employed at a nursing home.

A nursing shortage occurs when the demand for nursing professionals, such as Registered Nurses (RNs), exceeds the supply locally—within a healthcare facility—nationally or globally. It can be measured, for instance, when the nurse-to-patient ratio, the nurse-to-population ratio, the number of job openings necessitates a higher number of nurses than currently available, or the current number of nurses is above a certain age where retirement becomes an option and plays a factor in staffing making the workforce in a higher need of nurses.[1] The nursing shortage is global according to 2022 World Health Organization fact sheet.[2]

The nursing shortage is not necessarily due to the lack of trained nurses. In some cases, the scarcity occurs simultaneously with increased admission rates of students into nursing schools. Potential factors include lack of adequate staffing ratios, lack of placement programs for newly trained nurses, inadequate worker retention incentives and inability for students to complete schooling in general. This issue can continue further into the workforce with veteran workers as well as burnout in the healthcare field is one of the largest reasons for the nursing shortage in the U.S. today. The lack of nurses overall though can play a role in the shortages across the world today.

As of 2006, the WHO estimated a global shortage of almost 4.3 million nurses, physicians and other health human resources worldwide—reported to be the result of decades of underinvestment in health worker education, training, wages, working environment and management.[3] These will continue to be reoccurring issues if not disentangled now.

A study in 2009 by Emergency Nurse has predicted that there will be a shortage of 260,000 registered nurses by the year 2025.[4] A 2020 World Health Organization report urged governments and all relevant stakeholders to create at least 6 million new nursing jobs by 2030, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, to off set the projected shortages and redress the inequitable distribution of nurses across the world.[5]

While the nursing shortage is most acute in countries in South East Asia and Africa, it is global, according to 2022 World Health Organization fact sheet.[2] The shortage extends to the global health workforce in general, which represents an estimated 27 million people. Nurses and midwives represent about 50% of the health workforce globally.[2]

  1. ^ Haddad, Lisa M.; Annamaraju, Pavan; Toney-Butler, Tammy J. (2021), "Nursing Shortage", StatPearls, Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, PMID 29630227, retrieved 21 September 2021
  2. ^ a b c "Nursing and midwifery". World Health Organization. 18 March 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  3. ^ "The world health report 2006 - working together for health". Who.int. Geneva. 2006. Archived from the original on 2 December 2006.
  4. ^ Doherty, L. (July 2009). "Global survey: Patients pay price for insufficient staff, high nurse workloads". Emergency Nurse. 41 (4): 4–5. doi:10.7748/en.17.4.4.s2. ISSN 0098-1486. PMID 27316043.
  5. ^ "State of the World's Nursing Report - 2020". www.who.int. Retrieved 22 March 2022.