Nursing shortage and turnover is an enormous issue affecting nurses in the delivery of patients’ care. Nursing shortages have been shown to cause unfavorable effects which include decreased job satisfaction, decreased access to care, and can lead to increased turn over. This paper is about nursing shortages and nursing turn overs, and how the author would expect nursing leaders and managers to approach this issue. The writer’s rational would be supported by using theories, principles, skills and roles of the leader versus manager.
The first aspect of the nursing shortage is the aging of registered nurses and it is affected by the higher average age of individuals getting into nursing and the aging of the present population of nurses. There has been a decline in nurses younger than 30 years old. Between 1980 and 2004, the percentage of registered nurses who were younger than 30 years dropped from 25% to 8% (Huber 2010, p.575). The aging of registered nurses makes the nursing shortage a bigger problem. The average age of registered nurses in March 2004 were 46.8 years compared to 45.2 years in 2000. About half of the registered nurses are expected to be older than 50 years by 2010 (Huber, 2010, p.574). To help reduce the shortage, nurse managers can offer sign on bonuses and relocation coverage for nurses willing to relocate. Roughly one third of the nursing work force is over 50 years of age and the average age of the fulltime nursing workers is 49 years (Brenda & Erickson, 2013, p. 1).
The challenge is for nurse managers to restructure patient care delivery models that are built to support the practice of the older nursing staff. Due to nursing being a physically demanding job, nurse managers must address these challenges by initiating new technologies into practice. Nurse managers can support the older nurses by offering increased time off from work, sabbaticals and flexibility in scheduling.
Furthermore, for