Nursing Shortage; Recruitment and Retention

The U.S. nursing shortage had been a serious issue for quite sometime now and continues to escalate. As the nursing workforce continues to age, nurses leave the profession faster than they can be replaced and the crisis continues to grow. Nurses are leaving for different reasons. What is being done to solve the nursing shortage here in the United States? Nursing recruitment and retention is one of many solutions that can alleviate this problem. "Nurses are privileged to belong to a profession that commands a level of credibility and respect that few others in health care or any other field can claim. According to the Gallup Organization's 2005 annual poll on professional honesty and ethical standards ranked nurses number one. With one exception, after September 11, 2001 (when nurses ranked second following firefighters), nursing has been the highest-rated profession in Gallup's "honesty and ethics" survey since their initial inclusion in 1999. (2006). Why is there such nursing shortage all over the country if nursing is a good profession to go into? An overwhelming number of nurses experienced increased patient care, inadequate staffing, decreased nurse satisfaction, stress on the job, increasing technological demands resulting in a delay in providing basic care and dramatic decrease in the quality of patient care. The lack of qualified nurse educators compounds the problem with the inability to train new nurses quickly. The lack of capacity at nursing programs is a major problem that is also contributing to the nursing shortage.
Many young adults or high school graduates do not want to go into the nursing profession. We should start at the most basic level to recruit nurses and that is to educate and communicate to the public and the youth of America about what and who nurses really are. As nurses, recruitment can start with us, we can educate and inform the young adults, and the public about the positive aspects of nursing such as how important nurses are

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