A report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, of Princeton, New Jersey, states that the current nursing shortage in the United States differs from past ones in that it is due to dissatisfaction in the nursing profession and competition from other professions (Anonymous, Current, 2002). Other contributing factors include the aging work-force coupled with a smaller young work force, failure to entice men and minorities to nursing, and women taking advantage of other professional opportunities which were not so readily available to them before. Nursing used to be one of the few professions open to women, but that is no longer the case (Yin, 2002). The National League for Nursing reports that in 2000, enrollment in nursing programs was down 33 percent, and has been declining at a rate of 4.2 percent a year since 1993. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics predicts that by 2010, there will be more vacancies in nursing than in any other profession.
Nurses are dissatisfied for a host of reasons: soaring drug costs and decreasing insurance reimbursements have led to hospitals cutting down on employing RNs to the point that patient safety is threatened; demographic trends are changing; cultural shifts occur in inner cities and elsewhere; and image problems are rising now there are so many other opportunities available to women (Weintraub, 2002; Yin, 2002).
There is currently a 26 percent turnover rate among nurses - the highest in decades - and hospitals are resorting to sign-on bonuses as high as $15,000 to attract qualified nursing staff (Weintraub, 2002). Hiring nurses from overseas can no longer fill the gap because there is a shortage worldwide. Salaries are low, and workloads are high for the remaining nurses. California is trying to reduce the patient load per RN down to six from 10 to 20 in some places, at a cost of roughly an extra $200 per patient. Hospital profit margins are decreasing, leaving less money to hire nu...