Nursing shortage

A nursing shortage occurs when the demand for nursing professionals, such as Registered Nurses (RNs), exceeds the supply locallywithin a healthcare facilitynationally 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. The nursing shortage is global according to 2022 World Health Organization fact sheet. A nursing shortage is not necessarily due to a lack of trained nurses. In some cases, perceived shortages occur simultaneously with increased admission rates of students into nursing schools. Potential factors include lack of adequate staffing ratios in hospitals and other health care facilities, lack of placement programs for newly trained nurses, inability for students to complete schooling in general or with the appropriate grade and inadequate worker retention incentives. The reduced number of nurses today does play a role in shortages across the world, though. 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. These will continue to be reoccurring issues if not disentangled now. A study in 2009 by the Emergency Nurse has predicted that there will be a shortage of 260,000 registered nurses by the year 2025. 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. 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.