Reforming Care Delivery: How Will It Affect Your Nursing Career?

While no one knows whether Congress and the president will achieve comprehensive health care reform, nursing experts are convinced that, regardless of what happens in Washington, nurses will find greater career opportunities in the future.
From larger patient populations and greater demand to advances in telemedicine and more community-based, non-hospital careers, a number of factors are [...]

The Effects of Health Care Reform, or No Reform, on America’s Nurses

Along with insurance issues and patient protections, the documents spelling out the plans for health care reform contain several provisions to increase the supply of nurses and support nursing education and training. What will happen to these provisions–and the future nursing workforce–if reform isn’t passed in the near future?
Nursing leaders are clinging to hope, [...]

The President Offers Sustained Support for Nursing Education and Research in a Tight Budget Year

President Obama released his FY 2011 Department of Health and Human Services Budget Request, which provided details on the funding levels he proposed for critical nursing education and research programs. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recognizes that the Administration has remained committed to addressing the nursing and nurse faculty shortages by providing [...]

Illinois programs tackle Africa’s nursing shortage

Nurse Theresa Poole spent her days this month offering health screening and medications as a volunteer in the Republic of Zambia. She delivered analgesics to suffering patients and taught HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.
Poole returned home Wednesday to her job at the Rosewood Care Centers, residential centers serving several communities in Illinois. In Africa, she served [...]

California Forecasts Nursing Shortage of 12,000 By 2014

A new report just released by California’s key legislative analyst, Elizabeth G. Hill, now forecasts that due to an increase in new nursing graduates and an anticipated greater future “inflow” of these graduates, California will have a nursing shortage of only 12,000 registered nurses, instead of the 29,000 previously anticipated by 2014.
Previously, California was expected [...]

Nursing Shortage National Concern

Tens of thousands of hospital deaths every year can be blamed on a nationwide nursing shortage, according to a report released today by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
The private commission, which inspects and accredits hospitals, believes that a lack of nurses is to blame for thousands of deaths caused by problems [...]

West Virginia has a nursing shortage

Martinsburg’s West Virginia University Hospitals-East will soon undergo a $28 million expansion, which will allow the emergency department alone to treat 20,000 more patients per year, said Teresa McCabe, the facility’s vice president for marketing and development.
“We currently see about 45,000 patients a year in our emergency department, and it was not designed for that [...]

Is the Nursing Shortage Over?

Last week Virginia’s Healthcare Workforce Data Center presented a snapshot of the state’s nursing workforce and reported, “The current state of the economy is leading many nurses to remain in the workforce longer than anticipated. If they delay retirement by as few as two years, Virginia is more likely to meet 2013 – 2015 demand [...]

Effects of the Nursing Shortage

A study published in the January/February 2006 journal Health Affairs provides new evidence that if hospitals invest in appropriate Registered Nurse (RN) staffing, thousands of lives and millions of dollars could be saved each year. Specifically, the study shows that if hospitals increased RN staffing and hours of nursing care per patient, more than 6,700 [...]

The Nursing Shortage and Its Effects on Patient Care

The healthcare industry has many challenges to face when it is delivering its services to patients. Not only are there an unbelievable number of diseases and illnesses to diagnose and treat but there is also the need to treat these illnesses in a timely manner. One of the most prevalent issues in the healthcare industry [...]