Is There Really a Nursing Shortage?

The American Nurses’ Association estimates that there is a need of 1.1 million nurses in 2022 to address the “nursing shortage.” They also estimate that there will be 500,000 nurses that leaving the field in 2022. US Bureau of Labor Statistics state that there are 4.3 million Registered Nurses in the US and 3.1 million nursing positions. While I realize that I am not a mathematician, the numbers just don’t add up. Based on these numbers, there appears to be a surplus of nurses. What there really is, is a shortage of bedside nurses willing to work under the insurmountable stress associated with working at the bedside. In October, a new bill was introduced in the House. HR 9200, coined, Stop Nurse Shortage Act which is aimed at increasing the number of accelerated nursing programs and increasing the dollar amounts and number of grants given to diverse student populations to increase the number of nursing students and, subsequently, nursing graduates. The average nursing graduate leaves the bedside after 5 years. While it is nice to see that someone in Congress is thinking about nurses, it doesn’t address the real issue. There are enough nurses, they just don’t want to work at the bedside. Until the real issues are addressed, the shortage of bedside nurses is never going to improve. These are the real statistics that need to be addressed by Congress:

• 18% of new nurses leave their first jobs within a year

• 20% of the current nursing population plan on retiring within 5 years

• Nurses experience more workplace injuries and violent episodes than any other profession

• 41% of all nursing workplace injuries are caused by patients

• Nurses are not protected in the workplace

• More nurses than any other profession died from COVID

• Half of all nurses report feeling overwhelmed and anxious at work

• Only 50% of nurses report receiving a raise in the past year

• Starting pay for new grads in Utah ($26/hr) only exceeds the average pay for Target employees by a dollar ($25/hr)

• 100% of all hospital nurses report that they have worked at least one 12 hour shift in the past year without eating and/or using the restroom the entire shift

• 80% of all nurses report that they have been a victim of violence directed at them by a patient or family member

These are the reasons why there is a bedside nursing shortage. We need to change the narrative to a bedside nursing shortage from a nursing shortage. There are enough of us, however, for the reasons noted above, and many more, we don’t want to accept the abusive working conditions we endure at the bedside. We have to press our representatives to pass bills that protect and support the nurses we have, not just produce new nurses that we send to the slaughter that perpetually exists within hospitals nationwide.