Nurses are the primary caregivers in hospitals. They are the first person we see when we go to an emergency room and they are the health workers who are most likely to know all about a hospital's patients. The problem is that the proportion of the number of patients to the number of nurses is abysmal right now, with nurses having to handle more patients than they are prepared for. This issue is further compounded by the fact that the Coronavirus epidemic is ravaging the planet and has revealed how important nurses are and that we do not have enough of them. 

There Are More Patients Than Ever

One of the biggest reasons why we need more nurses is that there are many more patients to take care of now. This is because of two main reasons:

  • The passage of the Affordable care Act in 2010. This act extended health insurance coverage to millions of people who otherwise would not have gone to the hospital if they could not afford it.

  • An aging population. As the population ages, we need more people to take care of them. There are age-related diseases that we simply cannot ignore, and nurses are usually the people tasked with making the elderly comfortable in hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions.

New Laws 

Many states in the United States have passed laws that call for a certain nurse to patient ratio. For example, an emergency room nurse cannot handle more than four patients. With these ratios in play, it is easy to see why we need more nurses to keep the ratio as stipulated within these laws. 

More Nurses Are Getting Board Positions

Hospitals are starting to realize the vital roles nurses play in hospitals and because nurses understand healthcare better than many other health professionals, hospitals are starting to offer them board positions. Other reasons for this shift include:

  • Nurses know what patients need better than anyone. Because of this, they are able to come up with policies that better meet the needs of their patients as more hospitals move to patient- and consumer-centered practices.

  • When hospital boards come up with new policies and procedures, they hand them down to the staff to implement them. If there is no nurse input during the crafting of these new policies and procedures, there will be lackluster adoption at the staff level. Boards know this and they are therefore adding more nurses to their boards to ensure the policies they come up with are adopted. Nurses who sit on these boards are also better able to push for the implementation of these policies as they see them as a result of their hard work and input.

  • Highly qualified nurses know how best to eliminate wastage for the sake of hospitals' bottom lines. 

More Nurses are Moving to Managerial Positions

Hospitals understand how important nurses are in the running of a hospital as well as helping the hospital provide the best working conditions for nurses. It is now common to see nurses with a Doctor of Nursing Practice heading a whole department, managing nurses, and being responsible for the day to day running of small hospitals.

Besides the added responsibilities and job flexibility, nurses are moving to managerial positions because of better pay. If you want to get into these managerial positions, you have to get a Doctor of Nursing Degree. You can take online DNP programs as they allow you to keep working while earning your degree. Baylor University's online DNP programs have been lauded for their focus on leadership training as well as affording you an opportunity to follow other nursing career paths besides managerial positions.

A Shift Towards Consumer-centered Care

A shift towards customer-centered care comes with some key principles that have to be followed:

  • Patients can decide the type of care they need

  • Their preferences, thoughts, and needs must always come first

  • A hospital cannot impose any treatments on patients who do not want them. For example, if a patient opts for home care, a hospital can not keep them any longer

When all these are considered, hospitals have to also shift their mindset to ensure every patient gets enough attention from the nurses around them. As it takes more time for a nurse to fully take care of a patient, hospitals realize they need more nurses.

The need for nurses to take care of their patients at home if that is what the patients need requires more nurses as some nurses will always be out of the hospital tending to these patient's needs.

The Population is Growing

The population in most countries keeps growing. This because of:

  • better nutrition

  • increased access to proper healthcare

  • decreasing infant mortality rates

When you have an increasing population, it is easy to see that many countries need more nurses to keep up. The rise in population numbers looks even worse when you realize many countries also have an aging population. 

There are Fewer Medical Practitioners Overall

The number of medical practitioners is falling. A career in the medical field is not as lucrative as it used to be. One of the main reasons for this is due to the massive student loans people graduate with, as well as the brutal working hours most medical professionals work.

This situation can be remedied by giving medical practitioners avenues to pay their student loans, which will make more of them available. When we have more medical practitioners, the number of hours each of them works will be reduced and this eliminates the argument that medical practitioners work more hours than most other professionals.

Finally, this opens up opportunities for people to get into this field. There is an increasing demand for nurses and other medical professionals now, which is an excellent reason to follow this career path.

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has exposed the need for more nurses, this shortage has been going on for a long time. The bottom line is this, if we want to keep our healthcare systems working, we need more nurses urgently.