Assignment file attached

In present times nursing continues to echo sentiments of nursing shortages and projections on the need for nurses continues to rise. In a paper reviewing the US nursing shortage, “The American Epidemic: the U.S. Nursing Shortage and Turnover Problem”, Cox & Willis examine the nursing shortage and the influence of turnover. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics projected employment growth between 2010 and 2020 reporting that the expected need for registered nurses would rise from 2,737,400 to 3,449, 300 which is an increase of 26% (Cox & Willis, 2014). Cox & Willis continue to share statistics from the American Health Care Association who released its results from a study completed in 2007 that a 110000 direct care staff positions were vacant which was at the time 1 in 6 registered nursing positions that were unable to be filled due to a lack of qualified applicants (Cox, Willis, 2014). The AHCA when on to state that the empty positions will continue to rise, and the amount of vacant positions will continue to increase by 2025; which would leave the shortage of nurses to rise well over 260,000. This deficit that will be twice as many as the US has experienced since the 1960's (Cox &Willis, 2014).

Cox & Willis go on to elaborate on what they feel is a key factor influencing the nursing shortage- turnover. Cox & Willis define Turnover as the movement of employees from being hired to leaving the current position voluntarily and not staying within the organization. There is great expense that is incurred due to having high turnover. It is estimated that 10,000 to $60,000 is the cost per vacancy depending on the specific nursing discipline and specialty. A lack of nursing educators can also be identified as a core cause to the lack of available nurses. In 2009 only 21% of people would consider becoming an RN as their career profession. In 2006 nursing schools denied 41,683 applications into BSN in nursing programs with a major reason cited as a lack of faculty being an issue (Fox & Abragamson, 2009). Cox & Willis research this topic with the purpose to identify the root problems of nursing turnover and what factors are driving the nursing shortage issue in the United States. Cox & Willis surmised that there were economic factors, employee factors and external factors that influence the nursing shortage all of which are influenced by job satisfaction retention and turnover.

References

Cox, P., & Willis, W. K. (2014, March). The American Epidemic: The U.S. Nursing Shortage

and Retrieved from http://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1125&context=mgmt_faculty