Although hospitals report that short-term measures, such as higher pay and temporary staff, have helped ease nurse shortages, serious doubts remain about hospitals’ ability to meet future nursing needs, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change published in Health Affairs. A lack of nursing school capacity remains an important barrier to meeting long-term nursing needs, despite such hospital efforts as subsidizing faculty salaries and loaning their own nurses to serve as nursing faculty, the study found. Many hospital executives also were concerned that heavy reliance on temporary or inexperienced nurses could affect patient care. Half of the 32 hospitals in the study reported either achieving or planning to apply for “nurse magnet” status, an American Nurses Association initiative that recognizes hospitals’ performance on quality indicators and standards of nursing practice that contribute to nurse retention and quality of care.
With a forecast of a shortage of more than 1 million nurses by 2012, the authors call for public financial support to address the shortage of nurse faculty and for policymakers to use nursing quality measures by the National Quality Forum to recognize high-performing hospitals.
