This is a truly challenging time for healthcare facilities. From hospitals to private clinics and everything in between, there is a nursing shortage, and any open positions are becoming more and more difficult to fill. This clearly has a knock-on effect on patient care, but it also means that those who might have been tempted to enter the nursing profession – people who the healthcare industry needs desperately – are put off the idea. After all, if they see that everyone is leaving, they might start to question why this is, and rather than researching the issue, they might assume that nursing is not for them.
On top of this, the crisis is set to get worse. By 2030, it is suggested that, thanks to another one million nurses retiring and not enough people taking on those roles, there will be such a serious nursing shortage that around twenty percent of available nursing roles will be available.
This issue is prevalent in Indiana. In this state, studies have shown that another 1,350 nursing graduates are needed each year to fill all the roles required. Understandably, there is a lot of frustration around this problem, especially from those whose job it is to recruit new nurses and keep their healthcare facilities working at optimum levels.
So just what is the issue in Indiana? Why is there such a serious nursing shortage, and what can be done about it? Read on to find out more.
Why Is There A Nursing Shortage?
There is a two-fold reason for the nursing shortage in Indiana – and across the United States. The first part of the problem is that more and more nurses are coming up to retirement age, and although some will stay on, many will leave the profession to enjoy their retirement. In addition to this, people are living longer with more complex healthcare needs, and therefore, even if many nurses weren’t retiring, more would be needed to help these particular patients. Added together, this has caused the nursing crisis we see today, one that will get worse as the years go on unless something is done quickly to fix the problem.
What Are The Effects Of The Nursing Shortage In Indiana?
It should come as no surprise that the nursing shortage in Indiana has caused a variety of problems, some more serious than others. As might be expected, even if it’s not pleasant to think about, one of the biggest and most serious issues that has come from this nursing shortage is an increase in patient mortality rates. A number of studies have been carried out that have directly linked fewer nurses with more deaths.
This makes sense. If there aren’t enough nurses to take care of patients, then some of those patients will become more unwell and could die as a result. This is not due to any negligence but simply the fact that there aren’t enough nurses in Indiana to deal easily with the number of people who need medical assistance. In other words, overworked nurses will lead to overlooked patients.
The next problem that a lack of nurses in the state has caused is increased cases of nurse burnout. Burnout is essentially stress-induced absence from work. Symptoms of burnout include feeling exhausted and completely drained, feeling stuck and defeated, feeling entirely alone, being negative and consumed by self-doubt, procrastinating a lot more than usual, and, in the end, feeling completely overwhelmed. Obviously, these kinds of feelings will lead to stress, anxiety, and depression, and in most cases, a nurse who is burning out will need to take a large amount of time off work, and they may quit altogether. Even if the nurse does continue to work, this can be worse than them not being there at all. A nurse who is burnt out but who continues to work will be less engaged, less motivated, and less productive – this can lead to neglect and patient care problems.
It might also surprise you to discover that the nursing shortage actually leads to patients having to spend more time in hospital. This then means that there is a backlog of cases and procedures and that there aren’t enough beds for those who need them. Patients can easily get sicker when they have to wait for help, even if they don’t have a serious condition. The reason for a lack of nurses to lead to increased hospital time for patients is that, because there are fewer people to take care of them, their treatment takes longer to complete. It’s that simple. The more nurses there are, the more quickly medications can be given, sooner dressings can be changed, and the more instructions can be carried out, meaning that recovery is faster and more positive. When patients have to wait for an overworked nurse to be available, they will have to be in hospital for longer than they otherwise would have been.
Finally, hospital finances are being hit by the nursing shortage, and hospitals in Indiana are finding that their budgets are being stretched to almost breaking point. With fewer nurses to pay, you might think that there would be more money in the accounts, but the opposite is true. When there aren’t enough nurses, the ones who are qualified and working will be needed to work overtime, and this is more expensive than a standard nurse salary Indiana would be. Not only that, but specialist agency nurses may be drafted in to cover the shortfall, and this is another more expensive option than paying a standard nurse’s salary. In some cases, this emergency pay can be as much as $150 an hour. This is unsustainable and makes the nursing shortage even worse since hospitals can’t actually afford to pay new nurses due to the large amount of money they are paying at the moment.
What Are The Reasons For The Nursing Shortage?
There are a number of reasons that all come together to create the terrible nursing shortage currently taking hold in Indiana, across the country, and across the world. The easiest reason to understand, and the one that is most pressing, is that there has been a huge increase in the general population in relatively recent decades – this is the ‘baby boomer’ generation, of which there are around 75 million people.
Not only are there many more people in this generation than any that came before, but they are also taking better care of their health, so they are living longer. This might seem to be a good thing in terms of the nursing shortage because if people are healthier, they won’t need so many nurses, however, no matter how healthy you are, old age will bring complications with it, and there is nothing you can do about these conditions. This is where nurses will be needed.
Another issue is the opioid epidemic. Although this might not be something that personally touches you or your family, it’s still a big issue, and in Indiana, it has reached crisis levels. In Indiana, it costs around $11 million a day to deal with this issue, and since 2010, opioid misuse has doubled. With over a million people being treated in one ER in the space of just 12 months, it’s clear that this will have a major impact on the nursing staff and where their priorities have to lie.
Opioid misuse is not a ‘quick fix’ either. While someone might start in the ER due to an overdose, for example, they will then have to stay in hospital for quite some time to fully recover, and they might have to be moved to a rehab facility eventually. Remember that nurses don’t just work in hospitals, and some nurses will be required in rehab, stretching resources even more thinly. In other words, the opioid epidemic in Indiana is at such a high level that it is taking nursing staff much more time to help those who are suffering in this way than it would normally. This obviously means that they are not able to spend as much time with other patients, being stretched again.
Then it is important to consider the honest fact that there is simply a limited supply of nurses. Every year 70,000 nurses retire, and it is estimated that by 2030, a million more nurses will have left the workforce. When they go, they take with them many years of knowledge, experience, and understanding. Of course, in normal circumstances, there would be other nurses coming to take their place, as is the case in most other professions. Over time, these new workers will gain the same experience as their predecessors, and when they themselves come to retire, they will have people to replace them. This is how it should work, but in recent years this is not how nursing has worked. There have been far fewer nurses applying for training than ever before, which is already causing a problem in staffing levels that will only get worse as years go on.
Solutions For The Nursing Shortage
Clearly, with the issue already causing widespread problems not just in Indiana but across the country and beyond, something needs to be done about the nursing shortage. The sooner solutions are found, the sooner the problem can be at least partially dealt with, although there is sure to be a shortfall somewhere before the new measures take hold. Yet it’s worth doing anyway; unless solutions are found, there simply won’t be enough nurses to take care of every patient, and this will make things even worse on a never-ending and constantly worsening loop.
One idea that could help is to offer more training options. In the past, the only way for a nurse to gain their essential qualifications would have been to attend a physical college. This worked out well for some, particularly those just leaving high school who had planned to go to college anyway, but it also limited the market. Anyone who might have wanted to change careers and become a nurse later in life, or those who, through funding issues or a disability or personal responsibilities, simply could not go to college would miss out; there is a lot of commitment when it comes to having to attend classes at specific times on specific days, and this would have put some people off and excluded others entirely.
Online training is beginning to change this particular problem. When you study online, you don’t have to commit to being somewhere at a certain time; you can study at whatever time suits you and at your own pace. This means that even if you currently have a full-time job or you have a family to take care of, you can still gain your nursing qualification through online colleges. Of course, there is a practical element to nursing training, but if the bulk of the work can be done online, this helps immensely and will open up the field of nursing to many more people who would never have been able to consider it as a viable career before.
Changes in the curriculum itself are also beginning to be brought in, and this is hugely helpful. By using technology more (not just online courses, but technology within physical lessons as well), it is possible to make the learning much more interesting and more accessible to a younger audience. Not only will this mean they come away with a good level of knowledge once they graduate, but it will also mean that more people will be tempted to apply for a nursing qualification in the first place.
Effective legislation might also be worth considering. In some states, legislators have created new laws that work on patient-to-nurse ratios. This means that nurses won’t be overworked, making healthcare spaces safer for patients. In Indiana, this work has already begun, although it is currently only at work in nursing homes rather than other healthcare settings, and it isn’t a ratio but a maximum of hours allowed, specifically 4.1 nursing hours per patient per day. This could be better, but it is a start. However, in order to fully realize the potential of this idea, it’s crucial that more nurses are recruited in order to ‘fill in the gaps’ when a nurse has worked as much as they are legally allowed to.
Regarding additional nurses, with a big drive to recruit new RNs, this is starting to make some headway. Myths about terrible working conditions and low pay are beginning to dissipate, and the truth is making the idea of becoming a nurse a better option. That’s not to say that nursing isn’t hard and that, at the start, at least, there aren’t better-paying jobs out there, but the fact is it’s not as bad as the media would have many people believe. On top of this, there is a separate drive to hire international nurses. This is a fantastic way to boost hospital and clinic staffing levels, especially since any international nurse must have a minimum of five years’ experience and have qualifications recognized in the US.
Conclusion
There is certainly a problematic nursing shortage in Indiana and across the United States. If nothing is done about it, this will continue to get worse until we are unable to treat patients with any kind of safety, respect, or care. No one wants this to happen, which is why so many efforts are being made to increase nursing staff and make the profession of nursing a good one to choose.
