Why is the Public Unaware of the Nursing Shortage?

The nursing shortage began a decade ago and, although statistics reveal an improvement in the situation recently, the projected deficit in the numbers of nurses needed and the actual numbers practicing will be 285,000 by 2020. That deficit represents a shortage three times larger than any in the U.S. in the last 50 years. Without trying too hard, we can visualize the next 12 years as a speeding locomotive and see 2020 bearing down on us with alarming rapidity. It is just plain scary, to put it simply. But, it quickly gets worse. Just five years later, in 2025, the projected shortage will have nearly doubled to 500,000. Even experts in health care economics, who have their fingers on the pulse of this problem, admit that the impact of such a shortage is difficult to comprehend. Yet I, an admitted news junkie, have heard or read almost nothing about this health care exigency in the mainstream media.

The authors of a recent study associated with the National Survey of the Public about Nursing expressed concern about the apparent apathy regarding the shortage expressed by our government. That despite the nursing shortage having been identified 10 years ago, there remains no national commitment to ensure adequate numbers of nurses to cope with the expected stress on our health care system due to the aging baby boomer population. I’ve mentioned it in this blog before, but in an interview with Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., RN in 2006 he said that to solve the shortage, Congress needs to appropriate to the effort $1 billion, "which is nothing." Considering that the U.S. spends $10 billion each month on the war in Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a measly billion to protect the health of this country’s citizens does almost seem like nothing.

What is it going to take to get our government on board to do its part to fix this problem? This is going to be a national disaster in 10 short years, maybe sooner, if action isn’t taken now. Why isn’t the fire being put out now while it is still smoldering instead of waiting until it’s a raging inferno? And, why isn’t the catastrophic enormity of this problem and the calamity that is likely to result from it being splashed all over television and newspapers?

It’s a tall order, but do any of you have answers—or opinions?