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Article Date: 09/06/2007

Nursing Shortages May Be Linked to Deaths
The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) reports that the U.S. nursing shortage is causing an increased death and illness rate for American patients. Baby boomers are aging and require more care, which could cause a shortage of one million nurses by 2020. To reduce the negative effect that this shortage may have on patients, U.S. nursing training and increasing the amount of immigrant nurses will be required. The lack of nurses causes negative patient outcomes, and a study by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) found that increasing a nurse's workload from four to eight patients could have a 31% increase in patient mortality. Therefore, it was concluded that by increasing nurse staffing, the morality rate would decrease.

Two recommendations for doing so would be by increasing nursing faculty and school infrastructure and bringing in more foreign nurses. Even if nursing school expand capacity, they will need to find ways to make the job more attractive in order to retain those nurses. Most nurses do not pursue a masters or PhD in nursing due to pursuing higher-paying jobs in business, public health, or health-care administration. Many nurses also feel that hospitals offer nurses low pay and poor conditions. By improving working conditions and pay, hospitals can also retain more nurses. The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) advocates increasing the U.S.'s annual green card quota to accept over 140,000 foreign nurses each year. However, many feel that this would just take the nursing shortage crisis in the U.S. and outsourcing it to countries that cannot afford to give up their nurses.

Website Address: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2007/db2007095_010041.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives

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