Nurse Shortage is a Chronic Problem Being Treated With Acute Solutions

Nurses across healthcare specialties have been in consistently high demand for many decades, and the current shortage, as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age (effectively converting them from nurses to patients themselves), has continued from around 2012. Shortages are especially critical in highly specialized settings like oncology, where patients are also immunocompromised and nurses who qualify to care for them can’t safely transfer back from COVID-exposed facilities. If this cycle continues unabated, nurse shortages will reach a critical level, likely impacting the quality of care and patient safety. Said simply, healthcare is treating the nursing shortage like an acute problem; it’s time for the industry to start treating it as a chronic condition, which means looking for new solutions to this old problem.