The nurse staffing invoice funding experts at PRN Funding recently came across a blog entry by Brooke Stafford (a nursing practitioner student and also writes for Family Nurse Practitioner Degrees) that we wanted to share with our nurse staffing industry readers.

Ms. Stafford wrote about Five Ways the Nursing Shortage is Affecting the Elderly, which we condensed below:

1. Too many patients – Because there are fewer nurses to go around, they often take on more patients than they can effectively handle.
2. More mistakes – If your nurse doesn’t know one patient from the next, it can be easy to confuse treatments, drugs, and more.
3. More falls – While in a health care facility, falling is one of the most common ways seniors injure themselves.
4. Quicker discharge – Ever feel as if you’re being rushed out of a hospital or other health care facility? The nursing shortage might be to blame.
5. Quality drop – This is perhaps the most dangerous way the nursing shortage is affecting the elderly.

After hearing countless reports about the worldwide nursing shortage, researchers at RAND Corporation say the trend is reversing. Specifically, the number of women in their early 20s who became registered nurses increased by 62 percent from 2002 to 2009. Combined with the fact that registered nurses today tend to enter training at older ages than a generation ago, these new entering cohorts are projected to become the largest group of nurses ever observed, according to researchers from the RAND Corporation, Vanderbilt University and Dartmouth College.

The study’s lead author and economist, David Auerbach was quoted in the official press announcement: “The spike we’ve seen in young women becoming registered nurses is dramatic. If the trend continues, it will help to ease some of the concerns about future nursing shortages.”

Researchers say there are several reasons that interest in nursing has surged. Several major initiatives were launched to increase interest in nursing careers. Meanwhile, nurse training programs expanded enrollment and created innovative efforts that allows some people to get training on an accelerated schedule.

In addition, the economic downturn and a continued decline in manufacturing jobs has reduced many of the career opportunities that had attracted young people who otherwise might choose nursing.

Click here to read the official announcement: More Young People Are Becoming Nurses; Trend May Help Ease Future Nursing Shortage.

We’ve been blogging for years about the nurse shortage and how medical staffing agencies have various opportunities to capitalize on the staffing crisis. There was an interesting article on Health Leaders Media’s website that profiled MidMichigan Health, a nonprofit system based in Midland, MI, that started bringing back retired nurses to cover gaps in shifts.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The health system found it had a cadre of retired nurses who didn’t want to entirely stop working, so it utilized the available talent to fill gaps in schedules, work on special projects, and generally improve the staffing situation across the whole system.

“We had a lot of retirees that took a retirement package we offered as a cost saving measure,” says Tonia VanWieren, BSN, RN, director maternity unit/pediatrics, nursing office/shift administrator, MyTimeSelect/system staffing. “Then they wanted to come back to work because of the economy and different things in their lives.”

Click here to read the entire article: Retired Nurses Ease a Staffing Crunch, Bolster Budget