Reply To: A Great article about quelling the nursing shortage. Short and sweet

[Gabriela Baker]

Nursing shortage has been a problem for a long time. It seems that there are never enough of us, like the article states. One way that enticed students to choose nursing during the war was to offer nursing education free to students willing to serve in the army as nurses. In today’s world one way to encourage more students to choose nursing is to make schooling more cost attainable. Many students today are terrified of getting into student loan debt especially after seeing how the recession in 2008 left many new graduates without job prospects. Showing students the job security that a career in nursing can offer and the different areas of work they can do as a nurse will help to entice more students into choosing it as a career. Also reducing the cost of higher education would enable more students to choose nursing. However, I have read in many articles that some nursing programs are having to turn away qualified students because there is a lack of educators and clinical rotation spots to place students in. Even while I was in school, there was difficulty attaining clinical rotation spots in certain areas that are needed in order to complete a nursing degree. Having more areas open to the idea of having students in their site for clinical rotations would help to solve the issue of limited rotation spots creating room for additional students. These are all suggestions that I’m sure have been tried and new solutions are always being thought of. In the meantime, nurses currently in the field can encourage students to choose careers in nursing to help with the shortage.