The U.S. Is on the Verge of a Major Nursing Shortage

My wife is a Nurse Practitioner. When she started down that path she had to get into nursing school to earn an RN. Just getting into a school, any school was extremely difficult. The programs are very competitive with limited space. She made it work because she is brilliant and tenacious but that period was really rough.

If 'they' were really worried about the nursing shortage they would introduce more tiers of qualified nursing to cover the gap. Like it was said earlier, places are not hiring LPNs anymore and are putting the squeeze on RNs. The shortage is not because there are a shortage of people who want to be nurses but it is because it is so difficult to get to a level where you are desirable.

The stats are out there - and in short the pay is considered too low by most who would want to nurse to actually pursue a career - starts at 21k, tops out at 35k - and bursuries and grants for educational and training costs are unavailable for most - the means test requires you and your family to earn less than a living income to actually get funding.

Apocryphally, my other half wanted to be a nurse, but couldn't get any assistance to fund her studies. She went to work as a carer instead, which requires less in the way of qualifications, but if you're earning minimum wage and having to spend most of your income on fuel to reach your patients, it doesn't make sense to pursue.

No - nursing roles tend to be most readily fulfilled by those who have trained overseas, have a favourable purchasing parity power in their country of origin compared to the UK, and have a modest cost of living, what with that being prepared to work your nuts off to achieve your aspirations thing that has largely been washed out of the West. A growing number of folks seem to be waiting for lightning to strike, as everybody eventually wins the lottery or becomes a pop star.

Pretty much. How is this not just a mirror image of H-1B nonsense tech journalism? The whole point here is to gin up support for an increase in whatever immigration cap applies to nurses. I'll eat my hat if there's an actual shortage that couldn't be fixed with pay raises.

New Zealand has a shortage of sonographers and a growing MR tech shortage. Sonographers were paid more to work at private clinics and the public system lost staff and have been forced to outsource the work, leading to more private work and more staff leaving for private clinics. Seeking to try and prevent this happening with MRI as well as ultrasound there are moves to loosen regulation and allow staff with minimal/no training in MRI (but trained in radiography) to perform MR scans. It's interesting to watch, somehow the government health boards (and the odd private employer who can't stomach paying their staff properly) seem to think capitalism doesn't apply to them and that their crap wages aren't responsible for their staff shortages.

It sounded like nursing schools are just turning away nurses. "Less qualified nurses will be hired" seems like the real outcome.