Past nurse shortages have been corrected with the increased enrollment of students in nursing schools. Enrollment seems to going up this year. Is this shortage cyclical?

All of the current literature, including studies by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation³ and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations⁴, conclude that this shortage of registered nurses is not cyclical. Further, these publications suggest that the current crisis will not subside until some fundamental changes occur with the training and roles of the registered nurse. The demand for nurses over the past several years has outgrown the supply. And this phenomenon is projected to continue into the future. Although there has been an increase in the enrollment of students to nursing schools, it is anticipated that the demand for nurses will be difficult to meet in the near future.

As a result of the shortage, hospitals are recruiting/pirating nurses from one another by offering signing bonuses and increased compensation. This is already causing an upward compensation spiral, which favors only those hospitals with considerable resources.

³ “The American Nursing Shortage”, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, April 2002
⁴ “Healthcare at the Crossroads: Strategies for Addressing the Evolving Nurse Crisis”, JCAHO, April 2002

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