The Evolution of a Crisis: Nursing in America

Abstract

Nursing workforce has become a priority for health care leaders, policy makers and the nursing profession. The confluence of demography, a changing health care system, social values, and work climate has created the overwhelming nature of today’s nursing crisis. These drivers represent a complexity that render past responses inadequate and serve to shape new ways in which health providers, education, government, labor, and professional groups must respond. Activities underway at the national, state, and institutional levels by various sectors range from short-term fixes to long-term interventions, which address structural issues that underlie the current shortage. Actions being taken are sequenced into four stages along a continuum, exploring the evolutionary roles of professionalism, interdependency, technology, diversity, leadership, and consumer need. Each stage represents a step toward nursing’s movement from a work force commodity to a vital strategic asset, necessary to ensure the long-term viability and success of any health care institution or system.