National Nurses Week honors nurses, highlights growing staffing concerns

Indianapolis, Indiana – This past Saturday marked the beginning of National Nurses Week, a time to honor nurses and express gratitude for their dedication to providing care to patients. However, it also draws attention to a rising worry, which is a nurse shortage.

Over the past several years, there has been a growing demand for nurses, and the pandemic has only served to exacerbate the situation. However, according to Melissa Burdi, Vice President and Dean of the Purdue Global School of Nursing, the United States is now experiencing both a crisis and a shortage of registered nurses.

According to Burdi, the COVID-19 pandemic made the nursing crisis much worse, and healthcare providers are having a hard time keeping up with the rising demand for medical care.

In a report that was published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, it was projected that the deficit of registered nurses will reach a peak of 1.1 million in the year 2022.

According to Burdi, there have been requests for increased funding for nursing education programs as well as measures to recruit more people to the profession of nursing. These are both potential solutions to this problem.

“There are folks that will say that we’re in a shortage. And I would counter that by saying we’re in a crisis. We need nurses more now than ever. Our population is growing. We have folks that are retiring, registered nurses that are retiring. So, being able to add to the workforce to accommodate the growing population, but also to account for those retiring from the profession, is really important, said” Melissa Burdi.

This past weekend marked the beginning of National Nurses Week, which will continue through next Friday, May 12, which is also Florence Nightingale’s birthday and the day that modern nursing was established.