Excerpts from the mentioned article:
Critical shortage
Number of nurses falling as need for care grows in an aging population
Although the economy has pushed some retired nurses back to work and kept others from retiring, there still is a shortage of nurses.
“In the state of Kansas, we have been experiencing a shortage in the last few years,” said Karen Miller, dean of the Schools of Nursing and Allied Health at Kansas University Medical Center.
“Many nurses are my age, which is a youthful baby boomer age, and so that group is expected to retire and are working less and there are fewer experienced nurses coming behind us,” Miller said.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there were more than 135,000 registered nurse vacancies in long-term care facilities and hospitals last year.
Some analysts expect that number to reach 500,000 by 2020.
And a nursing shortage can have a significant impact on patient care — it can mean life or death
*Full article: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/jul/12/critical-shortage/?city_local
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With the current brouhaha (the general public are really in an uproar) happening in California I would not be surprised if the members of the new Board of Registered Nursing or the Governator himself will order that all pending cases will not anymore be allowed to work while their cases are still being investigated. Specially if the cases are accusations of drug theft, violence and gross abuse to patients.
If that happens the general shortage of nurses in California will worsen further as there are probably hundreds of cases (maybe even in the low thousands) with pending investigations.
*see related thread: http://foreign-nurse.lefora.com/2009/07/12/california-usa-problem-nurses-stay-on-the-job-as-p/page1/
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