Online Nursing Programs Target RN Shortage
Despite rising unemployment rates and a weakening economy, current, conservative estimates still predict that in the next decade the U.S. will begin to experience one of the worst shortages of registered nurses (RNs) in the nation’s history.
Not Your Grandma’s Nursing Shortage
Unlike nurse shortages in the past, a rapidly aging population, a subsequent increased demand for RNs, plus an aging nursing workforce drive this nurse shortage, unparalleled in American nursing. By 2020 the USA will have 1 million fewer registered nurses than it needs.
More highly educated nurses are needed to deliver, coordinate and direct care in hospitals and community-based and home settings, but these nurses will be in short supply unless we address the nursing and nurse faculty shortages.
Nursing Schools Turning Away Qualified Applicants
Unfortunately, despite the ongoing shortage of nurses, The American Association of Colleges of Nurses reports that in 2008, a record 41,385 qualified applicants were turned away by nursing programs due to a lack of nurse educators, lack of clinical sites, and budget constraints.
Online Nursing Programs Let Students "Cut Line"
Online nursing degree programs offer the best way for working nurses to earn an advanced nursing degree without disrupting their current job or waiting years for an opening at a campus based nursing school. Requiring no campus attendance and local clinicals (when required), designed around the student’s schedule, working nurses save substantial time and money by earning their advanced nursing degree online, and most healthcare employers offer tuition assistance plans that pay part or all of the costs as well.
Offering the ability to study at their own pace and place, and the ability to start immediately versus being placed on waiting lists, online nursing degree programs provide the best option to address the growing need for more highly educated nurses.
21st Century Nursing Demand Stresses Quality vs Quantity
Educators and health planners see the growing demand for nurses not only as a need for additional personnel but also for additional education, with more nurses prepared in baccalaureate programs that emphasize leadership, patient education, case management, and care across a variety of acute care and outpatient settings.
For health care reform to be effective and the U.S. economy to recover, we must build, empower, and deploy a 21st century health care nursing workforce.
A more highly educated nursing workforce is essential to assure higher quality and safer, healthcare. In order to meet the increasingly complex demands of today's health care environment, many healthcare agencies prefer or require a minimum of a bachelor's degree for their nursing staff, so now is the perfect time for LPN's to enroll in an online LPN to RN program, or LPN to BSN degree program, for RN's to take anonline RN-BSN degree completion program, or RN to MSN bridge program, and for BSN nurses to earn an MSN degree online.
Related Articles:
Why Earn a Nursing Degree Online?
LPN to RN: Why Take an Online LPN to RN Program?
Is An Online LPN to BSN Program Right For You?
Which Nursing Program Should You Choose: LPN-to-RN or LPN-to-BSN?
Ways to Save With an Online LPN-to-RN Program
LPN-to-RN: The Next Step in Your Nursing Career
Find More Articles About: Online Education, Financial Aid, Nursing Careers, Allied Health Careers, Healthcare Management Careers
One thing to keep in mind about finding a job in health care is that the profession is one of the few "recession proof" careers. Although we may see a few cutbacks here and there, one thing is for sure: People will continue to be sick and injured. This basically insures a much better job marketplace for anyone in nursing. I have a friend who took the LPN to RN Online and actually had a job before she had completed school. When she was close to graduating, she was hired at a large hospital, so that she could work as an RN upon completion of her nursing course.
Nice site - Here's wishing you and yours a very happy and prosperous new year !