Letter to the Editor
Article Outline
To the editor:
We read the article by Johnson et al (“Xtreme Nursing and the Nursing Shortage”Nursing Outlook 2006) with great interest, in which they suggest that scenario-planning should be introduced for coping with the nursing shortage in the US. Also, they conclude that the well-being of the nursing profession has a grave impact on the society’s everyday life cared-for. We agree with Johnson et al that a systematic, more abstract and open-minded workforce planning in nursing is necessary for a better health care delivery in the future. Although lots of studies show the importance of the nursing workforce in the health care systems,1 we would like to call to the attention of nursing leaders the general trends in other developed countries’ nursing profession.
The relative nursing shortage, the aging population of registered nurses (RNs), and the higher demand for nurses in an aging society are well-known characteristics of Central Eastern European Countries as well. After the change in Hungary in 1989, the attractiveness of the nursing profession was relatively high because of the introduction of nursing degree programs, breaking a former established artificial barrier to nursing career advancement. The next step was the realization of a Master of Science program for nurses in 2000 and the accreditation of the first health sciences doctoral school in 2005. By the end of the 20th century, despite the rapid development in nursing education, the newly educated and more foreign language-speaking students quickly left the system to go abroad for better living conditions and payment.2 Fortunately, the new educational system can provide nurses with a PhD who can build up and adopt the scientific basis for nursing in Hungary.
Beyond the educational background, the economic instability of the country resulted in several nurses intending to leave or leaving the profession to work in the trade sector (2–7%). With governmental intervention, such as raising the salaries in the public health care sector by 50%, a lot of nurses returned to the nursing profession.3 Nowadays, restructuring of hospitals (i.e., cutting down on the number of active beds, closing active wards and hospitals) play a considerable part in shaping the nursing workforce. Health care assistants and informal caregiving are also new ways of resolving the current problems. It is clear that without deep analysis of the situation and a set of proper priorities, the managements in hospitals are unable to implement changes in the structure. From the governmental action plan in 2006, it turns out that nurse managers should also create problem-solving pathways for regrouping nurses between wards and hospitals and prepare for nursing migration within the country. It appears that our nurse leaders and policy makers should know and implement new ways of planning the nursing workforce for the near future, where scenario-planning may be a useful tool to secure quality nursing care.
References
- . Diversity: An answer to the nursing shortage. Nurs Outlook. 2001;49:270–271
- . Hungary is already seeing an exodus of nursing staff. Nurs Times. 2003;99:14–15
- . The impact of salary rising by 50% and introduction of nursing scholarship on the health care human resource and recruitment in six counties of Northern Hungary. Hun J Nurs Theory Practice. 2004;17:3–9
PII: S0029-6554(07)00082-6
doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2007.03.001
© 2007 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
Refers to article:
- Xtreme nursing and the nursing shortage
