Written by: Hyaal Wehab
This week, I read two articles regarding the shortage of Nurses in the United States. One of them was an article off of The Atlantic, and the second article was a scholarly article I found through Michigan State University’s library database. Both discuss the scarcity of nurses in the US, but what I hoped to find out was which one is more logical? Which one is based on opinions and which one is based on facts? If both are based on facts, which article or author should an audience trust more?
The first article I chose to read is called, “The U.S. is running out of Nurses” off of The Atlantic. At the beginning of this article, the author began with a story of her mother being rushed to the hospital, and through their frightful journey, the nurses employed at that hospital were the main support system provided, and without them, they would not have felt so assured; they would have fallen apart without the support from the nurses. It is reasons like these that it is so alarming that the population of Nurses in the United States is dropping low. Although Nursing is the largest standing and growing occupation in the Unites States, the demand for nurses continues to grow, leaving a shortage of nurses provided. As the population of elders, and numbers of chronic diseases found in elders continues to grow, the demand for medical staff will continue to rise. While this is the perfect drive for open opportunities for students currently in Nursing school, the supply of nurses currently available still continues to decrease due to the fact that, nurses are beginning to age as well. About one million nurses in the United States are over the age of 50. Decline in Nurses is also due to the insufficient amount of students admitted to Nursing School due to limited classroom space, or very few educators available.
The second article I read is called, “Importing Nurses: Combating the Nursing Shortage in America”, by Ashish Chandra and William K Willis. In this article, it not only adresses the issue of the shortage of nurses, but how the United States hopes to take an approach to fix this issue. Many countries, but especially the United States, would like to begin recruiting foreign educated nurses (FEN’s), but this method drags along multiple hardships. This article also claims that shortages of nurses also comes from the limited capacity in nursing schools, and very few educators at universities, as well as the fact that majority of the population of nurses in the United States are aging together. Many countries turn to recruiting FEN’s because many foreign nurses dream of working in a country like the United States, so it is like a win- win situation for both foreigners and United States medical services. Though it is a win-win situation, there are multiple obstacles an FEN must face. The firs one is acquiring a work visa in order to even hold an occupation in the US. Their second obstacle is passing the RN licensing exam to ensure that they have the proper training to practice nursing in the US. This exam covers topics such as a homeland licensure exam review, and an english proficiency review and so on. FEN’s also face discrimination and racism among their employers or colleagues, so the have multiple things they must look out for. Basically the use of FEN’s may be a good choice, but it also has a negative side to look out for.
After reading both articles, it is clear that they are both informative articles, looking to inform their audiences about the issue of the decline of nurses in the US. Though both articles provide facts about the decline of nurses in the US, the second article that I read evaluated further and gave an explanation on how the United States plans to take action. The first article drew in an audience by beginning with a personal story which immediately made the audience feel alarmed and recognize the importance that nurses bring to health facilities, while the second article was simply informational and did not relate to any personal experiences. Though the first article pulled in its readers with a personal story, the second article was written by two University professors in the medical field, so they provided more facts from their own personal knowledge. I personally believe that the second article could be more trusted due to not only that it is information provided by two individuals in the particular field, but finding information through a library database could be much more accurate or trustworthy than any article found on the internet.
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