The Chronic Nurse Shortage: Redefining Roles for a Sustainable Healthcare System

The persistent shortage of nurses in our healthcare system is a multifaceted challenge that demands a closer look at how nursing roles are structured and managed. One significant contributing factor to this shortage is the tendency of nursing unions to aggregate tasks under their umbrella while simultaneously removing roles that require lesser qualifications. This approach leads to increased healthcare costs and places additional pressure on the need for more nurses to handle these tasks.

Moreover, there is a growing trend among nurses to backfill doctors with nurse practitioners, further compounding the shortage of nurses. To address this issue effectively, it is imperative to break down the roles of nurses and remove tasks that do not require their expertise training and fill these tasks with roles such as Licensed Practical Nurses or Certified Nursing Assistants.

These tasks can be filled by individuals with lower levels of training, thereby reducing healthcare costs, alleviating stress on nurses, and enabling healthcare teams to draw from a broader section of the population to get the job done.

By redefining nursing roles and responsibilities in a way that optimizes skill utilization and task delegation, we can create a more sustainable healthcare system that meets the needs of patients while also supporting the well-being of healthcare professionals. This approach requires collaboration between nursing unions, healthcare institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders to implement necessary changes and ensure a balanced approach to addressing the chronic nurse shortage.