Over the years the standard of living of people has improved considerably. Products like medical insurances have also surfaced. Because of these two factors more medical facilities and hospitals have sprouted across the US.

Qualified nurses who are dedicated to their professional duties are needed in each of these facilities. However, there is a dearth of such nurses. This trend is not confined only to the US.

Other countries are also facing similar situations. Even the private and government hospitals do not have enough number of nurses. Such understaffing in these facilities brings down the quality of patient care, and other nurses related services. Effectively, the hospital or the medical center as the case may be, falls short of patient's expectations.

There are many factors that have led to this shortage in nursing staff. First and foremost, very few people want to take up this profession. This is because youngsters do not have a good impression about nursing as a profession. In fact, nurses seem to suffer with inferiority complex about their profession.

Male nurses are more inclined to hide their profession. Unlike this, the doctor's profession is an esteemed profession. On the whole, youngsters have an impression that nursing is a mundane profession that carries no respect. The pay associated with nursing is another factor that goes against nursing as a profession. Nursing is a demanding profession.

But the remuneration does not match this work. This certainly affects the career selection. Even those who are inclined to take up such profession don't see much in it. As of now, working online, or working as bar tenders is less tense, and more rewarding when compared to nursing. This is the reason there are not many takers for nursing courses. If nursing profession has to survive, then its image needs to be overhauled. The pay scale associated with it also needs to be reviewed so that it makes sense to people who want to join it.

The managements of medical centers and hospitals need to give a serious thought to this, and at the earliest, if they want to solve shortage of nursing staff in their facilities. Since the gap between the number of nurses needed at the facility, and the number of nurses actually working at the facility is considerably large, it might be worth recruiting nurses from other countries.

This can cover labor shortages within the country. Developing countries do have plenty of nurses who would be willing to relocate to the US. All that the US needs to do is to look for talented and dedicated nurses from different parts of the world. A major constraint would, of course, be English. But it is something that can be solved with some English courses.

Nurses from other countries would also have to get familiar with the US culture. This can also be managed to ensure that these nurses blend easily into the society in the US. In light of such factors, the medical fraternity needs to do some serious thinking on nursing shortage.

Outdated and temporary solutions are no longer working. It is time to take some big steps to solve this problem. Hospitals, and other medical facilities have to come up with something new otherwise they would never be able to reverse this trend.