There’s a dire shortage of nurses across the US. There’s also an overlooked solution

Marcella Bombardieri and Marina Zhavoronkova outline several steps that lawmakers can take to address the nursing shortage in the United States.

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Covid-19 is once again on the rise, largely as a result of the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant. And as the virus ravages America’s health care system, it is illuminating — and worsening — the country’s national shortage of nurses.

Some nurses have abandoned a workplace where conditions have become harder to endure, with impossibly high patient loads and even a shocking uptick in workplace violence. Others have quit their jobs to become travel nurses, staffing bedsides around the country on a temporary basis, and for as much as triple their usual pay.

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Authors

Marcella Bombardieri

Former Senior Fellow

Marina Zhavoronkova

Former Senior Fellow

Topics

States

There’s a dire shortage of nurses across the US. There’s also an overlooked solution