Projected nursing shortages by 2026, by state. Click image to expand.

Exhaustion and burnout. Insufficient workplace protections. The growth of contract nursing. A lack of minimum staffing ratios.

These and other issues have been important nursing topics since long before the pandemic. But as the essential work of nurses has come under a brighter spotlight during the COVID crisis, headlines and news stories have been increasingly highlighting these important topics, providing wider recognition of nurses’ experiences and concerns.

In just the past week, a sampling of headlines from across the country show how nursing workforce issues are taking center stage, from insufficient workplace protections in California to state legislatures considering capping travel nurses’ pay in Missouri to workforce shortages in Pennsylvania to unsafe working conditions in Maine.

Liz Seegert explores where the profession stands as the country enters the third year of the COVID pandemic in the February AJN Reports, “The Current State of Nursing.” She notes the results of recent surveys, including one by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses that looked at how the pandemic has affected nursing.

“Exhaustion, frustration, anger, burnout, depression, and fear for their own and their families’ health and safety are just some of the emotions” nurses described in this survey, Seegert writes.

Opportunities and ‘churn.’

She talked to experts such as Linda Aiken, a professor of nursing and sociology and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, who observes:

“There’s been a lot of churn out there. Nurses are searching for a better opportunity to take care of patients, and are moving from hospital to hospital, responding to signing bonuses or opportunities in the agency sector.”

Nursing shortage or a workforce management issue?

Seegert also looks at the challenges and opportunities for nurses, both now and in coming years, and probes what it means to say there is a nursing shortage. She quotes Aiken as saying, “There is no national nursing shortage. . .The solution is not to train more nurses. The solution is for hospitals to manage the workforce more effectively.”

Investing in nurses.

It’s clear that greater investment in nurses is needed, Seegert notes, particularly in terms of supporting nurses’ education.

It also means supporting nursing innovations, says Seegert, who details a promising model that addresses staffing challenges.

The article will be free until March 21.