A Historical Perspective

Abstract Since nursing has become an occupation, there have been many factors leading to the nursing shortages that have happened in the past and that are still occurring in the present. There hasn’t been a single deciding factor on why people are refusing to come into the field of nursing or leaving sooner than expected. But, what is known by all healthcare providers is that the shortage has a negative effect on many of the aspects of the healthcare setting and recruitment processes. To be able to fix this problem, education, healthcare system, policies, and image must change.

The Historical Perspective Many external problems are helping cause the nursing shortages now, and have influenced past shortages as well. Since the 1800’s, many specialized practices have come into play (West,Griffith,Iphofen, 2007, p.124). For example, therapists, X-ray and lab technician, were all newly evolving, and were seen as skilled practitioners. Nursing was never seen as a highly proclaimed occupation, just another labored job. This was because it was viewed as a “women’s job”, and that most, if not all, of the nurses were female. During the nineteenth century, Florence Nightingale strongly proposed that education for nurses meant employing hospitals with a labor force that practiced under physicians. She believed this was the right thing, because it was based off of the preexisting relationships already in the institutional settings. But this created an environment that was too harsh to produce enough nurses to meet the climbing demands. Even despite its obvious disadvantage, this model stayed around until the twentieth century, when people started to fight for nursing independent rights and public recognition. (West,Griffith,Iphofen, 2007, p.125) This too helped cause a decline in the number of nurses needed in the healthcare system, due