Staff nurses and their solutions to the nursing shortage

Nurses in acute care hospitals report that situations in their work setting and profession are in dire need of repair. Although they waiver on their intention to remain in their institution and nursing, they do not waiver on their selected resolution to nursing's shortage. A total of 787 staff nurses in eight geographically and demographically diverse states responded and were asked to select the "Top 5" actions they thought would improve nursing and decrease the shortage. Creating career ladders was endorsed by most respondents (85%) with increasing pay endorsed by the fewest (33%). When selecting the single most important action, they reversed the order--increased pay was the most endorsed (26%), and creating career ladders and increased educational opportunities were endorsed by less than 1%. Nurses appeared to be concerned about the profession in general; however, when asked the "most important" thing to do, an age-old action was selected--increase pay.