As seasoned nurses retire from the field or leave the front lines of care, health systems filling vacant positions with early-career nurses are encountering a skills gap. The pandemic has worsened the shortage of highly skilled nurses, which was predicted before the arrival of the novel coronavirus. A 2017 paperin Nursing Economics estimated more than 1 million RNs would retire from the workforce between 2010 and 2030—taking years of accumulated knowledge with them. Among the solutions proposed to attract and retain nurses: fostering better teamwork among health care leaders to engage nurses in high-level decision making, increasing compensation, improving training opportunities for nurses who want to stay at the bedside, and improving the profession’s public image. (Medpage Today article, 9/15/21)
