Nurses are the people by our bedside when we are sick and scared. They are the people who care for us ’round the clock — the ones with whom we spend the most time in any medical-care setting, from the pediatrician’s office to the ICU. They are often our conduit to the larger care team when we’re in the hospital, advocating alongside our families in discussions about treatment and other important decisions.

But what happens when there simply aren’t enough nurses?

The United States is facing a severe nursing shortage. The Health Resources and Services Administration projected a 2025 shortage of 78,610 full-time registered nurses (RNs). The Illinois Nursing Workforce Center suggests the state of Illinois, alone, is facing a shortage of nearly 15,000 RNs this year.

Twenty-three percent of RNs working in outpatient, ambulatory and clinical settings have retired or plan to retire during the next five years, according to the 2022 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses. While hospitals had the lowest share of nurses who have retired or plan to retire, nurses employed in this setting had the lowest levels of job satisfaction.

The nursing shortage began before COVID, and the pandemic exacerbated the problem exponentially. In September 2021, an American Association of Critical-Care Nurses survey showed 66% of acute-care nurses have considered leaving nursing after their experiences during the pandemic. This trajectory also shrinks the pool of potential nursing faculty, mentors and other members of the nursing ecosystem.

“The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on the nursing workforce, and we’re still recovering from that,” says Karen Mahnke, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Bernthal Family chief nurse executive and vice president of operations at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital. “The intensity of nursing care for critically ill patients took its toll. We lost some of our most tenured, seasoned, very experienced nurses to retirement or different settings outside the hospital in the early days of the pandemic. Our workforce is starting to restabilize now, but we remain concerned about the nursing shortage that is predicted to last as far into the future as the data can forecast.”

Interprofessionalism for the win

Lisa Hopp, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the College of Nursing at RFU, points to several factors that contribute to the shortage: a large aging population with chronic conditions that need greater nursing care, an aging population of nurses who will retire, burnout among nurses and capacity limitations in nursing education. Dr. Hopp and her faculty believe the trend toward interprofessionalism can go a long way toward building resilience and recruiting talented caregivers to close the gap — not to mention improve patient care and outcomes.

“The interprofessional model relies on professionals from different healthcare disciplines collaborating to provide patient-centered care,” Dr. Hopp says. “A nurse in the interprofessional model contributes to decision-making that requires the team’s wisdom to optimize patient care and outcomes.” She argues that this model is the best one for patient care; it inherently acknowledges all members of the team have unique skills and knowledge to contribute to the plan of care.

The interprofessional model requires staffing hospitals with nurses whose education, experience and scope of practice support independent and interdependent clinical decision-making. Dr. Hopp believes that when nursing programs prepare a workforce ready for collaboration and competent practice to meet the clinical needs of partner organizations and health care in general, patients will have better outcomes. When care is more collaborative than siloed, patients, families, nurses and all members of the team are more satisfied. Better morale and patient outcomes will lead to a more stable workforce and net long-term economic benefits, she says.

Lori Thuente, PhD, RN, director of the RFU College of Nursing’s Dr. Scholl Foundation Empathy Lab, says there are different patient outcomes based on the level of nurses’ training: “The public tends to think a nurse is a nurse is a nurse — patients are not wondering what your degree is; they just want you there. But data shows that the higher a nurse’s level of education, the better the patient outcomes — and this extends to providers’ outcomes, as well.” (See below for a rundown on nurses’ education levels.)

Nurses with varying levels of education and preparation are critical members of an interprofessional team. “When led by those with advanced preparation, such teams excel in patient care, and nurses’ morale improves,” Dr. Hopp adds.

Caring for caregivers

An April 2022 analysis published in Health Affairs found that the total supply of RNs decreased by more than 100,000 from 2020 to 2021 — the largest drop ever observed during the past four decades. A significant number of nurses who left the workforce were under the age of 35, and most were employed in hospitals.

If we didn’t know it prior to the start of the pandemic, what we learned in 2020 and 2021 is that nurses’ self-care became a critical part of the job. But when one is caring for patients in life-or-death situations, it’s nearly impossible for caregivers to prioritize their own well-being. When nurses are unable to care for themselves, burnout increases, and patient outcomes suffer.

One of the core values of RFU’s nursing programs is to help nurses cultivate their own emotional intelligence, to bring mindfulness to clinical practice and to practice regular self-care, all of which are key to reducing burnout, building resilience, and retaining and recruiting nurses.

A multipronged approach can address these issues and others to tackle the nursing shortage. It’s a good thing, because we need nurses, now more than ever.

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