Instructions: Please respond to both peers individually

PEER 1 

What are the reasons for these shortages? If the United States and other industrial nations put their resources into increasing nurse retention, would the need to recruit foreign nurses decrease? Why or why not?

The reasons for nursing shortages in the United States and other industrial nations include an aging population and an increasing demand for healthcare services, a lack of nursing faculty to train new nurses, and burnout and high turnover rates among nurses (Haddad et al., 2022). Some solutions could be to provide better working conditions, such as improved schedules, more flexible work arrangements, higher pay and benefits, and more professional development and advancement opportunities.
 

The need to recruit foreign nurses might decrease if the United States and other industrialized countries devoted more resources to improving nurse retention rates. When nurses are satisfied with their jobs and feel valued in the workplace, they are less likely to leave their positions, which reduces the need to recruit new nurses to replace them. Furthermore, assume that the United States and other industrialized countries invest in increasing the number of nursing students and teaching staff. In that case, this response will also help to reduce the need to recruit foreign nurses.

Choose one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and discuss how a community nurse can work toward achieving that goal.

One Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) that community nurses can work toward is SDG 3: Good health and well-being. Community nurses promote good health and well-being by providing primary healthcare services and health education to individuals and families (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). They can achieve this goal by providing regular health screenings and vaccinations, educating people about healthy lifestyle choices, and helping patients manage chronic health conditions (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). Moreover, community nurses can advocate for policies that promote access to health care for all community members, including those who are marginalized or vulnerable (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). 

PEER 2 

• What are the reasons for these shortages? If the United States and other industrial nations put their resources into increasing nurse retention, would the need to recruit foreign nurses decrease? Why or why not?

Nurse shortages are due to the older nursing staff approaching retirement. There is also a shortage of trained nurse educators and faculty. Programs had to turn away more than 91,000 qualified applicants in 2021 due to a lack of nurse educators, clinical space, classroom space, and clinical preceptors (Hamlin, 2023). Nurses are also under a lot of stress and there has been an increase in burnout causing nurses to leave bedside. The nurse-to-patient ration has been increasing and nurses are stretched thin without any regards for their well-being, or the risk they but the patients in as well. Nurses working bedside with a high ratio of patients are leaving bedside or those hospitals in fear on risking their license and the life of one of their patients. The United States and other industrial nations need to put their resources into increasing nurse retention by providing the proper compensation for nurse, many travel or agency nurses are getting paid double if not more to do the same job as a staff nurse. They also need to place regulations on nurse-to-patient ratio taking into consideration the mental health of the nurse and the health of the patient.

• Choose one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and discuss how a community nurse can work toward achieving that goal.

The goal number 6, clean water, and sanitation. This goal is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (United Nations, n.d). A community nurse can work with the community to sample and test drinking water to check for levels of lead or any other contaminations, they can educate the community on signs and symptoms of lead poisoning as well as any sign of water bourn illness, they can work with the community to bring attention to contaminated and unsanitary conditions to the local state officials. This includes developing plans to prevent harm from water contamination, such as routine monitoring and testing of water sources, notification of residents who are at-risk, and regular surveillance of public beaches (Cook et al., 2022).