Israeli registered nurse workforce

This is a commentary on http://www.ijhpr.org/content/1/1/11/ webcite.The purpose of the study by Nirel, Riba, Reicher and Toren [1] was to provide an in-depth review of the existing supply of Israel's nursing workforce: job and employment characteristics, internal and external mobility, working lifespan, and the projected supply in view of exits and future entry sources. Nursing workforce studies are critically important to individual countries as well as the international nursing community since there are nursing shortages across all Westernized healthcare systems. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies 57 countries with severe nursing shortages capable of affecting the delivery of essential nursing care [2]. Shortages of nurses, the largest group of healthcare providers in the healthcare workforce, will negatively impact individual and population health. More RN hours with patients are related to decreased mortality rates, decubiti, nosocomial infections, cardiac and respiratory failure, pneumonia, and failure to rescue [3-5]. Nursing shortages also negatively impact practicing nurses by increasing workload, increasing stress, decreasing morale and satisfaction, and creating burnout, resulting in intent to leave or exit from the profession.The major reasons for the nursing shortages worldwide are similar. They are: 1) aging of the workforce, 2) changes in the work environment/climate, 3) decreased or insufficient enrollment in nursing education programs, and 4) poor image of nursing. While the supply of nurses is decreasing worldwide, the demand for nursing services is increasing and will continue to escalate due to the aging of the population, increasing health disparities, the obesity epidemic, and a dramatic increase in people with one or more chronic diseases. In fact, the U.S. population 65 years and older is expected to double by 2030 [6]; in addition, approximately 133 million Americans have at least one chronic illness [7].Major findings from this