Strengthening the public image by using "marketing techniques and the media" will appeal more to the public eye. Young people considering career paths that see an improved image of nursing will more likely consider nursing as a job. Goodin writes, "the recruitment of students, often referred to as the need for 'priming pipeline', has been identified as a possible long-term solution to the nursing shortage" (4). The health care system could see an increase in nursing students by sending the message that nursing is a great and satisfying field of which to be a part. In addition, Morgan writes, "as nursing is, currently, on the brink of what might be its most significant and enduring nursing shortage in the US, the satisfaction/dissatisfaction of nurses must become a concern of nursing administration" (2). Furthermore, the nursing shortage could experience a major improvement by bringing back one of the main reasons people choose nursing as a job, satisfaction.
A major reason our health care system has a nursing shortage is because there is an abundance of students applying for nursing school and in return this creates "a much more profound need for nursing faculty" (Siela, Twibell, Keller 3). Recent statistics show that "In 2009, over 42,000 qualified applicants were unable to enter nursing programs due to a lack of faculty" (Addressing the Nursing Shortage 6). For this reason, many nursing schools must turn students away. Facts prove that "faculty increased from 2002 to 2006, there were still 869 vacancies in baccalaureate and higher degree programs and 564 vacancies in AD programs" (Siela, Twibell, Keller 3). A possible solution towards a resolution in the shortage is to provide better incentives for nurses to teach. By developing more dual roles with experienced nurses "as both a clinical nurse and a faculty member," the health care system would most likely experience an increase in teachers (Siela, Twibell, Keller 4).
