Why is there always a nursing shortage since there's a very large number of nursing school graduates?

Very complex situation. Nurses don't get treated well by the new healthcare system of networks. Bedside nursing is very demanding (not enough hours to do all that is required), insurance has created a very complicated matrix of never ending paperwork removing care from the patients, threats of lawsuits remain high and add stress/burnout, pay rates remain low in many places when school costs are weighed. In summary, eager nurses often get discouraged and leave for something more conducive to their living a healthier life.

The shortage is more about the fact that the working conditions are bad, the expectations are very high, and the pay is not worth it. So a lot of people burn out

Don't forget the baby boomer population is retired or retiring. That's a lot of people that have to be replaced and you still have to find more because of current demands.

Burnout. Workload does not commensurate with pay. Nurses are human being and not immune to illnesses. We have to look after our self and health as much as we take care of our patients.

Nurses work 12 hrs shift 12 or 13 days a month, typically needs 20-25 nurses per shift, so 40-50 nurses per day. So when these nurses are off, u need another set of 40-50 nurses. Thats just for 1 unit. My unit have about 80+ full time & 6 part times nurses. When acuity & sick calls go up, we are short.

There’s always been a nursing shortage, (before COVID 19).
it’s worse now that baby boomers are retiring,and young nurses are leaving because of burn out.

Not my experience. I have recently attended two graduation ceremonies at universities with nursing programs in the top 5 of the state. Their graduating classes were half the size of what they were 5 years ago. My sons cohort only has 60 in it and his cohort was made by combining student from two campuses (each campus has its own satand alone nursing school). Not sure if it is from lack of instructors of qualified applicants. I travel, been to 12 hospitals in 4 states, every one of them has been understaffed.

There isn't one. I bet you can walk up to a facility in rural midwestern Ohio and have a nursing job tomorrow. Just that nurses only want to work in certain areas, so they rather sit and wait it out, then work somewhere they don't want to live. Lifestyle choices, socioeconomic factors, equity, and pay, are a few other reasons it may seem there is one, but there are plenty of jobs and plenty of unemployed nurses.

The COVID crisis has brought the nursing shortage back into focus, but the reality is that the nursing shortage has been around for over 75 years.

"Many nurses have left the profession because of being underpaid for strenuous overtime labor and always with the same story of being short of help; thereby having to do more work than a human can possibly stand."

Those who have been following recent news about nurse understaffing, burnout, and moral injury may think this quote came from a recent report.

The quote is from a report titled The Economic Status of Registered Professional Nurses published in 1947.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/bls/bls...

Nursing and healthcare leaders have spent decades dropping the ball, dragging their feet, and kicking the can when it comes to addressing the nursing shortage.

We even have a 30-year-old flawed nursing budget process used by some hospitals that increases their risk of understaffing.

https://informaticsnurse.com/flawed-nursing-budget-process-in...