There have been many allegations of a nursing shortage, using both the healthcare planners' and economists' definitions of shortages. The American Hospital Association complained of a nursing shortage in the 1950s and 1960s and supported these claims by noting the high vacancy rates in registered nurse positions and the substitution of less highly trained licensed practical nurses for RNs. Congress responded by passing the Nurse Training Act (NTA) in 1964, which began a tradition of government subsidization of nurses' training. Between 1971 and the present, there appears to have been a number of periods of adjustment in which high vacancy rates were followed by policy to expand nurses' training, followed by reductions in shortages. Explain the health care financing and economic principles as they apply to this course of action and what would be the more efficient and effective economically to best keep supply and demand for nurses in alignment?

Nursing Shortage: Not a Simple Problem - No Easy Answers

http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume62001/No1Jan01/ShortageProblemAnswers.html