State's Nursing Shortage Cure Falls Short

The state’s effort to train more nurses has fallen short, leaving questions about whether Florida will be able to care for an increasing number of patients, according to a report from the Sun Sentinel.

There were about 12,000 nursing vacancies last year, twice as many as in 2009, according to the . This could force nurses to care for large numbers of patients at a time, leading to inferior care and nurse burnout, experts warn.

The problem could get worse during the next few years as the large number of older nurses in the workforce retire, and the state’s population continues to grow, the  Sun Sentinel reported.

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