Nursing Shortage Reaches Critical Level Nurses are being asked to shoulder a larger and larger portion of the patient care burden in today’s health care system. It is nurses, not doctors, that provide most of the direct care to patients in hospitals. At the same time, a critical shortage of nurses is developing, as evidenced by the following facts: There are currently about 1.8 million registered nurses in the United States, about 800,000 short of what is needed. Due to the stress associated with the nursing profession, most nurses retire in their early 50’s. The average age of registered nurses in Ohio is 47 years; consequently, the industry faces a mass retirement of nurses in five to ten years.

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