title: The nursing shortage: dynamics and solutions. Solutions in a pluralistic environment.
abstract: America's education and health care environments have been intensely pluralistic since the founding of the republic. Monolithic national solutions to health problems therefore do not occur in the United States, unlike most European countries. As a result, America does not have a national health policy. The current cycle of the shortage of nurses is also complicated by deep differences of opinion among nurses, physicians, and hospitals regarding the origin of, and therefore the solution to, the problem. Despite this, I predict that by the characteristic American version of "muddling through" in health policy, the nursing shortage will be "solved," or at least resolved, by 1993.
authors.affiliation: US Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gronvall
mesh_terms: D004493:Education; D006285:Health Planning; D006291:Health Policy; D006296:Health Services; D006801:Humans; D009729:Nursing; D012931:Social Environment; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce