Measuring shortages of hospital nurses: How do you know a hospital with a nursing shortage when you see one?

Lack of clarity in definitions of shortages of hospital registered nurses m ay cause problems for effective policy making, particularly if different me asures for identifying a nurse shortage lead to different conclusions about which hospitals and regions are experiencing a shortage. The authors compa red different methods of identifying hospitals and regions with a shortage of registered nurses, including both relatively subjective measures (e.g., a hospital administrator's report Of a nurse shortage) and more objective m easures (e.g., number of registered nurses per inpatient year). Association s were strongest between self-reported shortage status and nursing vacancy rates and weaker for self-reported shortage status and registered nurses pe r inpatient year and overall regional supply of nurses. Different definitio ns of nursing shortage are not equally reliable in discriminating between h ospitals and regions with and without nursing shortages. When faced with re ports sounding an alarm about a hospital nursing shortage, policy makers sh ould carefully consider the definition of shortage being used.