Better pay and recruitment might help move the needle on the number of nurses in the short to medium term, but long term, the demographic time-bomb in western c

Better pay and recruitment might help move the needle on the number of nurses in the short to medium term, but long term, the demographic time-bomb in western countries means they will never have enough nurses to care for their entire aged population in the manner they do now. So either a lot of people are going to get sick and die without anybody to care for them, or, one way or another, nursing and healthcare is going to have to change to become more efficient. That will mean it becomes a lot more impersonal, with much greater use of mechanisation, automation and robotics. I don't see this as being entirely a bad thing. While nurses and other caregivers can be an important source of human contact for the sick and elderly, caring and being cared for by another person can be an emotionally and physically fraught and draining process. If we can build automated systems that allow baseline physical and hygienic needs to be met, even for the frailest and sickest people, I think that had to be good for the mental health of both those needing care, as it will reduce their sense of being a burden, and on the caregivers themselves, as they will be able to focus on the most important quality-of-life issues instead of being stuck on a treadmill of providing basic care.