VOA慢速英语2010年-Development Report - Shortage of Nurse

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The health care industry needs more nurses. All areas of the world face a nursing shortage¹. But the shortage is most severe in developing countries. Many of their nurses leave. They move to more developed nations for better pay, better working conditions and better chances for career development.

A World Bank report earlier this year called attention to the problem. For example, nearly two thousand nurses left the Caribbean between two thousand two and two thousand six.

Caribbean nations currently² have about one nurse for every one thousand people. The ratio³ of nurses to population is about ten times higher in the United States and countries in the European Union.

Currently, more than twenty-one thousand nurses who trained in the Caribbean are working in the United States, Canada and Britain.

Gaetan Lafortune is with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. He says the nursing shortage also affects industrialized⁴ countries.

GAETAN LAFORTUNE: "There are concerns in most O.E.C.D. countries that the number of nurses is too small to respond to the demand. And what is more worrying is that their concerns are sort of growing."

Mr. Lafortune says a large number of nurses are expected to retire within the next ten years. At the same time, the health care needs of aging populations are expected to grow, intensifying⁵ the shortage of nurses.

GAETAN LAFORTUNE: "In the U.S., for instance⁶, some researchers have projected that there may be a shortage of close to a million nurses by two thousand twenty."

The United States is one of thirty-one countries in the O.E.C.D. Gaetan Lafortune says in recent years many of the countries increased their efforts to hire foreign nurses.

GAETAN LAFORTUNE: "But this has raised concern that O.E.C.D. countries were mainly exporting their shortage problem to countries that may have an even greater need for these nurses."
 

1 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

2 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

3 ratio   

n.比，比率

参考例句：

• The ratio of pupils to teachers was 30 to 1.学生和老师的比率是30比1。
• The ratio between the two sides is one to four.双方人数对比是一对四。

4 industrialized   

adj.工业的，工业化的

参考例句：

• Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated, over industrialized planet. 污染就是我们为这个人口过密，过度工业化的星球所付出的代价。 来自新概念英语第三册
• Industrialized countries must reduce carbon dioxide emissions. 工业化国家必须减少二氧化碳的排放。

5 intensifying   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉

参考例句：

• The allies are intensifying their air campaign. 联军部队正加大他们的空战强度。 来自辞典例句
• The rest of the European powers were in a state of intensifying congestion. 其余的欧洲强国则处于越来越拥挤的状态。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

6 instance   

n.例，例证，实例

参考例句：

• Can you quote me a recent instance?你能给我举一个最近的例子吗？
• He's a greedy boy,yesterday,for instance,he ate all our biscuits!他是个贪吃的孩子――比如，他昨天把我们的饼干都吃了！