Nursing Shortage

Labor Market

An area of employment that is going to one day affect each and every one of us is the nation-wide registered nursing shortage. Many hospitals across the nation are being affected by the lack of licensed nursing staff which then has a trickle down effect on the patients that seek care at these facilities.

One of the major reasons that this shift in labor demand has occurred is that many nurses of the baby boomer era are now reaching retirement age.

According to the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses released in February 2002 by the Division of Nursing within the Bureau of Health Professions, the average age of the working registered nurse was 43.3 in March 2000, up from 42.3 in 1996. The RN population under the age of 30 dropped from 25.1% of the nursing population in 1980 to 9.1% in 2000. n.a., (2008), Nursing Shortage Fact Sheet, retrieved April 5, 2008 from http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/rnsurvey/default.htm

Another reason that they are having trouble producing nurses to fill the vacant or soon to be vacant positions is the lack of qualified nursing instructors. Without instructors in numbers, class sizes are limited, keeping many of those trying to get into the industry out. One example close to home is that at one of the local community colleges with a nursing program, has sixty spots that they are able to fill with over 800 applicants. Many nursing programs have developed a lottery system in order to make it fair for such a great number of applications.

According to an article from ABC News:

“However, training new nurses is the problem. Last year, nursing schools had to turn away 125,000 applicants because they didn't have enough faculty to teach them. Many nursing professors are retiring just when they're needed most.”

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