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The Nursing Crisis!!!
Our modern health care system can deliver marvelous things. New drugs,
therapies and technologies - unimagined just a decade ago - allow us to live
longer and healthier lives.
But we're facing a shortage that could ultimately cripple health care
delivery in this country - a nursing shortage. And this problem will only
get worse as the baby boomers retire.
The greatest nursing shortage in American history is yet to come, when an
aging nursing work force, declining numbers of nursing students, an aging
population, and sicker patients collide like an atomic bomb!
A recent United States General Accounting Office report outlines the scope
of the problem. For instance:
- Over the past five years, enrollment in entry-level nursing programs
has declined by 20 percent and nurses under the age of 30 represent only 10
percent of the current workforce.
- By 2010, 40 percent of the nursing workforce will be over the age of
50, and nearing retirement.
- Surveys have shown that nursing homes are experiencing turnover
rates of up to 51 percent for RNs and LPNs and 100 percent for nursing
aides.
- A survey by the Health Care Financing Administration showed that as
much as 23 percent of nursing homes are so understaffed that patient care is
likely to suffer.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of registered nurses
will grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2006, largely
due to growing demand in settings such as health maintenance organizations,
community health centers, home care and long-term care. Several Factors are
contributing to the growing need for nurses in the U.S.A.:
- The average RN is 44 years old, up from 40 to in 1980; two-thirds of
working nurses will be over 40 years old. In California the majority of
working nurses are over 45 while in New York the average age of working
nurses is 47 years old. About half of the nation's nurses will reach
retirement age within 15 years---just as "baby boomers" present new
challenges to the health care system.
- U.S. Nursing Schools are experiencing one of the lowest and most
declining attendance as less women are choosing nursing as a career.
* By 2020, one out of every four working adults will be 65 or
older...and the fastest growing age groups will be those between 85 and 100
years of age!
- By the year 2020. the registered nurse shortage in the nation is expected to
reach nearly 500,000 positions. That may even be too optimistic! The
Department of Health and Human Services, expects by 2020 a nursing shortfall
in the U.S. of 635,000 to 1,754,000 nurses.
Source: US General Accounting Office
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Nursing Statistics
Number of licensed RNs:
2,696,540 (2000)
2,558,874 (1996)
Nurses working full time:
(of the licensed population)
58.5% (2000)
59% (1996)
Average education:
2000
Diploma 22.3%(about 609,000)
Associate 34.3%(about 925,000)
Baccalaureate 32.7%(about 881,000)
Master's/ Doctorate 10.2%(about 275,000)
1996
Baccalaureate 31.8%(about 672,914)
Master's 9.1%(about 193,159)
Doctorate .6%(about 14,300)
Average pay (full-time):
$46,782 (2000)
$42,071 (1996)
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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