Nursing Shortages: If Not Now, Soon

Believe me, I’m not an ageist.

I think anyone who can do the work and wants to should, but I have little pangs of concern and sympathy for folks in their 20s and all new graduates who are looking for employment and can’t find it.

There are reasons for fewer positions.

One, of course, is that companies are downsizing. Another is that the boomers (and those beyond age 63) are holding onto their jobs. Economic times are difficult and boomers may have lost healthy (or unhealthy) portions of their portfolios. They don’t have the money to retire. And some – well, they just enjoy their jobs and still have the energy and enthusiasm to continue working. (You know what they say: 60 is the new 40.)

In another time, these “oldsters” might be ready for gold watches and the condos in Florida, but it’s a new era.

The situation with nurses is no exception.

Many have remained on the job or returned to work at a time when they’d prefer to be home pursuing hobbies and playing with grandchildren because of economic circumstances beyond their control. Spouses have lost jobs and nurses have been called on to fill the income gap. (Your mother was right; nursing is a profession you can always fall back on.) Single older nurses – almost exclusively women – are looking at bleak retirement years unless they can feather the nest a bit more.

Those remaining on or returning to the workforce have helped curb the nursing shortage in some areas of the country – at least for awhile. In some places, there is a decreased need for nurses in the hospital. Because unemployment has risen, so has the number of uninsured. Without health care coverage, many have put elective surgeries on hold. This means a loss of income for hospitals and in some cases, these institutions have closed entire wings.

In California, the madatory nurse-to-patient ratio (legislation passed in 1999) has kept the need for nurses afloat. And if universal health insurance becomes a reality, that could boost the number people eligible for hospitalization. Lastly, it won’t be long before another reason to keep nurses employed kicks in nationwide: Boomers are aging, and as more and more live longer and longer, the demand for nurses will do nothing but rise.

I’m wondering from whence they’ll come.

Nursing schools presently are limited in the number of students they can accept - mostly because there are not enough instructors. This, I’m told by my nurse-instructor friends, is because teaching just doesn’t pay. It’s not uncommon for teachers to make half of what hospital nurses earn.

So whether there’s a current shortage or not of nurses where you live, just hang in there a bit. There clearly will be a demand in the not-too-distant future.