When it comes to having enough nurses, New York State is managing a little better than most states. But experts agree that the health care system faces a looming shortage of nurses.
“Once the economy picks up, there will be a shortage,” said Marianne Markowitz, dean of St. Joseph’s College of Nursing in Syracuse.
One factor that has slowed down the shortage, says Markowitz, is the delayed retirement of some nurses. They have postponed leaving their jobs because of the recession. And New York may be better off than some states, say experts, because of the state’s higher wages for nurses.
In New York, the average nursing pay is around $35 an hour or $73,000 a year. That is almost $11,000 more than the national average for nurses, according to the United States Department of Labor, and a little over $23,000 more than the average annual salary for all workers in New York State.
But there are nursing gaps to be filled both nationally and locally. The demand for nurses looks like this:
- Nationally, 17 states have below the average number — 800 to 1,000 – of registered nurses per 100,000 people. California has the lowest: 589 nurses for every 100,000 people, according to Center to Champion Nursing in America, an organization that works to educate and retain nurses.
- In New York State, there are 906 nurses for every 100,000 people.
- Nationally, the current vacancy rate — job openings — for nurses is 13 percent, said public relations spokesperson for the American Nurse’s Association, Adam Sachs.
- Statewide, New York’s nurse vacancy rate is 8.6 percent. In Onondaga, Madison and Cayuga counties, about 5.4 percent of nursing jobs need to be filled.
Among some local health-care organizations looking for nurses are Community General Hospital, which employs 300 registered nurses and needs 15 more; Crouse Hospital, with 800 nurses and openings for 36 more; and Upstate University Hospital, which employs 1,200 nurses and needs 78 more.
For now, said Jodie Purdy, director of nursing recruitment and retention at Upstate University Hospital, “The shortage has not gone away — it is just a temporary slowing.” In the near future, said Purdy, “hospitals will all be short staffed.”
Some reasons a nursing shortage looms:
- By 2020, the nation will need 1 million more nurses, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Of those, 31,000 nurses will be needed in New York state.
- In 2008, registered nurses held 2.6 million jobs nationwide. By 2018, that number is expected to increase to almost 3.2 million, according to United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s an increase of 581,500 nurses.
- But a growing number of nurses will be retiring as the baby boom ages. Nationwide, the average age of nurses is close to 47. The average age of nurses in New York is 45.8, according to the New York State Area Health Education Center System.
- In Onondaga County, nearly 18 percent of nurses are over the age of 55 and will likely retire in the next decade, according to Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of Albany.
- Some nursing schools don’t have enough faculty or space to accept all qualified candidates. They also don’t have enough funded money to create loan-forgiveness programs.
The looming shortage, say experts, puts the country in a health-care dilemma — especially as Congress crafts legislation in mid-December to expand health insurance coverage to millions more Americans.
“We have an aging population that needs more care. Ppeople are retiring. The new health care bill guarantees Americans access to healthcare who may have not had it before,” said Susan Bastable, chair and professor of the department of nursing at Le Moyne College in Syracuse. “The demand for health care workers will be greater.”
In Onondaga County, the percentage of residents 65 or older, is expected to grow from 14 percent to 18 percent by 2020, according to the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of Albany.
To fill the gap from retiring nurses and the growing number of people who need care, schools need to produce more nursing graduates, say nursing experts and educators. But some schools lack enough faculty to generate more graduates, says Bastable.
“I think supply and demand kicks in here. And whenever there is a demand for something, someone reaches out to fill that void,” said Bastable. “So, it’s become very clear that we need more faculty.”
For the 2009-2010 academic year, The American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported these statistics: 56 percent of nursing schools nationwide declared some need for more nursing faculty members. The average faculty vacancy rate was 9.7 percent. In the northeast region, it was 9.3 percent. Because of this depletion, nursing schools nationwide were forced to turn away almost 50,000 qualified applicants.
Some solutions to the problem, say experts, are loan-forgiveness programs for nurses pursing education.
To help attract more nursing teachers, Bastable and Le Moyne College of Nursing have recently won a $120,000 grant from the federal government to help nursing students pay for the costs of getting a master’s degree — a first step toward becoming a faculty member. Le Moyne was one of 21 colleges in the northeast to receive the grant.
More opportunities on the state level include scholarships, such as the Senator Patricia K. McGee Nursing Faculty Scholarship Program, which offers up to $20,000 annually, to a New York resident enrolled in a master’s degree in nursing or a doctoral degree program. Another is The Edna A. Lauterbach Scholarship Fund, which awards a scholarship to a nurse interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial venture in home or community-based care. The fund is available to any nurse who lives or works in New York State.
Other solutions to ease the nursing shortage nationally and locally have been proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Gillibrand supports federal legislation to create loan repayment programs for nurses who receive graduate degrees if they are willing to go into teaching. New York State’s Higher Education Services Corp. is also offering a Nursing Faculty Loan Forgiveness Incentive Program to any New York registered nurse holding a graduate degree and who has taught nursing. The award could be up to $40,000.
But even with those incentives to educate more nurses, experts say the shortage is inevitable. Right this minute, “things aren’t as bad as they were,” said Jean Moore, director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of Albany.
Said Moore: “Does that mean that we’ve solved the problem? Absolutely not. We are kind of getting a breather.”
(Silvia Milanova is a senior in newspaper and nutrition.)
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