Nurse vacancy rates are beginning to decrease, as more college students choose a career in nursing. But don't be fooled into believing that the nursing shortage is over. A storm of nurse scarcity is brewing that'll likely hit the United States with the force of a category 5 hurricane by the end of the decade. Immediately, nurse managers and executives need to prepare for the worst possible shortage of qualified nursing personnel in the history of the profession.
As reported in July's Nursing Management cover story, "No time to lose," many of our colleagues will retire by the end of the decade. Couple this with an aging demographic as more of our societal population reaches age 65. Industry growth in the area of preventive healthcare programs, home care, long-term care, and technological/medical management of chronic diseases, and a looming physician shortage will require more qualified nurses to manage the healthcare needs of our communities. What can we do as nurse leaders to prepare our organizations to meet the challenges ahead?
First on our agenda: Inform administrative colleagues that we're currently experiencing the quiet before the storm. Make presentations to senior administrators, board members, and community leaders to illustrate the national shortage projection correlated with the growing healthcare demands of the community. Urge them to dedicate resources to study the projected shortage and develop a robust action plan to mitigate the effects of the looming crisis.
As nurse leaders, we need to be intimately involved with developing and implementing our organizations' strategic plans to adequately prepare nursing staff for the future. What's your hospital's plan to grow volume? What does your community need over the next 5 years? Since available competent personnel are pivotal to achieving the plan, it's essential to integrate our organizations' strategies with nursing. To achieve sustainability and grow our organizations, it's vital to ensure a plan to recruit and retain qualified nursing professionals.
Survey your staff regarding their future work plans to determine how this pending crisis will affect your organization. What's the current age of your staff members, by specialty, and how many of them are planning to decrease their work hours or retire over the next 5 years? Aggregate this information with normal turnover projections, adjusted to reflect the increase of patient acuity resulting in the need for more highly skilled staff, and the organization's growth plan. You'll then have a framework to project the number of nurses your organization will need in the future.
It's also essential to know if your staff members are satisfied and engaged in their current work setting. Do you advocate for improved environmental conditions, assistive personnel, changes in scheduling practices to improve the work environment of the staff, or enticing senior colleagues to practice longer than they had anticipated? By improving the work environment to accommodate an aging workforce, we may reap the benefit of retaining qualified staff members long past their expected age of retirement.
Administrative and clinical practice leaders need to be sure they're working closely with their academic colleagues to facilitate partnerships for bridging recruitment and retention issues in both university and practice settings. Joint clinical and academic appointments, scholarship support for nursing students, and internships and externships are just a few examples of how we can work together as a profession.
Our organizations can provide quality healthcare only if nurses are present to lead the charge. As leaders, it's incumbent on us to work together, find solutions, and ensure qualified nursing professionals meet societal demands. We need to be sure there's a nurse around to care for us!!
Richard Hader, RN, CNA, CHE, CPHQ, PhD, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief; Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Officer, Meridian Health System, Neptune, N.J.