Technology

Nurse shortage will worsen as baby boomers age

Many baby boomers reached a major milestone last year. The first boomers born in early 1946 turned 70 and are now turning that age at a rate of 10,000 people a day for the next 18 years. The Census Bureau also indicates that, for the first time in history, the aging of the population aged 65 and over will double that of children (aged 5 and under) worldwide in the next 3 years. This has broad implications for healthcare and nursing, both now and in the future, especially as there is already a shortage of nurses.

As the nursing industry grapples with this worrying shortage. * Nursing schools are trying to meet the demand by expanding their programs and offering accelerated courses; however, it is still projected that there will be a massive shortage of registered nurses (RN). So where will this shortage occur? Which states, people, and fields will be most affected?

The growing problem

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the demand for registered nurses in the workforce is expected to increase 16 percent to 3.2 million jobs in 2024, one of the highest of any industry in the US. . Unfortunately; 1 million registered nurses will reach retirement age in the next 10-15 years. So who will replace these retirees and make up for the anticipated demand? That is not clear yet.

Educate nurses

The AACN reports that nursing schools across the country have only seen a 3.6 percent increase in enrollment, far from it to meet the projected demand for nurses in the coming years. What compounds the problem is the lack of qualified teachers. The AACN reports that 64,067 qualified applicants from nursing schools were turned away in 2016 due to a lack of faculty.

Shortage by state

Who will most feel the shortage of nurses? By 2025, several states will experience the brunt of the nurse shortage according to Becker’s Hospital Review, including: Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Maryland, Nevada and Washington.

Shortage by specialty

Certain nursing fields will suffer a greater shortage than others because they are the fastest growing fields by 2022. These fields, according to Nurse Journal, include: nurse midwife, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, clinical nurse, psychiatric nurse, trauma nurse, and nurse practitioner. Travel. .

Roving nurses are, and will continue to be, one of the fields in greatest demand, particularly in some major US cities such as Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Houston and Chicago, as reported by LRS Healthcare.

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