Can the Nursing Shortage Get Worse?

In the March 22nd, 2010 issue of Time, Michael Lind penned a column called “The Boring Age” to illustrate how much of our society stays the same. The column was interesting yet irrelevant to our topics here until then end when he predicted that the largest single occupation in 2050 will be, to quote Mr. Lind: “drumroll, please – nursing!”
Much data is tossed around about the current nursing shortage, usually in the categories of the number of open nursing positions, the long-in-tooth average age of current nurses, and how healthcare jobs lead the list of those that will increase the most due to our citizens living longer. All of that is old news, just not good news to those who hire and try to retain nurses. But this is a new category – largest single occupation – and takes our current nurse-shortage problem to an entirely higher level.

We’ve worked with healthcare companies and have had great success with improving nurse turnover. Ultimately, though, the composition of the nurse job merits our scrutiny. It’s hard to do all this is asked, especially when nurses join the profession to provide the best possible care which is often times negatively reinforced by insurance companies. By 2050, those of you who are left to address what will be by then an even more extreme need might consider adding nurse positions and designing a true nurses’ aid job that evens out the work and the stress.