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Recession cuts down nurse shortage

June 12, 2009 — 11:50am ET | By Anne Zieger
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With the recession putting pressure on workers to re-enter the field, the nursing shortage is easing up, according to a new study appearing in Health Affairs. 

The study found that almost a quarter-million nurses entered the work force between 2007 and 2008, an 18 percent climb. That's the largest two-year increase in nurse employment in 30 years or so, researchers concluded. That's happened despite the fact that the overall U.S. economy has lost six million jobs. This is a big change from the period between 1998 and 2001, when hospitals' nurse-vacancy rates peaked at a stunning 13 percent.

So what's driving the flood of nurses back into the field? Many returnees are older nurses, going back to work to re-gain a spouse's lost income or health coverage. (More than half the large increase over the previous two years came from nurses over age 50.) Meanwhile, last year there were one-third more working nurses ages 21-34 with children under 6 years old in the field than in 2007.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this Wall Street Journal piece

Related Articles:
Hospitals attempting to curb nursing shortages
Study: Nursing shortage gap closing
Nurse shortage expected to extend over next seven years

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By Susan D | Posted 4:16pm | June 12, 2009

A new healthcare labor market index released this week shows significant variability across markets: www.labormarketpulse.com/LMPI/

By Narayanachar Murali | Posted 4:59pm | June 12, 2009

I have noticed a trend where lot of new nurses are begin hired at lower wages ($15-17 for LPN $19-23 for RN. The hospitals are using the full power of contracts to sack expensive nurses. Example: Coming a minute late more than a certain number of times in a year etc. The productivity is low ( and will get significantly lower soon (like 50% from current levels) if the principal index measured is income generated per nurse. It is still very hard to find good talent in this area. There are more warm bodies to satisfy statutory needs than medical needs. Hospitals would do well to use good nurses for nursing instead of walking around with clipboards in hallways. With the EMR fever spreading faster than the dreaded H1N1, tech schools should soon start thinking of a new job description called CCDs -"Certified Chart Documenters" for filling CCHIT certified EMRs so that vital medical personnel like doctors and nurses can do what they are trained to do!

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