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Health-care field scrambling to fill staffing shortages
Courier-Post Staff
A growing nursing shortage in the region has health care administrators scrambling to fill vacancies, and patients' loved ones worried about the quality of care they will receive.
The New Jersey State Nurses Association says a serious shortage of skilled nurses is on the horizon if nothing is done.
According to New Jersey Colleagues in Caring, there will be 24,100 vacancies for registered nurses by 2020. Nationwide, hospitals, nursing home, assisted living facilities, home health care and other providers will be in need of half a million nurses by that same year.
A July report from the federal General Accounting Office about the nursing shortage showed that as demand increased, the percent of employed RNs per 100,000 people dropped 2 percent. In New Jersey, that drop was 5.2 percent.
One of the unions that represents registered nurses in the state has called the shortage a "crisis at the local, state and national levels."
All of this makes nurses, doctors, patients and families worried that patient care is being compromised.
Mary Foley, president of the American Nurses Association, said: "Nurses are continuously asked to do more with less. Patients will not get the type of care they deserve when nurses are stressed, overworked and concerned for their own health and safety."
Nursing shortages are not new, but local hospital administrators say this one is different.
Richard E. Murray, president and CEO of Kennedy Health System and chairman of the New Jersey Hospital Association, called the shortage "deeper and tougher than the last."
Here are some of the causes.
None of the solutions are quick and easy.
Local hospitals have ratcheted up their recruitment efforts. Nearly all offer generous bonuses, tuition forgiveness and perks they think will set them apart from their competition. Nursing homes and other specialty care facilities are also in the running for nursing talent.
Health care institutions in the region have also come up with ways to woo current nurses, though some still complain of too much overtime and not enough help.
But if the trends continue, government intervention may be the only answer. Several bills are making their way through Congress, including legislation to raise nurse salaries and to create a National Nurse Service Corps, which would trade tuition money for a commitment to work in a health facility.
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