ANA urges increased workforce funding; 1.1 Million new nurses needed

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

ANA urges increased workforce funding

...As the nation commemorated the 50th anniversary on Sept. 4 of the historic Nurse Training Act (Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act) aimed at educating, recruiting and retaining RNs, ANA advocated a multipronged plan to ensure a sufficient number of nurses. Demand for health care services is growing, largely due to aging baby boomers and health care reforms that increase access to care, transform the system to pay for quality, and increase the focus on prevention and primary care services.

“We’re seeing mixed signals today in the nurse employment market. There have been layoffs by some hospitals at the same time that ’registered nurse’ ranks as the most advertised position nationwide,” said ANA President Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN. “But it would be a big mistake to ignore the reality of an aging population coupled with a graying nursing workforce. It is essential that we take common-sense actions to plan for and invest in the next generations of nurses. Demand for care is going to grow, and nurses are going to retire in droves, so we have to prepare now to meet future needs.”

ANA’s recommendations included:

• Increasing federal funding for Title VIII, a program that has seen an average 2 percent funding decrease over the last four years, despite growing demand for RNs and shortages in some areas. ANA advocates an increase of 12 percent for 2015.

• Bolstering nursing education by developing and recruiting more nursing professors and ensuring an adequate number of clinical training sites for nursing students. To meet the needs for new nurses, nursing schools must increase capacity, replace an aging faculty workforce and increase incentives for teaching the next generation of RNs.

• Highlighting the importance of the transition from education to practice for the nursing workforce. With so many RNs nearing retirement age, forward-thinking hospitals and other employers should hire new nursing graduates now so they can learn from experienced RNs.

By a wide margin, “registered nurse” ranks first among all occupations requiring an associate or baccalaureate degree for entry in the projected number of annual job openings through 2022. As Title VIII turned 50 in September, ANA focused efforts on ensuring that policymakers recognized the employment demands and actions needed to develop a sufficient workforce. ...

I remember when President Johnson signed the Nurses Training Act of 1964. Despite current state of new nurses unable to be employed in hospital setting, there are jobs out there for nurses. As healthcare shifts to outpatient settings, nursing educators need to prepare current students to adjust their employment expectations and prepare graduates to function in these outpatient roles.

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ANA: Nurse Training Act Turns 50: 1.1 Million New Nurses Needed

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My job will be available in 2023.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Yes more evidence that the ANA is not only out of touch, but seems to harbor a real hatred of bedside nurses.

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I posted about this topic from ANA some time ago.

When you walk into a hospital and find that the majority of RN's are under thirty and have six or less years of experience, this is not an accident, this is by design.

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Specializes in nursing education.

As healthcare shifts to outpatient settings, nursing educators need to prepare current students to adjust their employment expectations and prepare graduates to function in these outpatient roles.

This is definitely true.

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Here we go again. Shortage, excess, shortage, excess, now shortage again.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Problem were I live is a wide disparity in wages. The hospitals are all union, starting pay for a new grad is around 27/hr I believe. That is base pay, with shift differentials and bonus pay it is usually quite a bit higher. LTC pays about 21/hr and only a few offer shift differentials and those are nowhere near the differentials that the hospital offers. Clinic jobs pay even less. School systems don't care if you are an RN or LPN, the pay is the same and it's about 17/hr. At least with the clinic jobs and school nursing there are no weekends/holidays or nights so some nurses feel it is worth the lower pay to land those jobs.

Our hospitals are famous for posting a lot of positions on their website, but it seems few nurses are actually hired. I know nurses that work in both our major hospital systems that complain of this a lot...positions are posted for their floor and nobody is ever hired to fill them, so they are constantly working short staffed.

The clinic jobs rarely open as staff usually stays there until they move or retire, and when they do open the clinics are all owned by the two big hospital systems so the positions are filled by union nurses moving from the hospital to the clinic. Even though the clinic nurses aren't in the union hiring is preferential toward internal candidates, so the hospital nurses looking to get out of the hospital get those jobs.

Even with the relatively cushy schedule of the school nurse, I don't know many RN's willing to work full time for 17/hr especially since the benefits aren't nearly as good as they used to be.

That leaves LTC and you would think with the difficulties in landing the preferred hospital positions and the clinic jobs with the nice schedules that LTC would be flush with nurses. Truth is not so much. Every facility is short staffed and some so desperately so that they are offering pretty hefty sign on bonuses and still can't get enough nurses.

That's my take on it for what it's worth. Sorry for the long post but I work LTC and the horrible lack of nurses is just killing those of us that stick it out and stay. We did offer a sign on bonus for awhile by the way, it didn't help.

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Specializes in hospice.

Wow. Where I live we have the opposite situation. LTC pays better then the hospitals. I had no idea that wasn't the case universally. That is eye opening for me.

Problem were I live is a wide disparity in wages. The hospitals are all union, starting pay for a new grad is around 27/hr I believe. That is base pay, with shift differentials and bonus pay it is usually quite a bit higher. LTC pays about 21/hr and only a few offer shift differentials and those are nowhere near the differentials that the hospital offers. Clinic jobs pay even less. School systems don't care if you are an RN or LPN, the pay is the same and it's about 17/hr. At least with the clinic jobs and school nursing there are no weekends/holidays or nights so some nurses feel it is worth the lower pay to land those jobs.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Wow. Where I live we have the opposite situation. LTC pays better then the hospitals. I had no idea that wasn't the case universally. That is eye opening for me.

The situation where you live is the exception rather than the rule. It is much more common for the hospitals to be the best paying places for an RN to work.

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The situation where you live is the exception rather than the rule. It is much more common for the hospitals to be the best paying places for an RN to work.

I'm not sure it's that much more common.

My state has LTC paying about $5 more per hour than the hospitals shell out.

They can afford to keep wages low as there are so many in line to accept an acute care position.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
I'm not sure it's that much more common.

My state has LTC paying about $5 more per hour than the hospitals shell out.

They can afford to keep wages low as there are so many in line to accept an acute care position.

May I ask what part of the country you are in? I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that LTC having higher wages than acute care is more common in the south. I am in the upper midwest and here LTC pays considerably less than acute care.

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May I ask what part of the country you are in?

The beautiful state of Utah.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
The beautiful state of Utah.

Utah? Well that surprises me a bit I guess. My sis-in-law moved back home from Utah 6 months ago. We visited a few times and I found Salt Lake City to be very nice. Even the hospital ER we went to when she had a health issue while I was visiting. I kind of made fun of it a little bit because it looked like a TV show set...nothing but beautiful people working there, from the front door security to the nurses to the doctors, I have never seen a more good looking bunch of employees before or since! I joked with my sis-in-law that good looks must be a hiring requirement.

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