Iowa Nurses Association | Nursing Shortage To Increase as Baby Boomers Age

Workplace Issues

Contact: Bonnie Wiltse
Project Director
Tel: 712/372-4690
E-mail: bjw@willinet.net

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE April 3, 2001

Nursing Shortage To Increase as Baby Boomers Age

Quality patient care depends on adequate nursing staff. A survey 1323 Iowa worksites of the four major employers of nursing personnel in Iowa: hospitals, long term care, home health/public health agencies and ambulatory clinics documented an estimated 2600 registered nurse (RN) vacancies, 700 licensed practical nurse (LPN) vacancies and 2600 non-licensed nursing support personnel vacancies. By 2011, 61% of the 47,716 currently actively licensed nurses will be over 50 years of age with many retired. By 2010, 49% of the faculties of Iowa nursing education programs plan to retire.

Unlike past shortages, the anticipated nursing personnel shortage will be driven by fundamental, permanent shifts in the labor market that are unlikely to reverse in the next few years. Impending declines in nursing personnel will come at a time when the first of 78 million baby boomers nationally will begin to retire and enroll in Medicare. As a person ages, there is an increased demand for nursing services. At the same time, the aging of the nursing personnel currently in the workforce will have a reduced capacity to perform certain physical tasks of patient care. "Recruitment is no longer the only answer" stated Bonnie Wiltse, Project Director. Long-term strategies will be needed to plan how best to use increasingly scarce registered nurses to deliver patient care.

The aging of the current actively licensed nurses coupled with a twenty-seven (27%) percent decline in the number of graduates of Iowa RN and LPN programs in the past six years will mean major adjustments in the nursing workforce.

The newly released results come from a privately funded survey conducted by the Iowa Council of Nurses, a organization of the six major nursing organizations in the state to assess the nursing shortage in the state of Iowa.. The six nursing organizations collectively representing practice, education and administration united in 1999 to form a nursing shortage task force. The goal was to document the extent of the shortage in the state before proceeding to make recommendations to address the shortage.

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A press conference will be held Tuesday, April 3 at 1:00 p.m. in Room 116, State Capitol Building in Des Moines to release the survey and its findings. For background material, access http://www.state.ia.us/nursing/workforce_employer_demand_survey.html.

The Iowa Council of Nurses is composed of the Iowa Nurses Association, the Iowa Organization of Nurse Leaders, the Iowa League for Nursing, the Iowa Organization of Associate Degree Nurses and the Iowa Community College Directors of Nursing Education. Their mission is to shape the health and well-being of the community through the profession of nursing.

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