According to the U.S. Department of Labor, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other ambulatory care settings added 27,000 new jobs in February 2009- a month when 681,000 jobs were eliminated nationwide. As the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, nurses will likely be recruited to fill a large portion of these new positions. So jobseekers are compelled to ask: why is there such a discrepancy? There are many new nursing graduates entering the workforce this time of year, and many are finding it difficult to get hired.

What does this mean for hospitals? Engaging candidates.  Hospitals must recognize the importance of residency and recent graduate training programs to create a sustainable pipeline of internal nursing professionals for advancement within the organization.  Often, this is seen as overly costly in a time when hospitals need experienced nurses right away. One solution to address immediate nursing needs has been the employment of travel nurses- a costly solution that only temporarily fixes the problem.  A better remedy is in the young nurses who are anxious to commit to quality care- hiring them and implementing a retention and training strategy to keep them.

What does this mean for nurses? Dr. Peter Buerhaus, workforce analyst, said it best in the November 26, 2008 Journal of the American Medical Association:  “over the next 20 years, the average age of the RN will increase and the size of the workforce will plateau as large numbers of RNs retire. Because demand for RNs is expected to increase during this time, a large and prolonged shortage of nurses is expected to hit the US in the latter half of the next decade.”

Nurses are active, vibrant members of their communities; tapping into that community spirit is vital for employers.  With the growing discrepancy in age, the number of nurses soon to retire, and the patient populations only escalating, it is essential that nurses connect to mentoring programs that will equip the next generation of nurses to take the wheel. Kathleen Dracup from the University of California, San Francisco, illustrates the need for nurse mentors when she writes: “The understanding of what makes an expert nurse has been integral in developing preceptor roles in the intensive care unit (ICU) that help impart this experiential knowledge to nurses new to critical care.”  With these programs in place, graduating nurses can fill positions while gain invaluable experience from expert nurses.

On the legislative side, the government continues to address critical issues in nursing education- a primary factor in the national nurse shortage. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed into law in February, includes funding to address the shortage of health care workers, including nurses, and the short supply of nurse educators. According to new survey data released by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), almost 50,000 of qualified nursing school applicants were turned away from nursing programs in 2008, due in part to a lack of nursing faculty.

AACN President Fay Raines is encouraged by the momentum, she says: "progress is being made to address the national nurse and nurse faculty shortage; however, much more remains to be done to improve and eliminate this long-term concern to ensure Americans receive the quality health care they deserve.”