Nursing Shortage Worries Experts

May 18, 2001 — -- Push that call button at the hospital, and you might have to wait 45 minutes or longer for a nurse to show up. The problem is too many patients and too few nurses.

It could get a lot worse, government officials say.

With the number of new nurses getting state licenses barely rising — and demand for nurses soaring because of an aging population and the popularity of home health care — the Labor Department projects a shortage of 450,000 nurses in just seven years.

"We have a problem of attracting people into this profession that we probably haven't had in the past," said Janet Heinrich, a director focusing on public health issues for the U.S. General Accounting Office, which released a report this week to a Senate subcommittee investigating the nurse shortage.

The situation has the federal government looking for new methods and incentives to recruit nurses and nurse's aides, and state governments mulling limits on nurse overtime to increase job satisfaction. Some hospitals are offering perks like cash signing bonuses and child care. One desperate hospital in Indianapolis last year even offered nurses maid or lawn service for signing.

But will it be enough?

Stressed-Out Nurses

Heinrich said surveys have shown that a majority of nurses love nursing, but feel drained by perceived longer hours, bigger workloads and a sicker pool of patients created by shorter hospital stays.

A survey in March of more than 900 current and former nurses by the Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals suggests the Labor Department shortage estimate could be a low one. Federation spokeswoman Janet Bass told ABCNEWS Radio that one in five nurses who are working in hospitals and clinics said they are going to leave nursing within the next five years.

"They're miserable, because of the working conditions," she said. "They are stressed out. They can't take the physically demanding nature of the job anymore."

Even though she loves nursing, Julie Ginther says she may pack it in.

"Sometimes we jokingly say I'd rather sell makeup at a department store," Ginther said.

Growing Demand, Less Supply

The discouragement may extend beyond current nurses. Linda Hodges, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Arkansas, told a Senate subcommittee in February that many women who may have once been candidates are avoiding the profession.

"Bright young women who in the past chose nursing as a career are now readily accepted in the traditionally male-dominated professions of law, medicine, and engineers," Hodges said. "Beginning salaries are viewed as low compared to other professionals and persistent salary compression makes nursing less attractive as a career choice."

At the same time, many experts point out, the general patient population is aging, meaning the demand for nurses is becoming greater than ever.

The trends have some U.S. senators looking to create legislation to attract more nurses.

"This is a big problem," said Joe Karpinski, communications director for the Senate Health and Education Labor and Pensions Committee, which held a hearing on the nursing shortage Thursday. "The goal is to find out what the federal government might be able to do."

Senators on the committee have discussed funding to recruit and train nurses drawn from disadvantaged populations.

Aging Nurses

There is pressure to act quickly, because the median age in the profession is growing older. The GAO found the average age of a registered nurse increased from 37 in 1983 to 42 in 1998, possibly meaning current nurses are closer to retirement.

"Just about 2010, we can expect that we'll begin to see a dramatic decline in the actual number of nurses, unless of course many of those that are currently in the work force drop out," Heinrich said. If they drop out, the "dramatic decline" could come much sooner.

Currently, about 60,000 nurses get state licenses annually, but thousands of others quit or retire, Heinrich said.

"We've had the slowest increases [in numbers of registered nurses] that we've had for many, many years," she added.

Leslie Remington, a nurse in Kansas City, Mo., told a Washington news conference in April that the stressful working conditions are taking a toll.

"Things are so overwhelming that sometimes nurses leave work in tears," she said. "I have a nurse the other day who told me that she's gone out to her car more than once and actually thrown up after her shift. Of course this is a nurse who just put in her two weeks notice and quit."

ABCNEWS' Michael S. James in New York, Pam Coulter in Washington and Marcia Salter contributed to this report.