The Atlantic has a longform articledetailing the current US nursing shortage in which it highlights that 1.2million nursing positions will be unfilled in the next five years. While nursing shortages have existed in theUS for most of the last forty years, this one is going to be different. The US nurse supply has been artificiallyinflated since the start of the recession. Now that the recession has abated, nurse retirement numbers are spiking. Musillo Unkenholt saw more demand forforeign-trained nurses in 2015 than we had in the whole of 2009-14.
The reasons for thecurrent US nursing shortage are many:
Baby BoomGeneration Demand. The US Baby Boomgeneration, those born 1946-1964, has reached an age where they willincreasingly demand nursing services. AsThe Atlantic points out:
Today, there are more Americans over the age of 65 than at any other time in U.S. history. Between 2010 and 2030, the population of senior citizens willincrease by 75 percent to 69 million,meaning one in five Americans will be a senior citizen; in 2050, an estimated 88.5 million people in the U.S. will be aged 65 and older.
Aging NursingWorkforce. Out of the 3 million USnurses, one million are over age 50 and will be expected to retire in the next10-15 years.
Few NurseEducators. Nursing Ph.D. programs havebeen unable to attract nursing faculty. These nurses Ph.D’s have traditionally made up large numbers of nursingschool faculty. Part of the reason forthis is that a Bachelor nursing graduate is usually offered a job atgraduation, thus reducing that graduate’s incentive to seek out graduatenursing education. Without a dramaticincrease in nurse faculty, it will be impossible for the US to supply enoughnurses to meet the demand.
DistributionChallenges. Some of the American nursingproblem stems from the lack of mobility ion the nursing force. Nurses are often unwilling to leave theirhometowns for jobs in rural areas or high-nurse demand areas, even if thosepositions pay better.
Lack ofForeign-Nurses. Because of a terriblythough-out US immigration policy, it takes a nurse from the Philippines manyyears to legally obtain a visa, in spite of the nursing shortage. The Philippines has traditionally been thegreatest supplier of US nurses. Thestory is even worse for India, which would certainly be able to supply the USwith many nurses if it did not take 10 years for a fully-qualified nurse toobtain a US visa. As a result of thelack of US nursing visa options,foreign-trained nurses have declined sitting for the US licensing exams.
Ten years ago theUS congress passed a special EX visajust for occupationsthat were found to be nationally short by the Department of Labor. These occupations were placed on the DOL’sSchedule A. By placing an occupation onSchedule A, the Department of Labor finds that the importation of workers inthe occupational classification will not negatively impact existing US labor.
Only twooccupations are on Schedule A – Registered Nursing and Physical Therapy. Does it not stand to reason that there oughtto be a better immigration program to allow these badly needed workers entryinto the US?
Only twooccupations are on Schedule A – Registered Nursing and Physical Therapy. Does it not stand to reason that there oughtto be a better immigration program to allow these badly needed workers entryinto the US?