Task Force Studying Nursing Shortage

Concern about the current - and future - shortage of registered nurses working at Texas Medical Center institutions, as well as a stagnant student nursing enrollment in area nursing colleges, has caused the creation of a Nursing Shortage Task Force with nurse executives from TMC member institutions serving on that task force.

While nursing shortages have been considered cyclical in the past, nearly all the members of the task force think that this current shortage may be different.

"We think this shortage may be long term," says John Crossley, Ph.D., R.N., associate vice president for operations and nursing practice at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and co-chair of the task force. "We are already 40,000 nurses short of what we need in Texas, and the current nursing force is `graying'- with an average age of 45 and fewer than 10 percent under 30. Add to that the declining enrollment in nursing schools, and there's a real problem at hand."

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing projects that by 2015 - unless enrollment increase significantly in nursing programs - there will be a shortage of 114,000 nurses nationwide. Several states are currently particularly hard hit by a nursing shortage, notably Texas, California, Florida and Arizona.

Formed in June 1999, the Task Force was charged by the TMC institutions' CEO's to address several issues:

- Develop data on the nursing work force;

- Assess current and future impact of nursing shortage on TMC institutions;

- Develop initiatives to address the shortfall.

"There's no question that we have made short-term gains in the nursing profession," says Dr. Crossley, citing the increased number of nurse practitioners, nurses involved in research and nurses pursuing advanced degrees. "But now we must be engaged in long-term solutions to the nursing shortage."

So why is there a nursing shortage? What are the factors causing this?

"We intend to get some good answers to those questions," says Dr. Crossley. The Task Force is planning to do focus groups and individual interviews to find out why nurses are leaving the profession, why they are opting to leave an institution and work for a nursing placement agency and why young people are not entering the nursing profession in larger numbers.

Importantly, too, the Task Force will be asking the institutions to participate in an in-depth survey of their nursing staffs, focusing especially on nurse retention; projected staffing needs in both direct and non-direct patient care; and current and projected needs in specialty areas such as intensive care units, operating rooms, obstetric services.

Articles in various nursing magazines over the past two years have discussed the profession as being less attractive than in the past; to some extend, nursing is viewed as a profession with a "glass ceiling" where very few key decisions are made by nurses. Coupled with this is the notion that the Texas Medical Center may be a "difficult" place to work, with large institutions and high acuity patients.

"The Texas Medical Center has a fine 50-year plan for the future, and the Nursing Shortage Task Force certainly needs to address the future needs and make recommendations about our profession," says Dr. Crossley.

- ROGER WIDMEYER

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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