BBI at the American Association of Critical Care Nurses: Nursing shortage still a dominant topic at AACN.

BBI at the American Association of Critical Care Nurses

Nursing shortage still a dominant topic at AACN

By BETTY GASCH

BBI Contributing Writer

ATLANTA, Georgia This years American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN; Aliso Viejo, California) conference, held here in early May, had 8,000 attendees an increase over last year in spite of all the world events of late. The 2002 AACN conference focused primarily upon the reality of the more-severe-than-first-thought nursing shortage. All keynote speakers and many talks called on nurses to address the shortage in many ways, including by being passionate advocates for the profession. There were numerous sessions highlighting the ominous specifics of the shortage and encouraging nurses to become involved with legislators and to educate the public. This shortage will ultimately have profound effects for medical device manufacturers.

Statistics show that currently there are 168,000 unfilled nursing positions in U.S. hospitals, up from the 143,000 reported last year. Fully 75% of this number represents registered nurses (RNs) and there is currently an 11% nationwide RN position vacancy rate. This rate is expected to peak at between 450,000 and 780,000 RN vacancies somewhere between 2006 and 2010. Research indicates that much of the imbalance between supply and demand for RNs is due to the aging of the baby boomers who will retire rapidly over the next decade. It also is known that fewer people (women in particular) are entering nursing because there are many more professions open to women most of which are higher-paying. The current average age for RNs is between 40 and 45 years but varies depending upon the hospital area. Intensive care nurses are a bit better off, with an average age of only 37.4 years. These findings are the basis of what has already been reported about the looming nursing shortage.

The International Hospital Outcomes Study (IHOS), a study of nurses in five countries (the U.S., Canada, Germany, England and Scotland), brought new findings to those in attendance at ACCN and the news was not good. One major finding of the IHOS was that the nursing shortage is a global problem, as all five countries represented had RN vacancies. Sean Clarke, RN, PhD, of McGill University (Montreal, Quebec), presented the IHOS details, including the news that younger …