by Carrie Vaughan, for HealthLeaders Media, September 19, 2008
We’ve all heard the reports. The U.S. healthcare system will need more than one million new registered nurses by 2020. Thousands of nursing school applicants are turned away each year because there isn’t enough nursing faculty, clinical sites, and classroom space. The shortage of registered nurses in the United States could reach as high as 500,000 by 2025. More than one-third of baby boomer nurses (age 45 to 60) plan to retire or change their career in the next one to three years.
It’s no wonder CEOs are taking an active role in nursing recruitment and retention efforts. Given these forecasts the competition for nurses is going to get even more intense, and it is going to take more than sign-on bonuses and financial rewards to attract new nurse recruits to your facility. (See Show Them More Than $ in the September issue of HealthLeaders magazine.) Nurses want to work for an employer of choice—a Magnet facility, one of the best places to work, or a healthcare organization that offers them:
