As hospitals across California struggle to maintain efficiency
during a severe nursing shortage, UCLA Medical Center looks on with
an ominous sense of foreboding.
The medical center currently has enough nurses to provide
adequate patient treatment, but UCLA administrators are bracing for
significant reductions in its nursing supply in the near
future.
“We are overall in nursing faced with the issue that we
have an aging workforce,” said Heidi Crooks, director of
operations and patient care services at UCLA. “Many will
retire within five years, and we must find replacements ““
this will be a challenge for us.”
The problems posed by the likely retirements are compounded by
several other developments that will place additional pressures on
the dwindling nursing staff.
As the nurse workforce at the medical center will likely grow
smaller due to the increasing age of many of its members, another
aging population will demand substantially more health services and
nurse treatment ““ the baby boomer generation.
The inevitable health complications that come with the
transition toward middle age are bringing a steadily growing number
of baby boomers into the medical complex; when the size of the
nursing staff seems primed to fall, the demands on its members are
increasing.
Though there are no easy solutions to the challenges facing the
medical center, officials are exploring several measures to prevent
serious shortages from emerging at UCLA.
“It takes an amount of planning,” Crook said.
“Right now, we are hiring about 200 graduates a year. We will
probably have to increase that figure in the future.”
But this is easier said than done. While nurse vacancies
continue to grow, the number of students graduating from nursing
programs and entering the profession has remained relatively
stagnant in recent years.
Jan Emerson, vice president of external affairs for the
California Healthcare Association, said the lack of expansion in
nursing education lies at the root of the current nursing shortage
in California.
Though there is strong demand from students aspiring to be
nurses, Emerson said nurse training facilities have waiting lists
of three years or longer due to the insufficient capacity of the
current programs.
“We are currently graduating 5,000 students, but 10,000
are needed,” she said. “The real solution is going to
come when the state is willing to devote resources to expand
nursing education facilities.”
The size of most California nurse training programs has not been
increased, despite the desperate need and visible student interest.
Emerson attributes this inaction to the significant budget
shortfalls faced by California.
“Given the current state financial situation, the state
will not be able to pony up the money to expand nursing education
resources any time soon,” she said.
The UCLA medical center is also looking to the newly implemented
nurse ratio law ““ which requires hospitals to meet strict
patient-to-nurse ratios ““ to increase the size of the
workforce and reduce the severity of the shortage.
“We’re hoping the ratios will attract young people
to nursing and extend the career of current nurses,” said
nurse Amelia Morva.
Morva said the ratios were implemented to improve not only the
quality of the health services provided to patients, but also to
improve working conditions for nurses.
Deborah Burger, president of the California Nurses Association,
said the ratio has already made a positive impact on California
hospitals and their nursing staffs.
“The ratios are bringing nurses back (to the
profession),” she said.
Burger is markedly more optimistic regarding the seriousness of
the nursing shortages than many health care officials.
“If we keep up the pace we are going now, we will be able
to fill the vacancies within five years,” she said.
Other health officials challenge this assessment, stressing the
limited effect of the the ratio law.
“The problem is implementing a law when the people do not
exist. Emerson said. “The law took effect in January, but it
did not create any new nurses.”
“The nursing crisis is with us,” she added.
“And it is going to get worse before it gets
better.”
But while there is debate regarding the severity of the
shortage, UCLA administrators and other medical officials agree
with near unanimity that the state must prepare for new challenges
to its nursing supply.
“California has the worst nursing shortage in the country
““ and there are no easy answers,” Emerson said.