Want to be a nurse? Florida needs you
It's no secret that Florida, like most states, suffers from a severe shortage of nurses.
By Times Staff
Published February 17, 2008
Want to be a nurse? Florida needs you
It's no secret that Florida, like most states, suffers from a severe shortage of nurses. What are we doing about it? The Florida Nursing Center, created by the Legislature in 2001 and housed at the University of Central Florida, last year did the first statewide survey of nursing needs. Details appeared last month in the "2007 Nurse Employer Survey," which helps quantify a shortage that has reached almost mythic proportions. Says the report: "The shortage will be fueled by an aging population demanding more health care as well as an increased number of retirements from the aging nurse workforce."
The key recommendations:
Emphasize retaining: "Increasing the number of new nurses alone will not satisfy the health care system's need for experienced nurses with specialized skills," the report said.
Pay attentionto ways to retain older and younger nurses. "Although individual nurse employers are experimenting with improvements to the work environment, a global approach backed by scientific evidence is underdeveloped."
Increase production of new nurses strategically. "A strategic, data-driven approach to education program expansion must be taken to maximize the use of limited resources needed to educate new nurses."
Increase faculty salaries to be competitive with salaries offered in practice settings.
Look more carefully at nursing needs in nonhospital settings, especially skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. In Clearwater, BayCare Health System chairman Steve Mason says his alliance of nonprofit area hospitals is working with the University of South Florida and St. Petersburg College to spur the training of nurses. The coming wave of aging baby boomers will only further challenge the nursing sector, Mason says: "We are trying everything we can to build the work force we need."