Learn About How the Nursing Shortage Impacts Current and Future Nurses in the US

Nursing shortages are not new. This latest has existed since 2012, but the pandemic pushed it towards a new crisis. As nurses incur a significant impact of the enormous strains placed on the healthcare system, many retire while others leave the profession for safer environments. This guide examines the details of this complex issue, shares statistics, and offers some strategies to help current nurses and nursing students navigate and even benefit from this shortage.

The Nursing Shortage: Just the Facts

The U.S. nursing shortage is projected to worsen as baby boomers retire. Adding to this, many younger nurses are leaving the profession for less-stressful careers since today’s nurses experience more fatigue, burnout, and psychological distress than ever before as well as fear for their safety.

Nationwide restrictions in nursing program enrollments have intensified the nursing shortage. Constrained resources prevent nursing schools from enrolling and thus graduating enough nurses to meet the growing need. Despite these restrictions, student enrollment at all levels of nursing programs increased in 2020.

Shortages vary by state, though it’s more pronounced in rural and less-affluent communities, and there are many causes and factors.

Causes of the Shortage:

• Nursing school enrollment does not meet the demand for nurses. In 2020, nursing schools rejected 80,521 qualified applicants because they lacked the budgets, faculty, clinical sites, and class space, among other educational resources.
• Older nurses are retiring. In 2017, the average RN was 50 years old, which means at least one million nurses – that’s two-thirds of the RN workforce – will retire by 2030.
• The aging baby boomer population needs care. By 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 82 million U.S. citizens will be 65 or older, increasing the need for geriatric care. This includes full or part-time supervision to help manage physical and mental health conditions.
• Severe shortages in places like Alaska, California, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Texas have led to extreme solutions with wider impact. For example, Texas recruited 2,500 out-of-state nurses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other Factors:

• Low salaries in some communities contribute to shortages in those areas. The Midwest and Northeast regions, for example, experience slower growth than the West Coast and Mountain regions experiencing the fastest growth. Growth also varies by nursing specialty with some areas (e.g., labor and delivery, critical care) more affected than others.
• Exhausted nurses are leaving the profession because of burnout due to understaffing challenges. Many have also become fearful about their safety, especially as the pandemic increased the hazards found in unsafe working conditions.
• Lack of nursing school staff. A large number of retiring nurses results in fewer nurse educators. In addition, teaching roles tend to pay less than positions for working nurses.
• The rise of travel nursing impacts hiring trends. Travel nurses earn from double to quadruple a typical nurse’s pay to contract at understaffed hospitals for brief periods. The profitability of travel nursing resulted in a 35% increase in travel nurses in 2020 with a projected growth of 40%, which means fewer nurses in long-term, employed positions.

Nursing Opportunities by State

This interactive U.S. map allows you to click on a state for details about the nursing opportunities in that state. Information includes the number of current nursing jobs, expected growth, and average nursing salary.