Nurses are the backbone of health systems around the world. But in the United States, some states are short by tens of thousands of nurses.
According to the National Nurses Union and statistics, New Mexico is the hardest hit right now. Half of the hospitals in this southern state there report that they have fewer nurses than needed. Vermont, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Arizona are also in need of these caregivers. But it is California that is expected to experience the worst nursing shortage in the entire country over the next ten years: it will be short of nearly 45,000 nurses by 2030. Texas will need nearly 16,000 , 11,000 in New Jersey, a little less in South Carolina, 5,400 in Alaska.
Overall, it will take 1.2 million nurses in the United States by 2030 to address this shortage.
Dislike for the profession, lack of budget for training
The Covid-19 pandemic has put these personnel to the test and the profession is less attractive today for the younger generations. Nearly four in ten new nurses say they want to change jobs after just one year. Then there are 4.2 million registered nurses in the United States today, and most are over 50 years old. The average age is 52 and they expect to retire within the next ten years.
Finally, the country is struggling to train the nurses of tomorrow. Nearly 200,000 positions are to be filled each year in the United States. But for example, in 2019, over 80,000 applicants were turned down from nursing schools; 91,000 in 2021 because there was not enough budget, not enough classrooms and above all not enough teachers, quite simply, to teach them the trade.
View comments
