Shortage of nurses not as dire as predicted, but challenges remain to meet nation's needs

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/msu-son092115.php

Public Release: 21-Sep-2015
Shortage of nurses not as dire as predicted, but challenges remain to meet nation's needs
Montana State University

News for the nation's nursing workforce isn't as dire as had been predicted a decade ago, but the nation is still expected to be short of nurses in coming years, according to new research by Montana State University nursing economist Peter Buerhaus and other researchers.

Ten and more years ago, economists had been predicting a shortage of hundreds of thousands of nurses as baby boomers retired in large numbers. Currently, there are more than one million registered nurses over age 50 and most are expected to leave the workforce during the next 10 years.

But national initiatives to spur nursing as a career and more students choosing nursing after the recession of 2008 have dramatically changed that outlook, Buerhaus and his fellow researchers found. Nursing school enrollments doubled over the decade of the 2000s, as have the number of young registered nurses in the workforce.

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