The signs are everywhere – online, in newspaper advertising and job sites.
There is a nursing shortage, and that shortage is predicted to only get worse in the next few years.
“The U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of registered nurses that is expected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows,” the American Association of Colleges of Nursing has said. “Compounding the problem is the fact that nursing schools across the country are struggling to expand capacity to meet the rising demand for care.”
Wildeson said nursing homes in the area reach out to the nursing students at the career center to tell them about job opportunities. Wildeson noted some nursing homes offer a sign-on bonus that varies with the license.
“Whenever my students take the nurse aide class, then they are able to go and get a job at any of the nursing homes,” she said.
“I will have nursing homes that will come in when we are almost done with that class, and they will tell the students what jobs they have open. All of the students who have passed nurse aide can get a job on day one as soon as they are done.”
Wildeson said enrollment in the program has been steady with 45 to 50 students total for the past six to eight years.
“I don’t know if the students are aware of the nursing shortage when they enter the program, but it is something I tell them,” said Wildeson.
Morgan Bish, a senior at Clarion-Limestone High School, switched from cosmetology to the nursing program this year.
“When my grandpa was in the hospital, he had a really bad brain bleed and there was nothing they could do. I watched all of the nurses take care of him and I thought I could do more to help people. So I decided to make the switch over to nursing,” said Bish, who has been accepted into the Clarion University registered nurse program.
“I love it (at the Career Center). It is so much fun. I had an idea of the nursing shortage but I didn’t know how much of a shortage there was.”
Emily Little, a senior at Redbank Valley High School, always wanted to be in the nursing field. She will be pursuing an LPN license at the career center.
Her father was hospitalized for about a year when she was in first grade.
“I saw the doctors and nurses coming in to treat him. That opened my eyes to what I could do to help other people,” she said.
Wildeson said the decision to go into nursing is personal for many of her students.
“They either have someone in their family who is a caregiver or in the field and they have looked up to them as a role model or they have had someone in their family who they have helped to take care of,” she said. “That has given them that fire.”
That “fire” may not be enough to fill the staffing gap.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Employment Projections 2014-2024,” registered nursing (RN) is listed among the top occupations in terms of job growth through 2024.
The number of RN slots that will need to be filled is expected to grow 16 percent by 2024, the bureau projects.
The problem, though, is there aren’t enough nurses to fill the slots being created, according to the U.S. Department of Labor and Industry.
The reason, the department cites, is simple mathematics. In other words, as baby boomers age, there are not enough millennials entering the field of nursing, which is composed of various skill levels.
And, Wildeson believes, when baby boomers retire, “we are going to be in trouble. That would be 2020-2021.”
Wildeson said there is a certain amount of “job-hopping” among nurses. “Sometimes that is for the sign-ups. I feel that often we train nurses and they don’t take a permanent position as an employee in a facility and they go to work for an agency,” she said.
Agency is a general term used to describe nurses who do not work at a specific facility, but work for an agency that provides nursing professionals on a day-by-day basis.
The Health Resources and Services Administration projects more than 1 million registered nurses will reach retirement age within the next 10 to 15 years. Trying to fill the staffing gap is the Allied Health Care course at Clarion County Career Center and similar facilities in the area.
“We teach anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, medical assisting, nursing assisting, which can lead the students to further their education post-secondary at a collegiate level or at a technical school like an LPN program or a medical assisting certification program,” said Wildeson.
“I tell my students that the great thing about health care is that you can leave your job today and have another job tomorrow,” said Wildeson. “You can leave Pennsylvania today and go to another state and have a job because there is a such a shortage across the United States.”