Nursing Shortage

Recent news coverage of the six-month anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake overlooked a terrible tragedy: the destruction of a nursing school filled with more than 100 students and teachers. The horrific event is significant not only because of the appalling loss of life but because it diminished Haiti's current and future nursing workforce — already severely understaffed — at a time when nursing skills are needed most. Haiti's loss underscored a larger problem plaguing countries worldwide.

Driven by two trends — the graying of the profession and a bedeviling national nursing shortage — Baltimore-area colleges and universities are expanding programs to not only train the next generation of nurses but address a looming shortage in their own faculty ranks. New, accelerated graduate programs at schools such as the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Stevenson University have been formed recently to make it more convenient for current nurses to obtain advanced degrees, and hopefully use those newly acquired skills to train other nurses.

Driven by two trends — the graying of the profession and a bedeviling national nursing shortage — Baltimore-area colleges and universities are expanding programs to not only train the next generation of nurses but address a looming shortage in their own faculty ranks. New, accelerated graduate programs at schools such as the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Stevenson University have been formed recently to make it more convenient for current nurses to obtain advanced degrees, and hopefully use those newly acquired skills to train other nurses.

Recent news coverage of the six-month anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake overlooked a terrible tragedy: the destruction of a nursing school filled with more than 100 students and teachers. The horrific event is significant not only because of the appalling loss of life but because it diminished Haiti's current and future nursing workforce — already severely understaffed — at a time when nursing skills are needed most. Haiti's loss underscored a larger problem plaguing countries worldwide.

Nursing school enrollments rose sharply this year, according to a new study, raising hopes that the 4-year-old nursing shortage may be easing.Preliminary results from the study, by the National League for Nursing, found that about 230,000 students were enrolled in registered nurse programs this fall, a 14 percent increase over last year's enrollment of 201,458. The highest enrollment in the -- past 20 years was 250,000 students in 1983.While the current shortage still has many hospitals scrambling to find enough qualified nurses, experts in the field say they expect it to ease gradually over the next few years.

Before leaving town this week, Congress gave strong bipartisan support to measures designed to address a national nursing shortage, though differences between competing House and Senate versions must still be resolved. The more sweeping proposal was approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate shortly before it adjourned for the year late Thursday. Sponsored in part by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, it would provide $136 million in nursing scholarships and other incentives.

Despite intensive recruiting efforts, Maryland hospitals continue to wrestle with critically high shortages of nurses and other personnel, the Maryland Hospital Association said yesterday. The vacancy rate for nursing positions at Maryland hospitals stood at 12.6 percent last year, according to an association survey released yesterday. Though down from a high of 15.6 percent in 2001, that means a shortage of 1,900 full-time nurses. Shortages were more severe for radiation therapy technologists, with 21.5 percent of positions vacant, and respiratory therapy technicians, at 19.1 percent.

Maryland's 50 general hospitals asked state regulators yesterday for a 2.5 percent rate increase to pay for higher salaries and other inducements to meet "the most severe nursing shortage in more than a decade." The shortage is so acute that hospitals sometimes have to postpone surgeries or divert emergency patients to other hospitals, administrators said. "Every morning, we assess our critical care capacity and decide how many surgeries we can accomplish and generally what we can and cannot do for our community that day," said Karen C. Poisker, vice president for patient care services at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury.

Despite increased salaries, creative recruiting techniques and government-funded scholarship programs, the nursing shortage at Maryland hospitals is getting worse, according to a report released yesterday by the Maryland Hospital Association. And that means patients are waiting longer for care in and outside the emergency room. Though more people are entering the nursing field, the job vacancy rate rose to 13 percent in 2006 from 10.3 percent a year earlier. "The supply just isn't keeping up with the demand," said Catherine Crowley, vice president of the hospital association.

Maryland regulators yesterday rejected a request for a 2 1/2 percent rate increase that the state's hospitals had sought to meet the costs of a nursing shortage, and deferred action on an emergency 29.7 percent request that Taylor Manor Hospital said was needed to ensure its future. "We're at the end of our rope," Dr. Bruce Taylor, chief executive and medical director of Taylor Manor, a 93-year-old Ellicott City psychiatric hospital, told the Health Services Cost Review Commission. "We're standing on the gallows, and the noose is around our neck."

A $1.2 million grant will help Harford Community College expand its nursing program to include an accelerated 15-month course that offers evening, weekend and online classes. The 15-month course could prepare as many as 88 nurses by 2014 in less time than the college's traditional two-year program. The Health Services Review Cost Commission, an association of area hospitals, provided the grant to address the critical nursing shortage. HCC, in partnership with Upper Chesapeake Health, will establish a pilot program to enable studies at its Bel Air campus in the Weekend and Evening Accelerated Nursing Program, which starts in May. Web-based instructional components will provide additional flexibility for students and instructors.

Md. soldier reported killed in Afghanistan The Pentagon says a soldier from Maryland has been killed in Afghanistan. Spc. Rodrigo A. Munguiarivas, 27, of Germantown died Sunday in Bagram of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by indirect fire. Munguiarivas, a vehicle driver, was assigned to the 710th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), in Fort Drum, N.Y. Fort Drum officials said he joined the Army in April 2008 and was deployed in January.

The 2.9 million registered nurses in the United States provide clinical care in home and hospital settings. They perform leading research into best practices in health care access, delivery, quality and safety. Nurses keep communities healthy through comprehensive public health initiatives. And, perhaps most important, they educate the next generation of nurses. Yet the profession faces a huge problem - one that could soon become a problem for all of America. A report released in March on "The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States" says the shortage of registered nurses could reach 500,000 by 2025.

Despite increased salaries, creative recruiting techniques and government-funded scholarship programs, the nursing shortage at Maryland hospitals is getting worse, according to a report released yesterday by the Maryland Hospital Association. And that means patients are waiting longer for care in and outside the emergency room. Though more people are entering the nursing field, the job vacancy rate rose to 13 percent in 2006 from 10.3 percent a year earlier. "The supply just isn't keeping up with the demand," said Catherine Crowley, vice president of the hospital association.

The top Maryland gubernatorial candidates focused on improving the state's health care system yesterday, with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announcing a new program to expand access for the working poor and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley unveiling a plan to attract and retain nurses. Speaking at a health clinic in Park Heights, Ehrlich announced the start of a program that will allow about 22,000 more low- to moderate-income Marylanders to get free primary health care with little additional investment from the state.

Donna Monius Nurse recruiter, St. Joseph Medical Center Age: 55 Years in business: 35 -- the last five with St. Joseph Medical Center. Salary: Range for a nurse recruiter in the Baltimore area is $45,000 to $70,500, with an average pay of $66,400, according to the Maryland Healthcare Human Resources Association. How she started: Graduated from St. Joseph's School of Nursing. She later obtained her bachelor's degree from University of Maryland, Baltimore County and her master's degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Carroll County General Hospital's efforts to recruit and retain nurses got a shot in the arm when it was awarded $75,000 from the state's Health Services Cost Review Commission. Awards totaling $1.7 million were given to 17 hospitals through the commission's Nursing Support Program to fight the nursing shortage. Leslie Simmons, vice president of patient care services at CCGH, said the hospital would use the money to help defray the costs of two mentors for 12 graduate nurses being hired this year.

WITH ALL THE RIGHTFUL concerns these days about U.S. job losses, the structural shift from manufacturing to lower-paying services and the export of jobs overseas, it's striking that certain well-regarded, well-paying jobs are going unfilled for want of workers. These jobs initially require just two years of post-secondary schooling, start around $40,000 a year with all kinds of benefits, and are virtually impossible to move offshore. But despite some recent progress, vacancies are so rampant in this field that it employs thousands of foreign-born workers.

As a patient care technician at Anne Arundel Medical Center, Bonnie Lovelady grew tired of just assisting nurses and wanted to become one of them. Her biggest obstacle was the cost of a bachelor's degree, which had swelled to more than $10,000 a year. But five years ago, the hospital began reimbursing her for $3,000 a year of her tuition, and it awarded her a $1,000 scholarship for her first year of school. "If they didn't have the tuition reimbursement or the scholarship, I would have gone elsewhere to look for money," said Lovelady, 30, who graduated last year.