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Registered nurses work in many health care settings, but hospital
inpatient units, in particular, cannot function without their
high skill level. Their scope of practice includes assessing
patients, planning care strategies, delegating care to others,
staff teaching, managing care, maintaining patient safety, making
nursing diagnoses, and collaborating with other health care
professionals. Registered nurses work with complicated medical
equipment, administer medications, and provide wound care. Because
the severity of illness of inpatients is high, they require
complex care. Hospitals need a solid registered nursing staff
to provide that level of care.
 Numbers
A recent survey of Washington state hospitals shows the
registered nurse vacancy rate for 2001 is 10 percent. The
average registered nurse turnover rate is about 17 percent.
In 2000, there were about 54,800 registered nurses in the
state, but only 43,500 (or 79.4 percent) were employed in
nursing. In 2020, the nationwide registered nurse supply
will be 2,200,000, while the demand will be 2,500,000. That
means a shortfall of about 300,000 registered nurses.
The registered nurse workforce has aged significantly.
In Washington, 69 percent of registered nurses are over
40.46 This is a sharp increase from 1998, when 54 percent
of registered nurses were over 40. If the average age of
registered nurses in Washington state remains steady, nearly
70 percent of the workforce will retire over the next 20
to 25 years.
Younger nurses are in short supply, and many appear uncommitted
to the profession. Nationwide, between 1983 and 1998, the
number of registered nurses under 30 in the workforce fell
by 41 percent, compared to a one percent decline in the
number of workers under age 30 in the rest of the U. S.
workforce.47 Less than nine percent of nurses are under
age 30.48 A recent study brings more unsettling news. One
in three nurses under 30 plans to leave the profession within
a year.
Pipeline
Today, most registered nurses receive their education from
either a two-year associate degree program or a four-year
bachelor’s degree program. Three-year registered nursing
programs are increasingly rare. Between 1991/92 and 1996/97,
the number of Registered Nursing degrees awarded per 100,000
residents in Washington state decreased by four percent.
A Nursing Executive Center Report shows that nationwide
between 1993 and 1996, enrollment in diploma programs dropped
42 percent, and enrollment in associate degree programs
declined 11 percent.
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