FHA Nurse Staffing Issues Survey: Florida’ s Nursing Shortage Continues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2002
Contact: Cathy Allman
VP/Nursing and Health Care Professionals
407/841-6230 cathya@fha.org
Kim Streit
VP/Health Care Research & Information
407/841-6230 kims@fha.org
Florida continues to face a serious shortage of registered nurses. While the demand for nurses is increasing, the supply is not. The latest data from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects by 2020, Florida will need 61,000 more nurses than what is projected to be available. Recent data from hospitals show some improvement in filling vacant positions; however, a long-term solution is necessary to ensure there are enough nurses to care for Florida’ s aging population. Results from the Florida Hospital Association’ s annual nurse staffing survey are:
- One-in-eight (12.5 percent) of the nursing positions in Florida hospitals were vacant. While the data indicate some improvement, the nursing shortage is still at a critical level. Based on our sample of hospitals, we estimate there were 8,660 vacant RN positions in February 2002.
- Hospitals on the West Coast (Tampa Bay to Naples) experienced the greatest shortage with a 17 percent RN vacancy rate. Central Florida hospitals saw the most improvement with the RN vacancy rate falling from 17 percent to 9 percent in 2002.
- Telemetry/stepdown, critical care and medical/surgical were nursing areas with the highest vacancy rates. One-in-five telemetry RN positions, 17.2 percent of the critical care positions and 15.5 percent of the medical/surgical were unfilled at the time of the survey.
- The turnover rate, i.e. percentage of nurses leaving the hospital, fell to 18.6 percent from 20.5 percent the prior year, an indication that hospital retention strategies were having an impact. Turnover rates were highest for psychiatric and emergency nurses.
- Almost half of the hospitals indicated taking longer than 90 days to fill any vacant nursing position. Critical care and evening/night shifts were the hardest positions to fill.
- Hospitals participating in the FHA survey incurred $158.8 million in 2001 filling vacant nursing positions. Overtime was the most common method used to fill vacant positions, followed by contract/traveling nurses, per diem/in-house nursing pools and temporary agencies.
- Hospitals spent, on average, $226,000 in 2001 for nurse recruitment. One-half of the hospitals offered sign-on bonuses to attract nurses. Forty percent of the hospitals were recruiting foreign nurses to fill vacant positions, with most recruiting in the Philippines.
- Emergency department overcrowding was the most common impact of the nursing shortage. Almost one-third of the hospitals experienced increased patient complaints and ER diversions.
State and federal legislation passed during 2002 should help fund nurse training programs and other efforts to attract people to the nursing profession. Hospitals are actively involved in nursing education, providing scholarships and enhancing the image of nursing. State, federal and local efforts must continue so the needs of Florida’ s population can be met in the future.
Staff resources: Cathy Allman, VP/Nursing and Health Care Professionals, 407/841-6230, cathya@fha.org Kim Streit, VP/Health Care Research and Information, 407/841-6230, kims@fha.org Rich Rasmussen, VP/Legislative Affairs, 850/222-9800, rich@fha.orgDownload the full report here.
