Brewer CS, Kovner C; Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy. Meeting.

Abstr Acad Health Serv Res Health Policy Meet. 2000; 17: UNKNOWN.

Presented by: Carol S Brewer, Ph.D., R.N., Assistant Professor, SUNY Buffalo School of Nursing, 912 Kimball Tower, Buffalo, NY 14214. Tel: 716-829-3241; Fax 716-829-2021: E-mail: csbrewer@buffalo.edu.

Research Objective: Registered nurses, educators, employers and policy makers are interested in assessments of the current balance in the supply and demand. In addition, many state governments acknowledge that access to quality health care can not be achieved without an adequate supply of registered nurses. The purpose of this report was to assess and evaluate the availability of the existing sources of data and their usefulness in describing and understanding the workforce dynamics of RNs in New York State. Study Design: The study examined and analyzed data from: the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses 1996 (NSSRN); the National League for Nurses (NLN); the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN); the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment Survey (OES) and the Employer Survey 202 (ES202)); and the NYS Institutional Cost Reports for Hospitals and Healthcare Institutions (ICRHHI). We also reviewed data from other current studies, examined want ads, and conducted focus groups in NYC and Western New York. Population Studied: Registered nurses and health care employers in New York State.Principal Findings: The health care environment in New York State is changing rapidly, particularly in the hospital sector. Hospitals are having significant difficulty financially due to the Balanced Budget Act and state legislation. However, in 1996 fifty-nine percent of working RNs were still employed in hospitals. At the same time about 13% worked in public/community health, 10% in nursing homes, and almost 7% in ambulatory care. Thus, hospitals continue to be the dominant influence on demand for RNs.In 1998 the ES202 showed positive real wage gains for all health care, of 1.1%, and 0.5% in hospitals, after 2 years of negative real wage growth and declining employment from 1989 to 1996. ICRHH data for RN wages available through 1997 showed real wage increases in hospitals in Greater New York, Western, and Central New York after generally negative or flat growth for several years. The supply of NYS RNs is likely to decrease over the next few years due to recent decreases in admissions and enrollments in nursing programs, and in licensed nurses. Evidence exists that the aging of RNs and retirement patterns will be major influences on the future supply of RNs in NYS. Demand is outstripping the supply for experienced nurses with critical care, emergency room, operating room, and labor and delivery skills. There is some variation by region. Evidence for these findings is based on: 1) ease with which new graduates are finding employment; 2) organizations offering sign-on bonuses; 3) anecdotal and news reports; 4) focus group reports, and 5) surveys of employers which indicate difficulty hiring RNs. Adequate data does not exist to evaluate growth in wages or employment for these specific groups.Conclusions: Funding changes that effect hospital financial viability will significantly influence the balance of supply and demand. Data issues for the state include lags in data reporting and lack of regularly collected, recent data on either RNs or their employment patterns. Data are often not available for a year or more. Additional information, such as want ad indexes, vacancy rates or the unemployment rate of RNs are not available. Current shortages are relatively localized and moderate in severity, and if hospitals achieve sufficient financial relief politically they may abate. However, in the long term the issues are more severe.Implications for Policy, Delivery or Practice * A major initiative should be directed at shortening the market's reaction time by improving the adequacy of data about RNs and their work patterns and to increase public knowledge of these data trends. Other policy considerations include those directed at increasing the long term supply of RNs and better matching the supply for RNs to the demand for RNs: Funding Source: Supported by the New York State Nurses Association

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Administrative Personnel
• Case-Control Studies
• Data Collection
• Demography
• Employment
• Environment
• Forecasting
• Hospitals
• Income
• New York
• Nurses
• Nursing Homes
• Personnel Selection
• Retirement
• Salaries and Fringe Benefits
• methods
• nursing
• supply & distribution
• hsrmtgs

Other ID:

• GWHSR0001094

UI: 102272768

From Meeting Abstracts