Blue
Ribbon Panel Calls For Immediate Action to Address the
Nursing Shortage in the Face of a Demographic Shift
AACN Asked to Take a Lead Role and Convene a National
Panel
WASHINGTON,
D.C., May 24, 2001 -- Shifts in U.S. demographics coupled
with a decrease in the supply of professional caregivers will
deny many citizens access to nursing care, according to a
new report released by the Nursing Institute of the University
of Illinois at Chicago. These demographic changes projected
over the next three decades will create a genuine crisis unless
the number of people in the nursing profession grows in proportion
to the rising elderly population.
"America
will face a health care crisis that will strike with full
force by 2010, and continue many years thereafter," explains
former Labor Secretary Lynn Martin who chaired the blue ribbon
panel that produced the report, Who Will Care for Each
of Us? America's Coming Health Care Crisis. "America
will not have enough health care workers, particularly nursing
care workers, to care for the people who will need it most:
every senior citizen."
The report specifically recommends that the
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) take a
lead role in helping to identify the educational standards
needed to professionalize the practice of nursing. The report
calls for the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Health
and Human Services to collaborate with AACN to convene a national
panel to examine education and training requirements for all
nursing care occupations. This panel would provide specific
recommendations on education, training, and professional development
for different levels of nursing care providers.
"AACN
welcomes the opportunity to open a national dialogue on setting
educational standards needed to define nursing as a profession,"
states Dr. Carolyn A. Williams, AACN President and Dean of
the University of Kentucky School of Nursing. "Creating
clarity about the educational requirements for professional
practice will enhance our efforts to recruit the best and
brightest into nursing and define nursing as a career destination
of choice."
Charged with starting a national dialogue on
the graying of the health care labor force including nurses,
the panel led a year-long effort to quantify the emerging
crisis and make recommendations to ensure that the U.S. health
care system is ready to meet the rise in demand for care.
The final report indicates that between the years 2010 and
2030, the ratio of potential caregivers to the people most
likely to need care will decrease by approximately 40 percent.
Framing the issue are the following statistics:
Between the years of 2010 and 2030, the proportion
of the U.S. population age 65 or older will increase from
13% to 20% which represents an increase of 30 million people.
At the same time, the number of people aged 85 and older,
the group most likely to need the highest level of continuous
care, will increase by more than 4 million.
During the same time span, the U.S. will experience
more than a 6% decline in the proportion of people aged 18-24,
the group that has traditionally cared for the elderly members
of society.
With
enrollments at nursing schools now in a six-year decline,
the fact that there will be an even smaller pool of potential
students is cause for alarm. " At no time, has America
ever been forced to find solutions beyond traditional changes
in supply," states Mary Jo Snyder, Director of the Nursing
Institute. "If America waits until this peak shortage
hits, the basics of health care delivery will be lost -- the
hands-on caregiver."
Other
recommendations made in the report to address the coming crisis
include taking steps to improve access to adequate education
and training for nurses; create a more professional and desirable
work environment for all nurse care providers; increase wages
and benefits to successfully recruit and retain nurses; and
provide relevant data and research support related to health
care labor issues.
This
report marks the end of a year-long process and the beginning
of a call to action that must involve both public and private
stakeholders. "This is only the beginning of what must
be a concerted effort," adds Martin. "We all must
be able to responsibly say, not just to our children's generation,
but to our parent's generation as well, that we will be ready
to provide basic and fundamental care so that all Americans
can age with dignity and pride."
This project was made possible with generous
support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Illinois. The final report is available online
from kaisernetwork.org at the following Web addess: http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=213.
The American Association of
Colleges of Nursing is the national voice for university and
four-year-college education programs in nursing. Representing
more than 570 member schools of nursing at public and private
institutions nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental
advocacy, data collection, publications, and other programs
work to establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement
those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve
health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate and
graduate nursing education, research, and practice. See http://www.aacn.nche.edu.
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CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
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