JOPLIN, Mo. - Dottie Bringle entered the medical field in 1984, and she says there has not been a time since when there wasn't a shortage of nurses.
Bringle, now vice president of patient care services for St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, said she has a nursing staff of more than 600 full-time people. She hired 56 new nurses last year, and still had15 openings at the beginning of this year.
Jamie Hirshey, retention and turnover coordinator for Freeman Health System, said that at any given time, the hospital has 25 to 30 open nursing positions.
"We have more than 800 on our nursing staff," Hirshey said. "We're very fortunate to have so many wonderful nursing programs in our area, but there are still never enough nurses."
Hirshey said the need for nurses is so great that any time the hospital wants to expand, it has to consider where the nursing staff will come from so it can offer the expanded services and still make up for the decline in staff from those who retire or switch jobs.
Bringle said finding enough nurses to treat an aging baby boomer generation is increasingly difficult because more and more nurses also are falling into that category. She said the hospital's average age for nurses before the new hires started was 48; now, it's down to 43.
Hirshey, with Freeman, and Brenda Kaiser, director of human resources for McCune-Brooks Hospital in Carthage, have similar average ages for their nursing staff. They said experienced nurses are increasingly being drawn to other professions or are taking early retirement.
"They are almost a dwindling species," Hirshey said. "When that group retires, it will have a tremendous impact on nursing."
Kaiser said McCune-Brooks now has one nursing position open in a department of 102 registered nurses. But she is concerned about the number of nurses who will be reaching retirement age right at the time the hospital is expanding into obstetrics and rehabilitation and will need more staff nurses than ever.
Bringle said that nationwide, the projected amount of time that a nursing position will be vacant is up to 149 days, and the national turnover rate is 22 percent. The cause of the shortage, she said, was a decreased number of students graduating from nursing programs until the 1990s, when hospitals began a concerted effort to recruit and train more nurses.
Bringle, now vice president of patient care services for St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, said she has a nursing staff of more than 600 full-time people. She hired 56 new nurses last year, and still had15 openings at the beginning of this year.
Jamie Hirshey, retention and turnover coordinator for Freeman Health System, said that at any given time, the hospital has 25 to 30 open nursing positions.
"We have more than 800 on our nursing staff," Hirshey said. "We're very fortunate to have so many wonderful nursing programs in our area, but there are still never enough nurses."
Hirshey said the need for nurses is so great that any time the hospital wants to expand, it has to consider where the nursing staff will come from so it can offer the expanded services and still make up for the decline in staff from those who retire or switch jobs.
Bringle said finding enough nurses to treat an aging baby boomer generation is increasingly difficult because more and more nurses also are falling into that category. She said the hospital's average age for nurses before the new hires started was 48; now, it's down to 43.
Hirshey, with Freeman, and Brenda Kaiser, director of human resources for McCune-Brooks Hospital in Carthage, have similar average ages for their nursing staff. They said experienced nurses are increasingly being drawn to other professions or are taking early retirement.
"They are almost a dwindling species," Hirshey said. "When that group retires, it will have a tremendous impact on nursing."
Kaiser said McCune-Brooks now has one nursing position open in a department of 102 registered nurses. But she is concerned about the number of nurses who will be reaching retirement age right at the time the hospital is expanding into obstetrics and rehabilitation and will need more staff nurses than ever.
Bringle said that nationwide, the projected amount of time that a nursing position will be vacant is up to 149 days, and the national turnover rate is 22 percent. The cause of the shortage, she said, was a decreased number of students graduating from nursing programs until the 1990s, when hospitals began a concerted effort to recruit and train more nurses.
Bringle, Hirshey and Kaiser agreed that the need for nurses in the Joplin area isn't going away. They said those entering the field should have job security for a long time.
"As this area continues to grow and we're seeing the hospitals grow, we're also seeing secondary agencies coming up," Hirshey said. "Long-term care facilities and in-home health care agencies keep coming up and are just another competitor for us (for nursing staff). It just means more job stability for nurses in this area."
Melissa Dunson writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.
100 percent placement
Pat Hurley, director of career services for Missouri Southern State University, said the school surveys all of its nursing students one year after graduation to track job-placement rates.
For 2004-05, the most recent data available, job placement for the 47 nursing graduates was 100 percent. Most of those students went to hospitals in southwest and central Missouri, Hurley said.
During the school's annual job fair, 20 percent to 25 percent of the employers in the health-care field were looking for applicants even before they graduated, Hurley said
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