By Tom Kendrot, Chief Executive Officer
Keeping track of 2024 nursing trends offers healthcare workers, hospitals, facilities and corporations, insights into future industry trends, patient-centered care advancements, and potential challenges, guiding informed company decisions and appropriate staffing alignment with evolving healthcare needs. Monitoring past and current nursing shortage statistics can play a major role in helping organizations adapt to the changing demands of quality care, healthcare delivery, and the high necessity to attract skilled nursing professionals.
2024 Nursing Shortage Statistics
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the United States’ employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 6% over the next decade, which equates to more than 200,000 annual job openings for registered nurses. This number is roughly twice as fast than the average of all occupations and contributes to the largest segment of the healthcare workforce. According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), there are currently over 4.7 million U.S. active nurses and 800,000 nurses predicted to be needed in the next five years – serving as a clear indication of the crucial need for skilled healthcare professionals.
Global Nursing Shortage Crisis
The nurse staffing crisis goes far beyond the United States. Although healthcare facilities around the world report different severities of nursing shortages, they all require an increase in the overall demand for nurses.
For instance, the United Kingdom has an estimated nurse shortage of 50,000 and has been dependent on contracting internationally educated nurses to meet this demand (National Institutes of Health). Kenya reports its nursing density to vary from 9.7 for every 10,000 people in Nairobi to as low as .1 in Mandara (National Institutes of Health). These regions are just two examples of how the 27 million globally registered nurses aren’t able to fulfill the necessary supply of healthcare workers and stresses the importance of exporting nursing talent globally (World Health Organization).
Nearing Retirement Age
The 6% employment increase is widely a result of the one million registered nurses predicted to retire from the U.S. workforce within the next decade. This future retirement is due to 20% of the nursing workforce turning 65 or older by 2030 (United States Census Bureau).
From a global standpoint, 17% of registered nurses are predicted to retire in the next decade, creating a need for 4.6 million nurses just to maintain the current workforce (International Council of Nurses). When looking forward to 2030, the International Council of Nurses estimates that 10.6 million nurses will be needed to achieve the World Health Organization’s target ratio of 34.5 nurses to every 10,000 people in our population. Reaching retirement age is a fact beyond anyone’s control; therefore, closing the future nursing shortage is dependent on what healthcare companies do today to take action.
Looking Ahead
The population nearing retirement age is only one factor that affects current nursing shortage statistics, but there are many more that overlap and interconnect from a global platform. Whether it’s nurse burnout, the adoption of artificial intelligence, or gaps in education, in the next few months I will continue exploring the various factors that contribute to this global issue. By doing so, as a healthcare organization we can carry the responsibility of investing in higher nurse retention to achieve a more capable health system and better care for patients globally.
