U.S. nursing crisis is in remission, for now

WASHINGTON —  For more than a decade as she raised two children, Sue Estes heard one story after another about how hospitals desperately needed nurses.

They were getting signing bonuses, their pay was soaring to levels unheard of during Estes’ years as a nurse, and bulging benefit packages included 401(k)s. This year, ready to return to work, she hears a different story.

“I’ve shipped out resumes everywhere, and I’m not even getting the courtesy callbacks,” said Estes, 43. “All my friends can’t believe it. They’ve read the stories about the shortage, and they say, ‘Places are begging for nurses!’ ”

The economic downturn has put a Band-Aid on one of the most vexing problems in healthcare.

With some nurses postponing retirement and others resuming their careers for financial reasons, many hospitals say they have few, if any, openings. After more than a decade when hospitals struggled to maintain sufficient staffing and when nurses could have their pick of jobs, the want ads have virtually disappeared, and only acute-care and emergency-room nurses remain in demand.

Estes’ resume includes experience in acute care and a neurosurgical unit, and she said she had kept up with the profession and taken a refresher course to prepare for her return.

“I’ve actually been shocked that some places wouldn’t even talk to me,” she said.

Estes, who decided to volunteer in a hospital while she tries to land work, is typical of nursing applicants who are returning to work in recent months.

“We started to see a real uptick in January, February and March,” said Skip Margot, vice president of patient care services at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, Md. “We’re seeing more men and women who are well-seasoned in their career. Their spouse now being out of work or the children now grown, they’re willing to take a refresher course and work modified hours.”

Margot has a handful of openings on a staff of more than 800 nurses.

Bob McWhirt, vice president for patient care, described a similar situation at Calvert Memorial Hospital in Owings, Md. “In medical and surgical, I have absolutely zero openings,” he said. “In 20 years of doing this, I’ve never been able to say that.”

Tammy Frankauski, a mother of three, said the economic downturn motivated her to return to full-time work as a nurse.

“We’ve got college costs in three years and our retirement plans are losing money,” said Frankauski, who had been working part time. “It’s easier to keep ahead than risk falling behind, and you want to be prepared in case anything happens.”

The good news for Estes -- and the bad news for the healthcare system -- is that this is “a blip when the [bad] economy masks the true nursing shortage,” said Nicholas Piazza, who recruits at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, Md., and works with the Maryland Assn. for Health Care Recruitment.

The nursing shortage has been a chronic national challenge. The problem appeared under control in the mid-1990s but resurfaced by the end of the decade and steadily became more severe.

“There was a time when most hospitals, if you had a pulse and a [nursing] license, they would give you a job,” Margot said.

With the growth of the U.S. population outpacing projections and increasing health demands among aging baby boomers, federal experts had forecast that the nursing shortage would grow to 275,000 by 2010 and to 1 million in the decade that followed.

The economic incentive that has swollen the nursing workforce during the recession seems certain to evaporate when the economy rebounds, throwing the healthcare system deeper than ever into crisis. Nurses who have delayed retirement are expected to leave the profession in droves, along with those who returned to work to stave off economic distress.

“I’m going to be in for 12 months of happy,” McWhirt said. “And then the problem will be back.”