IA Groups Attacking the Looming Nursing Shortage
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May 13, 2009
Des Moines, IA – As the Baby Boomers age, more nurses will be retiring. At the same time, more Iowans will need health care services provided by nurses. The coming nursing shortage has alarmed a coalition of health, labor and government groups, and they are banding together to find a solution.
One of those groups is Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa. The organization's chief public affairs officer, Julie Stauch, says nurses are really health instructors who provide a tremendous service to health-care providers like Planned Parenthood.
"They teach patients and clients how to be as healthy as they can be, and a lot of what we do at Planned Parenthood is about education."
Stauch says the shortage will become acute within five years, so the coalition is working on retaining what nurses Iowa has now, since most nurses leave the profession within 15 years. Another critical step, she adds, is dealing with a shortage of nurse educators.
"You can't train more kids at the college level if you don't have the teacher there to do the training. So we need more nurse educators - that would be a big step toward solving the problem."
Unless effective strategies are put in place, Stauch warns, the nursing shortage could soon affect every Iowan in one capacity or another.