America’s persistent nursing shortage reached a dramatic new inflection point earlier this year when 7,000 New York City nurses went on strike, alleging that their hospitals are so short staffed they’re unsafe. New York’s strike comes on the heels of 714 strikes or labor actions from healthcare personnel over the past two years, many centered around inadequate staffing and pay. In a 2022 survey, more than 90 percent of nurses reported staffing shortages at their organizations.
A 2021 study of New York state hospitals — where nurses were assigned an average of 6.3 patients each — found that each patient added to a nurse’s load was associated with higher rates of in-hospital mortality, longer lengths of stay and higher rates of readmission. Staffing ratios of 4:1 saved an estimated 4,370 lives and $720 million over two years.
Three main factors contribute to the current nursing shortage: demographics, educational pipelines and working conditions. Stereotypes of nursing as a woman’s profession — an example of occupational segregation — mean men are less likely to pursue nursing, while the expansion of professional opportunities for women throughout the 20th century further lessened the pool of available workers. Today, the aging of the Baby Boomer generation and innovations in medical science to extend lives also mean that the nation requires more care. The nursing workforce itself is increasingly nearing retirement, while not enough new nurses are entering the workforce. In 1978, 45 percent of nurses were between the ages of 18 and 34; in 2021, that number was only 29 percent.