We were dismayed to read a news story last week that refers to California’s “severe nursing shortage.”
It’s dismaying not only because of what it means for healthcare, but because such shortages have plagued the state for years.
These persistent shortages upend a key state priority: expanding healthcare to more residents.
There is a shortage of nurses – so much so that it has strained the ability of some hospitals to provide necessary care.
As nurses reach retirement age or leave the profession, California expects a shortage of 61,000 nurses by 2035. Here’s what’s really frustrating, though: There are plenty of qualified young people who want to become nurses.
We have a system that can’t get prospective students trained and certified. As the Los Angeles Times reported, “There is enormous demand for nurses … But despite tens of thousands of students vying to get into nursing programs, schools can’t accommodate the demand.” The article noted one major nursing program has an admission rate of only 3.3%. California mandates 500 hours of clinical training, but hospitals won’t accept sufficient placements.
There’s demand and supply, but a system that resembles an hourglass. It’s primarily a state regulatory problem.
Instead of expanding nursing slots, the state board has limited the number of nursing slots for private colleges out of a misguided sense of fairness. It should instead incentivize nursing programs and clinical placements for every type of school, not pick winners and losers.
The Newsom administration has diverted additional taxpayer dollars to community-college programs, which isn’t an entirely bad idea. In 2007, the Legislative Analyst’s Office called for the Legislature to “provide bonus funding to nursing programs that increase completion rates, and amending statute to allow for merit-based admissions policies.” The state then shifted to a merit-based admissions system rather than its absurd lottery system.
Educators have pointed to a variety of partial solutions, such as increasing simulations to fill a lack of clinical-training openings.
At the very least, lawmakers ought to focus on expanding nurse-training opportunities before they embrace high-profile efforts to expand subsidized healthcare.