In retirement, Susan Frye looked forward to cruising the high
seas, spending more time in her garden and resting her weary body
from two demanding decades of work as a registered nurse.
In retirement, Susan Frye looked forward to cruising the high seas, spending more time in her garden and resting her weary body from two demanding decades of work as a registered nurse.
The physical and emotional demands of the job lead most registered nurses to retire in their 50s. Frye, at 63, could have retired years ago. But her body remained strong. So did her love for working in the neonatal intensive care unit at Sutter Memorial Hospital.
Then the economy soured, and her spirit was suddenly as deflated as her nest egg.
“By October and November of last year, the economy was just getting too scary,” she said. “Now, my retirement plans are in a state of flux.”
The recession has presented a peculiar silver lining for the health care industry by slowing retirement plans for a generation of nurses. Their departure from the profession could further deepen the industry’s chronic nursing shortage.
For years, hospitals across the country have braced for an exodus.
The average age of a working nurse in California is 47, with 45 percent over the age of 50, according to the California Institute for Nursing and Health Care.
More than one in 10 registered nurses working for Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region is over 60 years old, suggesting an imminent surge in retirements.
“People aren’t retiring because of the economy. All of a sudden, when the economy turns around, they’re all going to leave,” said Anette Smith-Dohring, the work force development manager for the regional health system.
“It’s going to be a huge problem,” she said. “We’re OK for today, but what will happen if that additional production in nurses isn’t there?”
The demand for nurses – health care workers, really – remains strong despite the weakened economy, partly because of the expected waves of baby boomers needing health services.
If successful, plans to overhaul the country’s health care system could mean millions of additional people seeking health care, particularly if the country’s 46 million uninsured – about 6 million in California – have improved access to health care.
What’s more, a state law passed by voters in 1999 imposed mandatory staffing levels that, in effect, increased the need for nurses. Ever since, the competition for experienced registered nurses has risen among private hospitals.
Salaries have risen, too. RN salaries in the Sacramento area typically start at $30 an hour, sometimes more. Experienced nurses earn more than $90,000 annually, some with six-figure salaries.
Because hospitals have not been immune to the travails of the economy, vacancies have declined. Some have slowed hiring.
Hospitals within Sutter Health’s local region, for example, have few vacancies – 46 open positions, representing a mere 2.3 percent of all registered nurses.
But the relative slowdown is temporary, most acknowledge.
“We don’t want to be lulled into a false sense of security. The shortage is still there,” although perhaps not as acute in the state’s larger cities, said Ann Stoltz, who heads the nursing division at California State University, Sacramento.
Just three years ago, some nurses received signing bonuses, she said.
The problem isn’t lack of interest in a profession that provides a decent wage, said Sandra Kirschenmann, vice chancellor for resource development for the Los Rios Community College District.
Nursing schools can’t keep up with the demand – from potential students seeking admission and from hospitals needing to fill vacancies now and into the future.
“What will that tidal wave of retirements produce when it comes? We know it’s coming. I think we would have been seeing it now, if not for the recession,” Kirschenmann said.
“We have no shortage of students who want in,” she added.
Sacramento City College turns away 900 applicants every year and American River College, which also has a nursing program, turns away hundreds more. College counselors often suggest students look into other in-demand health careers, such as physical therapy, dental hygiene and pharmacy technology.
Six years ago, the district partnered with Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra, which provided $16.8 million in funding, to expand the nursing program at Sacramento City College. The partnership about tripled the program’s capacity from about 35 students annually to roughly 100 as part of a six-year goal to add 500 new registered nurses to the work force.
“We’ll see a big need, and we have to really look into this. We need more funding for nursing education,” said Geri Jenkins, a San Diego registered nurse and co-president of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
In 2005, California officials, using the Sutter and Los Rios partnership as a model, began a five-year program to increase the number of registered nurses in California. The state invested $90 million to expand nursing programs at schools across the state.
Last month, the state announced that it would provide $60 million more to extend the program for another five years.
State officials say the program boosted the work force, and the state now has 647 registered nurses for every 100,000 people, up from 589. Still, the state lags behind the country, which has 825 registered nurses per 100,000, according to the state’s work force development agency. Other groups report similar statistics.
Only Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah ranked lower, according to the Kaiser Family Health Foundation. Four years ago, the state was at the bottom. In comparison, Massachusetts and South Dakota each have 1,214 registered nurses per 100,000.
The trouble is in recruiting classroom instructors. Schools, unable to compete with the salaries of working nurses, are challenged in luring nurses to lead classrooms because the incentive to teach isn’t as lucrative as working in a hospital ward.
Michael Benavidez, 27, of Sacramento, saw nursing as an opportunity to better provide for his family.
Benavidez started as a pot washer at Sutter Memorial’s kitchen before landing a job on its lift team, a back-straining job assisting medical staff with moving patients into beds and wheelchairs. A nurse suggested he apply for the Sutter-Sacramento City College program.
“I was pretty much hired before I graduated. I always knew I had a job waiting for me,” he said.
That wasn’t the case when Frye began her career a quarter-century ago. Unable to find a good job at a hospital, she worked for an allergist in private practice.
“It was hard to find a job in those days,” she said. “Can you believe there were too many nurses? That is so hard to believe right now.”
