Workforce

As the population grows and ages, the demand for health care services increases. Health care providers are responding by adding and expanding facilities. However, the supply of health care professionals is not keeping pace with the demand. Texas still has a severe shortage of registered nurses, and a physician shortage is looming. The demand for various types of therapists as well as pharmacists and diagnostic technicians exceeds their availability, which drives up salaries. Higher education simply is not producing enough graduates to fill the vacant slots. Health care is a growth field, with jobs waiting for qualified people.

In 2005, Texas schools of nursing turned away more than 11,000 qualified applicants – potential nurses. To increase enrollments to meet the demand of applicant students, nursing schools need more faculty members. Low salaries are a barrier to increasing faculty. Nursing faculty positions offer very low pay compared to salaries earned by RNs working in clinical nursing. Nursing faculty salaries at community colleges and universities must be increased to retain existing faculty and attract new hires.

Labor unions are targeting Texas, and pushing legislation to create arbitrary staffing ratios of registered nurses to patients. Texas already has staffing guidelines – developed by the American Nurses Association – in the hospital licensing rules, which involve bedside nurses in making decisions about staffing levels. These guidelines offer flexibility and allow nurses to use their clinical judgment to adjust staffing to meet the needs of patients on a shift-by-shift basis, if necessary. This patient outcome-focused staffing system is considered a national model; in fact, even unionized nurses in other states are adopting the Texas model. A mandatory nurse staffing ratio will not solve the real problem:  the nursing shortage. Investing in higher education to expand nursing programs and graduate more nurses is the answer.