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Nursing shortage

News from the Colorado Health Foundation, May 24, 2007
New tool to address Colorado’s nursing shortage

With the Colorado nursing shortage twice the national average, addressing the need for more nurses is key to making Colorado a healthier state because of their critical role in delivering quality care. In order to graduate, every student nurse must train in a variety of clinical settings, also known as clinical rotations. Arranging clinical rotations for students is a challenge for most nursing schools. In addition to having more student nurses than rotations, until recently there was no centralized system to match students with these opportunities. And because the rotations are required, students are finding it difficult to complete their training in a timely manner.

To address this issue, The Colorado Health Foundation and the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence created the Colorado Nursing Clinical Placement Inventory and Matching System. The system is a web-based database designed to match nursing students with clinical opportunities. The initial database launched in January with 9,945 placement opportunities and has grown to more than 17,000 placements as other agencies have joined the program. [read more…]

Commentary - Nursing shortage a reality in Colorado: It will be much worse by 2020 if college programs can't grow, by Heather McGregor, Boulder Daily Camera, July 31, 2005
Health care is expensive today with a moderate nursing shortage. If the decline in qualified nurses isn't reversed, wage competition will make future health care costs skyrocket.