Factors that may influence the supply and demand for nurses.
Migration
The movement of nurse’s especially young ones greatly influences the supply of nurses. The net movement of nurses from one state to another means shortages are experienced and this calls for new or more supplies. Out- migrations are the courses of shortages in nurses as the nurses move out from the state to other areas due to varied reasons.
Education
Studies in the labor market have revealed that nurses with higher levels of education are likely to stay in the labor force for a long time than those who are less educated. When the less educated nurses move out to pursue more education, this creates shortages in the labor market hence the need for supply. Age is also an important factor that comes in educational matters of nurses. This is a factor that has led to shortages in registered nurses in the United States. This is the case because there is a trend whereby people enter into this profession at an older age and they then offer few years of service. There are very few people willing to join the nursing profession For instance according to nationwide statistics the average age of practicing nursing is over 43 years. This has led to the increased demand for the registered nurses in most of the states.
There are problems with the various nursing schools such as salaries and shortage of qualified faculty that are a hindrance to enrollments. These eventually lead to the low supply of nurses in Texas.
Age the aging population of Texas State has been the driving force towards the increase in demand for more nurses and health care facilities. The supply of this need has not been adequately met by the concerned stakeholders leading to shortages.
Attrition
This refers to the process by which nurses permanently depart from the labor market. This can be due to factors such as death, disease, or natural calamities.
This leads to shortages in the labor market hence the demand for more nurses. It is expected that nurses of specific ages and education can leave the labor market in a given market and this has an impact on the supply of more nurses. Nurses who are aging and those who retire are on the increase and this has also meant that there is more demand for nurses in the coming years. According to Kristine,” The United States will need 1.2 million new nurses by 2014 to meet the growing demands of its aging population and to fill in for retiring health workers.” This is just an indicator of how attrition impacts the demand and supply of nurses in the United States.
New graduates
The increase in the number of graduates leaving the nursing school has an impact on the supply of nurses. Alternatives in professions have been on the increase. Men and women are opting other professions because of increased stress of work and search for better compensations. Therefore they are running away from the profession leading to shortages and thus more demand for nurses.
Salaries
This is an important factor that has led to the decline in the supply of nurses in Texas.
The complication of the paper work when it comes to payment of nurses salaries is also an issue that has frustrated many nurses leading to their departure from the profession.
For the past nine years the nurses have not seen an increase in their purchasing power and this has been further been impacted on by inflation.
Pay and salary structure of Nurses
The salary of nurses in Texas is determined by a number of factors.
One of the factors is experience which refers to the number of years a nurse has been in the profession. Those nurses with more experience earn more than those who are fresh from the nursing schools. The level of education is also a determining factor of the nurses pay. This comes in the sense that graduates from colleges are not paid more than their counterparts who have additional master’s degrees. The nurses in Texas are also ranked using a number of criteria into grades. There are nurses ranging from grade one to grade five. The higher the grade also means a higher salary.
In their salary structure the first grade of nurses are paid on average $66,774.
The highest grade of nurses in the fifth grade earn on average basic adjusted income of $116,334 The pay rates for most caregivers in nursing homes are normally determined by the government through its reimbursements. This is achieved through Medicaid and Medicare schemes. Insufficiency in the reimbursements has consequently resulted in understaffing in most nursing homes.
What should be done to increase the supply of nurses?
To prevent the deepening of the crisis that looms in the supply of nurses, a number of issues need to be addressed. The first major step should be increasing enrolments in the various training institutions so as to be able to meet the demands for nurses in Texas. Enrollments in the nursing schools can be increased by addressing problems such as salaries, lack of competitive faculty, and shortage of qualified faculty.
The capacities of these institutions should be increased for them to be able to increase the new admissions that will end up meeting the demands. The strategy of recruitment and retention can also work for Texas. This is whereby those who are already in the workforce should be encouraged to remain while those who have left be encouraged to re-enter the profession. This can be achieved through improvement of the working conditions and embracing education and development for the nurses. The structure of salaries for the nurses needs to be improved to make their pay attractive and this will see more people joining the profession.Since the governments determines what caregivers in nursing homes are paid through the reimbursements it should take measures to ensure that whatever they provide is adequate to cater for the needs of the nurses. This will help to prevent the nurses from moving away into other professions because of the work load and other frustrations that are associated with their type of work. Processes in the reimbursement industry should be made easy to prevent a lot of time wasted by the nurses while in pursuit of their pays. In short let the paper work be made easy for the nurses. This can be a major step towards reducing dissatisfaction in nurses especially those who wish to interact with patients and family members but are frustrated in the course of the jobs.
References
- Kristine L. Alave,US demand for nurses to rise in ’14
- Mankiw, N. G. (2004). Principles of economics (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: Thomson South-Western
- The Supply of and Demand for Registered Nurses and Nurse Graduates in Texas: Report to the 80th Texas Legislature, Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies. 2006. Web.