approaches to daily problem-solving as well as ongoing
education. They also will craft internal training and
development messaging to mirror that found on social
media, the Millennial’s “home away from home.”
This generation is more likely to seek new
opportunities and is unafraid to change jobs frequently,
so ramping up engagement strategies is a good buffer
to ward off early exits (How Will Millennials Change
the Healthcare Workforce?, n.d.).
The Nursing Shortage: Problematic, But
Not Universal
Combating the nursing shortage has been a rallying cry
in the halls of healthcare C-suites for some years now.
Is this a national problem, as some believe, or is it more
localized? It’s both, thanks to a series of factors that
include the Great Recession of 2008 and the aging
Baby Boomer population (Gray, 2014).
Here’s how it looks now: The Association of
periOperative Nurses says that about half of nurses in
that specialty are 50 or older (Bacon, 2016). According
to Health Affairs, some 60,000 RNs have left the
workforce every year since 2012, a number expected
to swell to more than 70,000 by 2020—that same year
Baby Boomer-age RNs will be around 660,000, half of
what they were in 2008 (Buerhaus, Auerbach, &
Staiger, 2017).
More older nurses are continuing to stay on the floor,
or in administrative positions, well into what used to be
the norm for retirement. Many are working well past
age 60—leading to a glut in some markets when it
comes to job availability. That’s because in many cases
their retirement savings got hit in the recession, so
those nurses need to work a few more years to restock
their accounts. Also, even as healthcare systems cut
back in the face of uncertainty around the future of the
Affordable Care Act and other governmental factors,
they’re not trimming nurses. Rather, they are looking at
cuts in other staff areas, as well as some clinical services.
Still, any nursing surplus is very much a short-term
situation. According to the American Nurses
Association, the average age of employed RNs is close
to 44 years old, and those less than 30 years old are
only 10 percent of the total working nurse population
(Lagasse, 2017). That means that a retirement wave is
coming, one that will have great impact regardless of
where a healthcare system is located. In the meantime,
younger nurses are being encouraged to consider
relocating to a market where the need is greater. For
instance, states on both coasts are projected to have a
growing shortage over the next decade, while mid-
country states such as Ohio are looking at a surplus for
that same time period (“How Will the Nursing
Shortage Affect Your State,” 2017).
Retirement Conundrum: Who’s Going to Replace
Current Healthcare Leaders?
Many nurses older than 60 are retiring, and they are
joined by administrators in every other aspect of
healthcare. When these people head out the door, they
are taking their vast institutional knowledge with them.
Are there strong replacements waiting in the wings?
And if that pipeline isn’t robust enough, where will the
next generation of leaders come from? Operationally
speaking, C-suite exits are creating gaps in
“Despite the bad rap they get, or maybe because of it, Millennials
are not shy about the positives they bring to the workforce. They
are self-confident, and firmly believe in the value they provide.”