Comstock's magazine 1217 - December 2017 | Page 78

HEALTH CARE
THE PULSE OF NURSING
The nursing industry in the Capital Region
is facing two simultaneous challenges.
The first is a population that will re-
quire more nursing care to serve the “sil-
ver tsunami,” a term describing aging baby
boomers, and their medical and economic
ramifications. A report from the Health
Force Center at UC San Francisco high-
lights a 12-17 percent increase in the de-
mand for California primary care clinicians
by 2030.
The second challenge is the simultane-
ous impact of baby-boomer nurses retiring.
In 2016, the average age of a licensed vo-
cational nurse was 57. “Roughly 100,000
nurses are retiring in the next 10 years,”
says Heather Young, dean of the Betty Irene
Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis.
IS THE REGION READY?
Local experts have expressed cautious
optimism about the ability to replace
retirees with new nurses in Northern
California.
“Because of enrollment numbers, we
have a good sense that we’ll meet the
number of the future nurses needed here,”
says Young. She stresses that concern
about nursing disparities is less about the
numbers and more about distribution, say-
ing there are more nurses in urban areas
and shortages in rural regions.
There are, however, government pro-
grams in place to incentivize nurses to
consider employment in rural areas. The
NURSE Corps Scholarship Program pro-
vides funding to nurses for tuition, fees and
other related costs. In return, the nurses
commit to working at a facility with work-
force shortages upon graduation.
Staffing needs are also predicted in
specialty areas that require intensive ed-
ucation and experience. “We’re doing fine
with access to well-trained nurses, except
in specialty areas,” says Josh Freilich, vice
president and chief nurse executive with
Dignity Health Mercy Hospital of Folsom.
“Especially in labor and delivery, operat-
ing rooms, emergency departments and
intensive care.”
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DEVELOPING THE
WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW
Specialized nurses are highly trained, and
their positions require specific education.
Hospitals train staff who want to advance
their careers, which is time-consuming
and expensive.
To promote nurses from within, Digni-
ty Health builds training programs across
its hospitals that involve nurse develop-
ment, education and mentorship. “We pair
the clinical experts with new staff to orient
them to the unit, the patient care, and real-
ly serve as a key mentor to them on a daily
basis,” Freilich says.
Dignity Health has also transitioned to
emphasizing interactive technology in ed-
ucating nurses. Freilich says the software
is so sophisticated that it senses when
nurses are delivering oxygen in the right
sequence and compression at the right
tempo. They also use web-based educa-
tion platforms that nurses can access any-
where, allowing them to more convenient-
ly complete training.
Jim D’Alfonso, the executive director
of the Kaiser Permanente Nurse Scholars
Academy, notes that Kaiser Permanente
has created programs for nurses at every
stage of development: residency, new or
career transitions, managers, directors
and nurse executive fellows. “Our commit-
ment is to create the environment and pro-
vide opportunities so nurses stay for their
professional careers,” he says.
In 2015, Kaiser Permanente launched
the Nurse Scholars Academy, a region-
wide program that partners with local
nursing schools to conduct two innovative,
clinical-immersion experiences focused on
developing a better-prepared and more di-
verse nursing workforce.
Kaiser Permanente offers an operating
room clinical immersion program. Partic-
ipating nursing students work alongside
the operating room team, attend lectures
by experts and use virtual reality to en-
hance their learning.
Leaders from across the fields of
health, education and workforce devel-
opment have come together to form the