Addressing Health Care Staffing Needs In Louisiana (Download as a PDF)

The Issue

Louisiana is facing a workforce crisis in health care.  Many factors have contributed to the shortage that now affects many of the allied health professions.  Most troubling and pervasive is the shortage of registered nurses needed to deliver quality care on the front lines of the communities we serve.

Factors contributing to the growing workforce shortage include an aging workforce with few new nurses entering the profession to replace those who are retiring or leaving; and job dissatisfaction factors such as inadequate staffing, heavy workloads and the increased use of overtime.

According to the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1.2 million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2014 to meet the nationwide demand.
Louisiana’s shortage of trained nurses has been substantially worsened by the loss of over 1,200 registered nurses in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina & Rita.

Recently, the Louisiana Legislature requested that the LSU Board of Regents work with the state’s nursing boards to study the feasibility of expanding nursing programs to alleviate the nursing shortage in Louisiana.

It is clear that we must continue to approach the problem from two directions– recruitment and retention. Solving the problems contributing to this shortage requires a broad solution addressing multiple factors in the health care delivery system.

The CHRISTUS Health Position: Support full funding for nurse training, education and recruitment.
The public will be significantly impacted by the current and impending nurse shortages.  CHRISTUS Health advocates for a strong state commitment to increase funding for undergraduate and graduate nursing and allied health professional education, training and faculty development, augmented by adequate reimbursement to help attract and retain the most qualified caregivers.
CHRISTUS Health urges the state of Louisiana to continue to appropriate funding to implement work force programs to address this crisis and to fully support schools of nursing by providing faculty and updated curricula, to recruit a more diverse student population; and provide assistance to students to enable them to complete their studies.

April 2007