Study: Nursing supply projections much brighter today than 10 years ago

If nurses continue to enter the workforce at the current rate, the U.S. would have about 4% fewer registered nurses than needed by 2025, according to a study in the October issue of Medical Care. That’s a “remarkable turnaround” compared with the nearly 30% shortage predicted a decade ago, the authors said. “We still project the nation will have a shortage of around 130,000 nurses by 2025, which is by no means a small number, but not the overwhelming shortage that we had once anticipated,” said co-author Peter Buerhaus, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at Montana State University. Last December, the Health Resources and Services Administration projected a surplus of 340,000 nurses by 2025. “The key difference between our projections and HRSA’s lies in how each model projects net entry into the workforce,” the authors said.