Aging Out?Will the rising
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Aging Out?Will the rising
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By
Jane Erwin An upcoming report from the American Nurses Association found the average age of RNs is 44. In the West-South-Central region (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) sampled in the report, 65 percent of nurses are 30 to 49 years old and 20 percent are age 50 to 64. "There definitely is an increase in the average age of all nurses, and perioperative nurses are about one to two years older than that," said certified operating room nurse Patricia Siefert, MSN, RN, president-elect of the Association of Operating Room Nurses. The AORN estimates there are about 86,000 OR nurses nationwide. Experience and training Siefert said it has always been a challenge for nurses to get OR experience. "Decades ago, nursing schools included perioperative skills in their courses, but that hasn’t been the case for a long time," said Siefert, who as a certified registered nurse first assistant has two decades of nursing experience in heart surgery. To help increase the number of operating room nurses, the AORN has started a perioperative training program and offers a package of materials to hospitals to teach nurses necessary skills. Siefert said the coursework portion can take up to six months to complete, and six to 12 months of clinical training is needed to become adequately trained for OR nursing. Nurses already in specialized areas who wish to make the move into the perioperative arena can do so with only minimal additional training, which Siefert said could be one way to address an impending OR nurse shortage. Nurses working in the emergency room or critical care, for example, are prime candidates for OR work. "They understand the critical nature of things changing quickly. It takes maybe six months to pick up the technical skills, like sterilization." Siefert said. "A lot of it is applying basic skills to patient needs, such as assessing the range of motion of a patient with arthritis or putting extra padding around an elderly patient with thin skin who will have to lie still a long time." Demand exceeds supply Sara Foer, spokesperson for the American Nurses Association (ANA), said the organization is aware that many current OR nurses will soon be aging out of the profession, creating a need for nurses to take their place. "It’s worrisome as we look at a possible shortage," Foer said. "Nursing organizations are trying to recruit more people into the profession, and the ANA is encouraging student nurses to join their state organizations. We know the need for nurses is there and will continue to be strong." Despite a possible dearth of qualified OR nurses, at least one healthcare recruiter isn’t too worried. "As all nursing executives know, the nursing shortage is an ongoing cycle that repeats itself every 10 years or so, swinging from oversupply of nurses to shortage," said recruiter Melody Oie, MS, RN, of Southern Healthcare Recruiters in Fort Myers Beach, Fla. "We are in a time frame where the demand is exceeding the supply. This is evidenced by today’s sign-on bonuses, which are running in the $5,000 range, or more." Oie said one reason for the shortage is that younger nurses are placing more emphasis on their personal and family lives. They want "normal" daytime hours without the demands of being on call on nights and weekends or even of working regular shifts during those hours. The experienced nurses are moving into positions as case managers and educators with more predictable Monday through Friday, 8-to-4:30 schedules, said Oie, who, with a background in critical care nursing and 20 years’ experience, worked her way up from a staff nursing position to chief nursing officer. Education imbalance? Oie said another concern is the education level of the experienced OR nurses, especially when it comes to finding candidates for management-level positions. "Overall, the trend in nursing has been to emphasize higher levels of education, with a strong preference, if not requirement, for a master’s degree for any management-level position," she said. "In some hospitals, ORs do not report to the nursing division," Oie said. "In those cases, there has been considerably less emphasis on postgraduate education. [Some] experienced OR nurses and nurse managers may not even have a bachelor’s degree. Therefore, there are few OR nurse managers who have both the education and the experience that are being demanded in our current healthcare climate." Siefert said the AORN is hopeful about the future of OR nursing, however, as the organization is seeing more interest from nursing students about operating room careers. And the OR should continue to attract nurses who work well in a team setting, she said. "There are many positive attributes of the younger generation coming up—they are focused, have professional desire, want to help and make a difference, and they have a great deal of computer knowledge, which is very helpful in the OR," Siefert said. "Someone once said surgery is the ultimate team sport, and that’s true," Siefert said. "The OR is a marvelous learning lab for teamwork, knowledge, and technology skills." |
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