New York, NY –
Nursing shortages persist across New York, but the state as a whole is a little better than the national average. Cindy Levernois helped write a new report for the Healthcare Association of New York State and found that vacant positions declined slightly over the last year.
LEVERNOIS: Nurses that may have been ready to retire, now are delaying their retirement as are others in many different fields. So, we see a little bit of a dip. What we’re fearful of is that people will think the shortage is actually easing and that there isn’t a shortage.
REPORTER: New York City, however, has gotten a little worse, with a nine percent vacancy rate, versus seven percent state-wide and eight percent nationally. Levernois says the nursing work force is growing about 20 times more slowly than necessary to keep up with a growing population and retiring Baby Boomers.
Fred Mogul has been covering healthcare and medicine for WNYC since 2002. His beat takes him to hospitals, community clinics, doctors offices, health agencies, public schools and research labs across the metropolitan area. His work has appeared on NPR and in the New York Times, Time magazine and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.
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