Nursing vacancies drop as recession persists
Regional turnover rates are lower, but more than 400 open jobs indicate a continued shortage.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The region's downshifting economy is reducing turnover among local hospitals' nurses. In some cases, it's even giving hospitals a reprieve from a chronic nursing shortage.
Miami Valley Hospital's vacancy rate for registered nurses is less than 1 percent, the lowest in at least a decade, said Bill Linesch, vice president of human resources for Premier Health Partners, the hospital's parent. The vacancy rate at another
Premier hospital, Good Samaritan, is below 5 percent.
The vacancy rate is the percentage of budgeted, unfilled open positions. A couple years ago, Miami Valley's vacancy rate was more than 10 percent.
Nurses whose families have been affected by large-scale layoffs are working more hours; others are delaying retirement after recent stock market declines depleted their 401(k) retirement accounts, Linesch said. Still others are reentering the work force.
Kettering and Grandview medical centers have had vacancy rates below 1 percent for the past two years, said Brenda Kuhn, chief nursing officer for Kettering Health Network, the hospitals' parent. She sees no nursing shortage.
"I think you'll see turnover rates drop lower," Kuhn said.
At the Children's Medical Center of Dayton, the turnover rate among nurses was 5.2 percent for the first two quarters of the current fiscal year, down from 6.8 percent the previous fiscal year, said Renae Phillips, chief nurse executive.
"We have a lot of employees whose family members have been affected by the downturn," Phillips said. "People aren't as eager to change positions."
The Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center's turnover rate has steadily declined from 11.2 percent in June 2006 to 7 percent in September 2008.
Hospital executives agree a chronic nursing shortage still looms. Bryan Bucklew of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association said the region's hospitals still have more than 400 open positions for registered nurses. And many nurses are nearing retirement.
The situation seems local, with hospitals as close as Cincinnati still hungry for nurses, said Theresa Haghnazarian of Miami Valley College of Nursing & Health at Wright State University.
Some members of Wright State's November class of nursing graduates have found it a challenge to land their first job choice, whereas graduates a couple years ago had their pick of several jobs, Haghnazarian said.
"You may have to pay your dues, so to speak," she said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@DaytonDailyNews.com.
