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NURSING IN NEVADA
 There are nearly 2.9 million registered nurses in the United States. 2.4 million of them are actively employed. According to a February 2004 projection by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, RN’s top the list of the 10 occupations with the largest projected job growth in the years 2002-2012. More than 2.9 million RNs will be employed in the year 2012. This growth coupled with current trends of nurses retiring or leaving the profession and fewer new nurses, could lead to a shortage of more than one million nurses by the end of this decade.
The nation’s registered nurse (RN) workforce is aging significantly and the number of full-time equivalent RNs per capita peaked around the year 2007 and has begun to decline, according to Peter Buerhaus of Vanderbilt University’s nursing school. Buerhaus also predicted that the number of RNs would fall 20 percent below demand by 2010.
Schools of nursing were forced to reject more than 147,000 qualified applications to nursing programs at all levels in 2005. Meanwhile, nursing colleges and universities denied 32,617 qualified applicants in 2005. This is primarily due to a shortage of nurse educators.
Nevada must increase it’s ability to graduate more RNs and retain those graduates. We must insure that hospitals invest in appropriate Registered Nurse staffing that attract an keep RNs. This will be a challenge and a priority for me as your public servant in the Nevada assembly
Michael Nance
Candidate for Assembly District 32
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