Future Shortage of Nurses

By 2020, the demand for nurses in Virginia is projected to be 30% greater than the supply.

Factors that have led to the demand for nurses being larger than supply:

• increase in population
• increase in aging population
• proportionally larger needs of nursing services by the elderly
• retirement of nurses as they age
• steady state in education of nurses
• shortage of faculty in nursing schools
• large amount of clinical training necessary for nursing education
• expense of technology now used in the clinical care of patients that must be born by educational institutions
• salaries of clinical faculty lower than nurses in clinical job

What does the Clinical Simulation Center have to do with the nursing shortage?

• The Clinical Simulation Center will decrease the need for additional clinical faculty in nursing schools in southwest Virginia.
• As a shared resource, the Clinical Simulation Center will keep educational costs down in all the participating institutions.

Other resources concerning the nursing shortage:

• Faculty Shortages in Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing Programs