As Iowa’s Baby Boomers get older, will there be enough nurses to provide care for them? If present trends continue, the nursing work force will fall far short of the increasing demand from the state’s aging population, say health-care experts.

A coalition called Iowa Needs Nurses Now aims to reverse those trends, by helping the state direct private dollars into scholarships and infrastructure investments for Iowa nursing programs.

The state is on the cusp of a serious shortage of nurses, according to a governor’s task force report released in March 2008. That report estimated that Iowa had about 8 percent fewer nurses than were needed, a shortfall that’s expected to increase to 27 percent within the next 10 years. By 2020, the state could have as many as 9,100 unfilled registered nurse positions, or about one-quarter of the current registered nurse work force, according to the report.

The problem is compounded by a shortage of nursing educators, which limits the number of applicants that the state’s 27 nursing programs can accept. Iowa has nearly 1,300 qualified people who would like to begin training to become nurses, according to a survey of nursing schools by Iowa Needs Nurses Now. Iowa’s nursing programs graduate about 3,000 students each year currently.

Among the coalition’s 15 members are representatives from the Iowa Board of Nursing, AARP Iowa, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.

Iowa Needs Nurses Now is funded by a grant of “several hundred thousand dollars” from a private foundation that has asked to remain anonymous, said Julie Stauch, chief public affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. “It is a generous gift, and it allows us to do a lot of organizing work,” she said. “We’re also seeking other grants.”

Two funds

The coalition’s emphasis is on attracting private contributions to help nursing programs expand, said state Sen. Jack Hatch (D-Des Moines). “We created (Iowa Needs Nurses Now) because we intuitively knew there was a shortage and we wanted to solicit private dollars to leverage public dollars, which is a partnership we’re doing for all health-care reform,” he said.

Hatch said a bill now being considered in the Iowa Senate would provide that funding mechanism by establishing two funds: one to which private organizations could contribute to provide scholarships for nurse educators, and another to provide grants for additional infrastructure needs for nursing schools.

The legislation, Senate File 2255, would also require Iowa Workforce Development to establish a data clearinghouse to more precisely measure the shortage and areas where nurses are needed the most. The bill does not request any general fund money for the scholarship or infrastructure fund, but would appropriate a total of $492,000 in the next two fiscal years for state agency staff to administer the programs.

Sen. Bill Dotzler (D-Waterloo), the bill’s floor manager, said it appears the legislation, which has a companion bill in the House, has bipartisan support. “We’re hopeful we can get this through,” he said last week. “It’s desperately needed.”

To offset the state funding provided and make the legislation palatable in a tight budget year, Dotzler said he plans to offer an amendment to allow up to 5 percent of the private funds contributed to be used for administration of the program.

Economic conditions may be keeping nursing vacancies relatively low, but that will change as more nurses retire. At Broadlawns Medical Center, “we aren’t seeing a lot of vacant positions right now; not a lot of people are leaving right now, probably because of the economy,” said Susan Kirstein, the hospital’s chief nursing executive. “We know that (a shortage is) out there looming, and that there will be significant numbers of nurses retiring.”

About 20 of the 195 nurses on Broadlawns’ staff will reach retirement age within the next five years, Kirstein said.

Though in many instances nurses would have to take a pay cut to become instructors, the quality-of-life aspect of moving from shift work to a regular 40-hour workweek, combined with scholarships to help pay for the advanced degree needed, should help, Stauch said.

“We did some focus groups with nurses last fall,” she said, “and one of the key drivers for nurses really has to do with their families. One of the things we think will really help with this program is a traditional 40-hour-week job with a good income.”

More retirements

About 75 students graduate each year from nursing programs at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), which currently has about 400 nursing students.

The need to train more faculty is “probably a bigger need right now than (increasing) the actual nurses in practice,” said Vickie Barth, DMACC’s director of nursing, who also serves on the Iowa Needs Nurses Now committee. “For instance, in our institution, in the next five years a good third of our faculty could be eligible for retirement.” DMACC has 28 full-time and three part-time nursing instructors across five campuses.

Though DMACC has a “healthy” waiting list one to two semesters out for its nursing programs, it’s not due to a faculty shortage, Barth said. The community college currently has just one unfilled nursing faculty opening.

Scholarships for potential nursing instructors aren’t available now, so the legislation would provide an added incentive for nurses to consider teaching, she said.

Reaching out to numerous organizations should make the Iowa Needs Nurses Now initiative successful, Stauch said.

“One thing that nursing professionals have commented to us about is that there have been a lot of studies done, but not a lot of implementation,” she said. “So our group is really focused on implementing some of the recommendations. I think we’ll be successful, because we’ve reached out to a lot of groups, and I think that’s made a difference.

“Nurses are in every community across the state; they are needed in every community. They are an important part of the work force, and of health-care delivery.”