Even nurses find jobs are scarce

April 6, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Washington Post

WASHINGTON — For more than a decade as she raised two children, Sue Estes heard one story after another about how hospitals were desperately short of nurses.

They were getting signing bonuses, their pay was soaring to levels unheard of during Estes’ years as a nurse, and bulging benefit packages now included 401(k)s. This year, ready to return to work, she has heard a different story.

“I’ve shipped out r sum s everywhere, and I’m not even getting the courtesy callbacks,” said Estes, 43. “All my friends can’t believe it. They’ve read the stories about the shortage, and they say, ‘Places are begging for nurses!’”

The economic downturn has put a Band-Aid on one of the most vexing problems in health care, a shortage of nurses that has slowed care at some hospitals and forced others to turn away the ill.

With some nurses postponing retirement and others resuming their careers for financial reasons, many hospitals across the nation say they have few, if any, openings. After more than a decade when hospitals struggled to maintain sufficient staffing and when nurses could have their pick of jobs, the want ads have virtually disappeared, and only acute-care and emergency-room nurses remain in great demand.

The nursing shortage has been a chronic national challenge. The problem appeared under control in the mid-1990s but resurfaced by the end of the decade and steadily became more severe. Hospitals on Long Island and in upstate New York turned away patients when their nurse-to-patient ratio dropped too low.