BATON ROUGE, La. – Efforts to address Louisiana’s nursing shortage are yielding some results but not at the scale needed to meet an estimated shortage of approximately 6,000 registered nurses by 2030, a shortage of 40-plus percent. That was the message shared in two reports received by the Board of Regents during its monthly meeting today.
The Louisiana Health Works Commission is a legislatively created workgroup that reports annually on available resources relative to the state’s healthcare workforce needs. The Commission is comprised of representatives of postsecondary, legislative, and medical organizations.
The 2021 Health Works Commission Report finds increasing demand for and decreasing supplies of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN), Registered Nurses (RN), and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN).
According to 2019-20 data in the Nursing Supply and Demand Council report, a subset of the Commission, Louisiana experienced:
- An 8% decrease in the number of students admitted to APRN programs in Louisiana and a 6% decrease in graduates compared to the previous year;
- A 23% increase in the number of students applying for admission to Louisiana’s pre-RN programs since 2016, as well as a 25% increase in applicants admitted;
- However, there has only been a 4% increase in pre-RN graduates during the same timeframe; and
- Admitting 70% of qualified LPN applicants compared to 64% the previous year with a general decline overall of 36% in graduates during the last 10 years.
- Identifying funding for academic-practice partnerships beyond nurse capitation to leverage public and private investments to encourage innovation and address regional healthcare workforce needs;
- Re-instating the nurse educator stipend; and
- Executing an action plan of recommendations prioritized by a Commission subcommittee (e.g., addressing faculty salary disparities and reviewing barriers within the healthcare workforce pipeline).