Posted on 04/14/2006 2:29:04 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
It seems contradictory that while South Carolina’s unemployment rate is the fourth-highest in the nation, our state is suffering a critical shortage of health care workers. Why not simply recruit and train more South Carolinians for positions that are readily available and pay well, and for which demand will only grow as our population ages?
Hospitals are among the top two or three employers in their communities, creating a stable employment base, generating tax revenue and fueling other business growth. It makes sense to look at health care, an industry directly or indirectly responsible for one in 13 jobs in South Carolina, to see how current and projected job growth can be supported.
Retirement is becoming something of an industry in South Carolina. As South Carolinians age and as our state attracts more and more retired persons from other parts of the country, the demand for health care will increase. Also, as our general population ages, so do our professional caregivers, whose average age is nearly 50. The average working registered nurse is more than 43 years old, and there are not enough people entering the profession to replace those who will be retiring in the next decade.
Although the registered nurse is the most visible and most publicized health care position in demand, hospitals also report significant shortages of other health professionals, from the technician with one year of post-high school training to the 14-year fellowship-trained surgeon. Responses to a survey last year indicated significant shortages of several types of allied health workers, including radiology and ultrasound technicians, medical records coders and physical therapists.
Each year South Carolina hires more than 3,000 new nurses or allied health technicians. Half of those hires come from other states. Yet it is important to recognize that our state’s colleges can accept only about half of those who apply and qualify for these programs, because the schools cannot accommodate larger numbers of students. This is largely a budget problem that has created barriers to enrolling more students including a shortage of qualified teaching faculty, instructional space and available clinical training slots.
Even though the worker shortage poses a serious threat to patient care, a solution that prepares more South Carolina residents for these available jobs would be a tremendous boost to South Carolina’s economy. That solution would also support the goal of raising per capita income because the growing demand for nurses and other allied health professionals creates an opportunity to place more state residents in well-paying careers. There is no lack of people who desire this opportunity; we currently don’t have the capacity to enroll more students.
South Carolina’s 16 technical colleges, as well as other institutions of higher learning in our state, play an important role in preparing workers for the best jobs available. We work with employers to identify their workforce needs and help build the workforce they will need to be successful. We work with hospitals and other health providers around the state to help assure that an adequate supply of health care professionals is available to meet the growing need for quality employees.
The South Carolina Hospital Association, which represents the state’s hospitals, has joined with institutions of higher education to ask the General Assembly to increase funding to the technical college system to expand enrollment capacity in allied health degree programs and the universities’ baccalaureate and postgraduate degree programs for use in training health care providers and faculty.
South Carolina’s Technical College System has developed a plan that will allow each of its technical colleges to implement a localized solution to address the statewide health care workforce shortage. The system has requested $15 million in recurring state funds, to be matched through other sources to generate a total of $30 million each year to support the education of South Carolina’s health care workforce.
It is vitally important to the economy and well-being of this state that we promote interest in high-demand health care jobs and funding for educational capacity to train South Carolinians to fill these jobs in our state. While the health care workforce shortage poses a serious threat to patient care and health care facilities, the solution offers tremendous opportunity to place more state residents in well-paying careers.
In order to achieve this, we must have the capacity to train more nurses and other health care workers, as well as faculty, so we can meet the labor needs of the health care industry and the health care needs of our citizens. Failure to do so will endanger the quality of health care we receive and deny thousands more South Carolinians the training that will help them qualify for jobs that are waiting for them.
> It is vitally important to the economy and well-being of this state that we promote interest in high-demand health care jobs and funding for educational capacity to train South Carolinians to fill these jobs in our state.
Economics 101 -- pay more, more people will work in the field. Who wants to be a nurse? The hours stink, the wages are low (based on the educational requirements). I suggest this condition has been created because of WOMEN who are willing to invest highly (in their education) but accept rotten wages.
Pay $50/hour and the field will be flooded by highly educated, intelligent, hard working men. But that will happen when a certain place freezes over.
Average annual salary for a nurse is $47,000. Not terrible. Not great.
The hours can stink.
I like my job.....but as I get older and have watched politics and big corporations take over the healthcare system.....it's becoming harder to stay in the field. I work with a temp agency....which is the only way to be paid a decent wage...yet I have to sacrifice health bennies. If I work permanently at a facility...I'll only make about $3/hr more than I did 20 yrs ago.... and the bennies still aren't that great. It's become a real Catch-22.
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