Introduction
Creating effective policy to ease the nursing shortage requires studying nursing workforce supply
and demand. This requires nursing workforce centers and data initiatives be established by State
throughout the United States. The Hawai’i State Center for Nursing was established by the
Hawai’i State Legislature to address the many issues that are a part of the nursing shortage. One
of the mandated functions for the Center is the collection of data on the nursing workforce. The
Community Initiative on Nursing, through the funding provided by the Robert Wood Johnson
foundation, has collected data since 1997 related to the supply of the nursing workforce.
However, there is no data available to date on the demand for nurses in the State of Hawai’i other
than the national HRSA data. Thus, nursing workforce demand surveys will be conducted to
identify employer nursing needs, establish data initiatives, and inform policy makers concerning
nursing shortages in the State of Hawaii.
Methodology
A nurse employer survey will be conducted throughout the State of Hawaii to examine nursing
demand across all sectors of healthcare. Employers in each sector of healthcare (identified by the
following categories: acute care, long term care, home & hospice care, community health centers,
the military, and public health departments) where nurses are known to work will be surveyed.
Employers will be mailed the survey questionnaire accompanied by a letter explaining the nature
of the survey and an invitation to participate in completing the survey questionnaire. Enclosed in
the package will be a return self-addressed postage paid envelope for ease of return.
Analysis
SPSS (Windows version 14.0) will be used to analysis data. Descriptive statistics will be used to
examine the trends in distribution of nurse type (i.e., LPN, RN, APRN) by healthcare sector (i.e.,
acute care, long term care, home& hospice care, etc.). Distribution of nurses employed in
specialty areas (e.g., medical/surgical, obstetrical, emergency, etc.) within a sector of healthcare
(e.g., acute care) will also be examined and described. Frequency of nursing vacancies and
difficulties in filling these positions will also be identified and described. Difficulties in filling
positions and employers perceptions of staffing needs in the next year will be explored and
described.
Results
Reported results of surveys will be provided to State government and stakeholders in healthcare.
The aggregate results will also be available on the Hawaii State Center for Nursing’s website. |
