Vermont Nursing and Healthcare Schools

Vermont, like all other States in the country, is coming to grips with the nursing shortage. The State is not immune to the shortage but it has skillfully identified the causes of the shortage and has come up with strategies to curb it. Generally, there has been a decrease in patient to nurse ratio and a notable decrease in time for patient care. The main contributing factors to these include among many others;

Decline in enrollments of nurses in institutions of training
Aging workforce
Aging society
Increased technology
Dwindling pool of skilled nursing faculty and instructors

This shortage has led to an even more complicated situation because both increase of demand and decrease of supply of healthcare workers have combined. Conventionally, ages 25-54 of women make the highest percentage of the nursing workforce. As the baby boom generation ages, the workforce remain unchanged. On the same note, nurses from the age of 50 begin to reduce working hours and since there is a shortage in nurse enrollments this leads to the shortage.

In the not-so-distant future, Vermont projects a solution to the shortage of the nursing workforce if the strategies recommended would be applied to the letter. The State recognizes the salaries of the healthcare workforce have to match those salaries of other states to maximize employee retention.

Another very important point that the State of Vermont has established is the nursing workforce does not only deal with inpatients, which is the acuity of most patients and the general public. When you include outpatient work, the workloads become too much to bear for an RN. The State is hiring more subordinate staff to handle basic duties and leave the more complicated and professional duties to RN's. This creates an even greater demand for all healthcare positions.

A lot of industries take changes in information and technology positively. This is not to say that the Vermont's Nursing Industry does not take technology positively. But it has also impacted hugely on the shortage of nurses. For instance, nurses are expected to accommodate heaps and heaps of information thrust upon them on a daily basis. Similarly, technology expects nurses to learn new things most of which are non-clinical. As a result, nurses have to take time away from caring of patients and learn these stressful technologies to be able to meet expectations. However, the majority of healthcare workers will tell you that the job is well worth the hard work you put into it.

These are the median salaries that you can expect to find in Vermont. Since the State has positively identified that salaries and benefits need to be adjusted, you are sure to find the income level for each position to be competitive with other states.