Oregon Nursing and Healthcare Schools

The nursing shortage affecting the United States is a huge concern to the government. Individual States are working hard to ensure that the adverse effects are minimal on patient care. Oregon, for example, is gearing all efforts towards resolving the nursing shortage which the State claims is hugely affecting the morale and safety of the entire nursing workforce and drives up the cost of care.

Generally, the demand for nurses and other health care workers in Oregon is outpacing the supply. This is caused by two main factors; qualified nurses migrate out-of-state to look for greener pastures and secondly, the schools of nursing enrollments are lower. The low admission rates were partly a result of lack of adequate clinical opportunities and state-of-the-art equipments for students. The State is also now embarking on creating awareness to youths on the benefits of a health care provider career.

Other key factors to the current shortage include increased demand for nurses in both evolving and traditional roles in a working environment set up. When all budgeted positions of nurses are filled up, there is still some evidence that the workload is still high for the nurses, hence the acuity of inadequate staffing. Inadequacy in staffing is hugely experienced in the nursing support staff e.g. the transportation departments and unit clerks.

That not withstanding, the health care providers in Oregon should feel confident in knowing that the State is working round the clock to ensure there are improvements in the field. The State works with the notion that if older nurses are to be retained until retirement and young careers nurtured at an early age, the shortage rate is going to reduce considerably.

Oregon’s State embarks on:

Creating positive and mutually respectful working environments that aim to provide respect to the workforce and recognition from the management and State.
Having in place flexible benefits and competitive salary schemes that work towards rewarding clinical expertise, experience and education.
An environment of practice that will encourage high quality nursing care.
Creating opportunities for professional growth and development.
And finally, Oregon works towards significantly increasing the communication between the workforce and the management while at the same time giving opportunities for staff to participate in decision making.

With an exodus of retiring nurses underway, the State of Oregon is working to ensure that average salaries match those of other States to minimize the chances of migration. Following is a list of expected salary bearing in mind education and experience plays the major role in determining the amount.