New, National RN Stats - Just released! (Page 145)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) just released its initial findings from its 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

You can view the entire report online, but below are some of the more interesting tidbits we found. (Note: This report is published every four years, so it mostly compares 2004 to 2008.)

RN Population

• U.S. RN population grew from 2.9 – 3.1 million  (increase of 5.3%)
• 84.8 percent (2.6 million) of RNs are employed in nursing (highest since 1977)

Age

• 63.2 percent employed full time in nursing. (increase from 58.4 percent 2004 – first increase since 1996.
• Average age rose from 46.8 to 47.0 years (age for employed nurses rose from 45.4 to 45.5 years).
• 16.2 percent of all RNs were 50 – 54 years old.
• The share of RNs under age 40 grew for the first time since 1980 – 18% percent increase

Employment location

• 62.1 percent work in hospitals – 17.7 percent increase from 2004 (first increase since 1984).
• RN FTE employment in hospitals increased 16.6 percent (AHA statistic)
• RN FTE employment as a share of total hospital employment rose from 25.4 to 27 percent (AHA statistic).
• Share of home health nurses rose from 3.8 to 6.4 percent

Work time

• Decreased average of full time hours per week from 43.7 (2004) to 42.9 percent
• Decreased average of part time hours per week from 26.3 (2004) to 24.1

Earnings

• Increased annual salary to $66,973 (15.9 percent), but taking into consideration the Consumer Price Index, actual earnings only increased 1.7 percent (slightly above inflation).

Future Plans regarding nursing work

• 54.5 percent have no plans to leave nursing within the next 3 years
• 16.4 percent of nurses not currently working in nursing plan to return to it in the future

QUESTION: At first glance, does anything in particular jump out to you?