A report released last week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation suggests that there is something left to be desired in the way health departments are able to handle nursing positions.
The report was created by the University of Michigan Center of Excellence in Public Health Workforce Studies and funded by the RWJF, to create a picture of the current public health nursing workforce. Nurses and state and local public health departments completed surveys about hiring, job satisfaction, background, job concerns and job function.
In general, public heath nurses reported satisfaction with their jobs, despite being concerned overall with opportunities for compensation, promotion and recruitment. Forty percent of state public health departments reported difficulty hiring nurses, and another 40 percent of health departments at all levels reported lacking the resources to fill nursing positions.
In addition, the report showed that the nursing population is not necessarily representative of the communities that it serves. About 95 percent of nurses in leadership positions self-identified as white. The nursing population is also aging, but most nurses reported no plans to retire within the next five years.
For additional findings on nurse education, recruitment, and function in public health positions, please see the RWJF report.