Rick Mayes

Title : The nurse shortage, travel nursing and “big med” health care in the U.S.

Abstract:

Based on stakeholder interviews and analyses of several surveys^*, this presentation will outline how the present nurse shortage in the U.S. is actually a chronic condition that: (a) surges and recedes over time, (b) is currently part of a larger health care workforce shortage problem, and (c) has been made acute due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The presentation will explain how the nurse shortage is multifactorial, complex and likely to get worse once the COVID-19 pandemic is over due to more and more Baby Boomer (older) nurses retiring and more and more younger-Millennial nurses shifting to part-time employment or leaving the profession at a faster rate thanks to the growing number of professional alternatives that are more flexible and less prone to emotional burnout/moral injury. The presentation will also review the trends in travel nursing and highlight how this area of the  nursing profession has both saved hospital operations in many metropolitan areas over the last two years and exacerbated financial and systemic tensions in the U.S. healthcare workforce. Finally, this presentation will connect the ongoing nurse shortage with the growth of “Big Med” health systems across the U.S. that stems from two decades of hospital mergers and acquisitions. The presentation will conclude with policy strategies for addressing current threat to the U.S. nursing workforce.

Biography:

Rick Mayes is a professor of health policy and chair of the University of Richmond’s department of health studies. He’s also a professor of nursing at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia (2000) and a National Institute of Health postdoctoral fellowship at the U.C. Berkeley School of Public Health (2002). He worked on Medicaid policy in the White House for George H.W. Bush and thereafter on health insurance and Medicare policy at the AARP. He is the author of more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and 3 university press books on health policy