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US States with the Most Nurses Shortages and How to Fill Them

Healthcare

By Sreevally Pasumarthy | July 14, 2023

Yet another medical crisis is expected to hit the United States very soon. The United States is facing an acute shortage of nurses and inaction is probably going to jeopardize the services of healthcare institutions across the country in the distant future.

As of 2023, the United States employs over 5.3 million healthcare professionals serving as nurses.

Here is a breakdown of the number of nurses by employment category

Type of nurse employment	Total number
Registered Nurse (RN)	2,986,500
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)	1,371,050
Licensed Practical/Licensed Vocational Nurse (LPN/LVN)	676,440
Nurse Educator (NE)	61,100
Nurse Midwife (CNM)	7,120
Nurse Practitioner (NP)	211,280
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	41,960
Total Number of Nurses	5,355,450

Of these numbers, the total number of registered nurses can be further categorized by State. The table below illustrates the projected demand and supply in the year 2030. It also illustrates the surplus or deficit number of registered nurses by 2030 and the States that are likely to face a surplus or shortage.

State	Projected demand by 2030	Projected supply by 2030	Difference in numbers	Deficit/surplus
California	387,900	343,400	44,500	Deficit
Massachusetts	89,300	91,300	2000	Deficit
Alaska	23,800	18,400	5,400	Deficit
New York	195,200	213,400	18,200	Surplus
New Jersey	102,200	90,800	11,400	Deficit
Maryland	73,900	86,000	12,100	Surplus
Arizona	98,700	99,900	1,200	Deficit
Colorado	63,200	72,500	9,300	Surplus
New Mexico	21,600	31,300	9,700	Surplus
Georgia	101,000	98,800	2,200	Deficit
Delaware	12,800	14,000	1,200	Deficit
Texas	269,300	253,400	15,900	Deficit
New Hampshire	20,200	21,200	1,300	Deficit
Virginia	86,500	109,200	22,700	Surplus
Vermont	6,800	9,300	2,500	Deficit
Florida	240,000	293,700	53,700	Surplus
Ohio	132,800	181,900	49,100	Surplus
Montana	12,100	12,300	200	Deficit
Kentucky	53,700	64,200	10,500	Surplus
North Carolina	118,600	135,100	16,500	Surplus
Louisiana	49,700	52,000	2,300	Deficit
Indiana	75,300	89,300	14,000	Surplus
North Dakota	9,200	9,700	700	Deficit
South Carolina	62,500	52,100	10,400	Deficit
Tennessee	82,200	90,600	8,400	Surplus
Missouri	73,200	89,900	16,700	Surplus
Iowa	35,300	45,400	10,100	Surplus
Arkansas	32,300	42,100	9,800	Surplus
South Dakota	13,600	11,700	1,900	Deficit

From the above illustrated table, we can understand that the States of California, Texas, New Jersey and South Carolina are likely to face a severe deficit of registered nurses. On the other hand, the States of Florida, New York, Missouri and North Carolina are expected to see a surplus of registered nurses by 2030 – this will likely lead to a drop in the average pay scale in states with a surplus. Similarly, states with a deficit are likely to witness an upward trajectory in terms of pay.

Here is a table to better illustrate the current average pay in 50 US States

State	Average pay per hour	Average pay per year
California	$64.10	$133,340
Hawaii	$54.43	$113,220
Oregon	$51.26	$106,610
Massachusetts	$50.07	$104,150
Alaska	$49.67	$103,310
Washington	$48.88	$101,670
New York	$48.14	$100,130
District of Columbia	$47.23	$98,230
New Jersey	$46.48	$96,670
Nevada	$46.30	$96,310
Connecticut	$45.32	$94,260
Minnesota	$42.72	$88,860
Rhode Island	$42.43	$88,250
Maryland	$42.30	$87,990
Arizona	$41.70	$86,740
Colorado	$41.63	$86,590
New Mexico	$41.15	$85,580
Georgia	$40.95	$85,180
Delaware	$40.88	$85,020
Texas	$40.54	$84,320
New Hampshire	$40.11	$83,420
Illinois	$39.53	$82,220
Virginia	$39.36	$81,860
Wyoming	$38.95	$81,010
Wisconsin	$38.94	$81,000
Michigan	$38.78	$80,660
Pennsylvania	$38.76	$80,630
Vermont	$38.46	$79,990
Florida	$38.42	$79,910
Idaho	$37.79	$78,610
Ohio	$37.72	$78,450
Montana	$37.67	$78,350
Kentucky	$37.32	$77,620
Maine	$37.22	$77,410
North Carolina	$37.22	$77,410
Oklahoma	$36.98	$76,920
Utah	$36.73	$76,400
Louisiana	$36.50	$75,920
Indiana	$36.34	$75,580
North Dakota	$36.06	$75,000
South Carolina	$35.74	$74,330
Nebraska	$35.34	$73,510
Tennessee	$34.85	$72,480
West Virginia	$34.73	$72,230
Kansas	$34.61	$71,990
Missouri	$34.55	$71,860
Iowa	$33.35	$69,370
Mississippi	$32.66	$67,930
Alabama	$32.17	$66,910
Arkansas	$31.98	$66,530
South Dakota	$31.01	$64,500

Suggested Reading: 2023 Salary Guide for US Nurse Practitioners

Table of contents

1. What can the States do to reduce the nurse shortage?

1.1. Optimize nurse staffing agencies

1.2. Medical Staffing Solutions

1.3. Using AI-based recruitment solutions

1.4. Using AI-based medical solutions

1.5. Offer State funded training and exchange programs

2. Wrapping it Up

3. Resource

What can the States do to reduce the nurse shortage?

Evidently, it’s critical to reduce the nursing shortage. But one can understand how complicated the efforts can be. So, keeping past experiences and futuristic technology in mind, experts in healthcare recruitment suggest the following measures.

Optimize nurse staffing agencies

Medical staffing agencies have increasingly become the need of the hour. In order to resolve healthcare staffing shortages, medical staffing agencies assist and aid hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other healthcare organizations in medical recruitment. Through extensive research and cutting-edge technology driven recruitment solutions, medical staffing agencies provide healthcare institutions with the right talent to fill their vacant positions. These agencies provide complete end-to-end staffing solutions; from sourcing, screening, to filtering candidates, in order to help you find the best talent for your healthcare needs. They also offer various additional services, such as credentialing, background checks, and onboarding, to ensure their candidates meet the necessary qualifications and are ready to work.

Medical Staffing Solutions

Healthcare staffing agencies provide complete, end-to-end solutions for your healthcare staffing shortages. Through deep research and cutting-edge technology-driven recruitment solutions, medical staffing agencies have become the backbone for all hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other healthcare organizations when it comes to staffing shortages.

Using AI-based recruitment solutions

By using AI-based recruitment solutions, recruiters can significantly cut down the time taken to hire medical professionals. AI-based solutions can easily post information about job availability, shortlist and categorize applications, conduct skill assessments and even schedule interviews. These solutions not only save time, they also eliminate recruiter bias. The advanced AI in Arya is revolutionizing the healthcare recruiting industry by using 300+ parameters and 7 multi-dimensional data points to score and rank talent for compatibility. Arya simultaneously helps source candidates from multiple channels in under 5 minutes, reducing candidate review and shortlisting time by 50%. Request a Demo to understand how Arya can help your organization streamline its healthcare staffing challenges in time to avoid a nursing shortage crisis.

Using AI-based medical solutions

Artificial Intelligence software can be used to help detect early signs of genetic conditions and terminal illnesses like cancer; it can help in managing medical databases; it can act as a virtual health assistant and even be used for complicated surgical procedures as assistant surgical bots. By using AI-based medical solutions, healthcare institutions can reduce the burden on nurses and medical professionals by at least 20%.

Offer State funded training and exchange programs

States with a deficit can collaborate with those States having a surplus of nurses and initiate training-based exchange programs – this will allow nurses from affiliated hospitals to work at hospitals in other States – even if temporarily and considerably reduce the burden on overworked nursing staff.

Wrapping it Up

Healthcare workers have always been overworked, the Covid19 pandemic just made things worse. Despite its current challenges, the healthcare industry remains to be one of the fastest-growing sectors all over the globe. That’s why healthcare recruiting experts urgently need to realign their hiring strategies in order to overcome a potential shortage. But it shouldn’t stop at redesigning hiring strategies, it also needs to expand into training, nurturing and retaining healthcare providers.

Resource

https://www.nursingprocess.org/how-many-nurses-are-there-in-the-us.html

Sreevally Pasumarthy

Author

Sree Pasumarthy's background in HR, marketing, and psychology gives her an authoritative edge in understanding the needs of the recruitment space. This knowledge powers her creation of AI-based HR Technology solutions. Her focus on streamlining recruitment processes, improving candidate experiences, and understanding the psychology behind hiring decisions makes her a trusted resource for organizations seeking to elevate their recruitment content.