NEWS
BY MARSHA BOUTELLE
TRAVELING NURSES AND A LOOMING
NURSE SHORTAGE
T
he growing general-practice physician shortage in Or-
egon and across the country has become a troubling is-
sue. Fewer new MDs are opting to become family practi-
tioners or internists, preferring instead to go into diverse
medical specialty practice areas. But many don’t realize
that a shortage of qualified nurses also exists, and that shortage is
growing so rapidly it equals or may even overshadows the lack of
physicians in upcoming decades. An aging baby boomer popula-
tion, placing increasing demands on the medical profession, and
a nursing faculty that is rapidly aging out combine to exacerbate
this dilemma.
Who do hospitals and some physicians’ offices turn to for help
with this predicament? Traveling nurses, or “travelers,” as the pro-
fession dubs them, are called in to fill gaps caused by full-time
nurse employees who are out on leave, for specialized training or
to fill in during peak patient periods.
Hospitals hire travelers through a number of national agencies
that recruit qualified female and male nurses who enjoy the free-
dom of working temporarily in various locations. The agencies
pay travelers’ salaries, find and pay for temporary housing and
also offer a variety of benefits, including medical, dental, vision
and life insurance.
Travelers average about 12 weeks in a given location, giving
them ample time to explore whatever the area has to offer and to
travel home for short periods if they wish. Salaries are competi-
tive with permanent-employee nurses, and in cases where trav-
elers have specialized training and multiple years of experience,
they earn even more.
Locally, PeaceHealth RiverBend in Springfield, PeaceHealth
Sacred Heart in Eugene and the McKenzie-Willamette Medical
Center all use travel nurses on a regular basis to fill in during short-
ages. Beginning this past summer, nurses and physicians within
the PeaceHealth system throughout Oregon had to undergo ex-
tensive training on learning an electronic medical records (EMR)
system that involved 5,000 employees and relied extensively on
travelers to fill in staff needs in the interim.
“Travelers were a huge part of the success filling in the gaps
while the training went on,” says Jane Renken, vice president of
talent development for PeaceHealth and the executive in charge of
the effort. EMR training was completed on Oct. 1.
McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center chose not to participate
in this story. And the state’s nursing union, the Oregon Nurses
Association, has no problem with travel nurses, recognizing their
“intermittent assignments as very valuable,” according to Susan
King, the association’s executive director.
Although traveling nurses have always been around, the need
for their services has become more urgent as the population ages,
and with it, attendant needs for medical care. In addition, overall
university-level nursing faculty is aging as well, with many newly
graduated and licensed nurses opting for jobs in clinics and hos-
pitals, where the pay is significantly higher than pay for nursing
faculty.
These statistics tell the story: Out of the state of Oregon’s total
nursing faculty of 720, 12 percent are age 65 and over; 42 percent
are between the ages of 55-64; and 23 percent are between 45-54.
About a third of all nurse educators plan to retire within five
years, and out of those who plan to continue working for six to 10
years, 20 percent more will retire, according to a 2014 survey by
the Oregon Center for Nursing.
Of course, looming retirement is to be expected for these most-
ly baby boomer-age nurses. The irony is that retiring boomer nurs-
es will need increased medical care as they age at the same time
as fewer nurses are being produced to treat them. Why? Because
the pipeline of nurses who wish to teach in university nursing pro-
grams is slowly drying up.
And while there are a few other reasons, such as a desire for
more manageable workloads than teaching provides or a desire
to return to patient-focused practice, nearly half (46 percent) of
the nurses in the survey cited pay inequity as a reason they would
avoid teaching as a profession.
Nurse educators simply don’t make as much money as nurses
working in hospital and medical office settings. In Oregon, an av-
erage salary for a nurse educator is about $71,000 per year, while
RNs earn an average of about $81,000 per year, and highly trained
nurse practitioners earn an average of almost $109,000 per year.
With dwindling educators and fewer nurses entering the pro-
fession, hospitals and those in them may be in for some rough
times in coming decades.
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HAPPENING PEOPLE
OREGON DOPE CUP RUNNER UP
“I grew up on the creek,” says Lane County native Corrina
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He had a structural steel construction business and man-
aged a crew of employees, working mostly in Eugene and
Springfield. He was also a Vietnam veteran who had been
exposed to the insecticide Agent Orange. He developed
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graduation from Pleasant Hill High School, Welding studied
at the Cascade Institute of Massage and Body Therapies.
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“I started doing massage for veterans for free,” she says.
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and 16-year-old Isabella, a junior at South Eugene High. Her
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taught child and family photographer. View her portraits at
corrinaweldingphotography.com.
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eugeneweekly.com • November 10, 2016
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