What all do you think? Ohio nursing vacancies drop | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder

DAYTON (AP) - While hospitals around the country deal with a nursing shortage that promises to only get worse, the slowing economy in one part of Ohio has nurses putting off retirement and staying on the job.

Nurses whose families have been affected by layoffs in other Dayton-area industries are working more hours, while others delayed retirement once their 401(k) accounts fell along with the stock market, said Bill Linesch, vice president of human resources for Premier Health Partners.

Some nurses have recently re-entered the work force, he said.

At the Premier-run Miami Valley Hospital, the turnover rate for registered nurses has dropped to less than 1 percent from more than 10 percent just a few years ago. At The Children's Medical Center of Dayton, the rate was 5.2 percent in recent months, down from 6.8 percent about a year ago, said Renae Phillips, the center's chief nurse executive.

"People aren't as eager to change positions," she said. "We have a lot of employees whose family members have been affected by the downturn."

The region was struck in December by the closing of a General Motors Corp. plant in Moraine, a move that put the factory's 1,080 workers out of a job and affected dozens of area suppliers.

Nationally, nursing schools have been unable to churn out graduates fast enough to keep up with the demand for nurses. The shortage could reach 500,000 by 2025, as many nurses retire and the demand for nurses balloons with the aging of baby boomers, according to Peter Buerhaus of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

But there's no nursing shortage at the Kettering and Grandview medical centers near Dayton, where turnover rates have been below 1 percent for the past two years, said Brenda Kuhn, Kettering Health Network's chief nursing officer. Those rates could drop even lower, she said.

Some members of Wright State's November class of nursing graduates had a difficult time landing their first job choice, said Theresa Haghnazarian of the university's Miami Valley College of Nursing & Health. Just a couple of years ago, graduates had their pick of several jobs, she said.

But the situation is probably unique to the Dayton area - hospitals as close as Cincinnati remain desperate for nurses, she said.