Shortage of nurses, pending retirements mean explosion of job opportunities over next decade

There’s a shortage of nurses- and it could get worse over the next decade-and-a-half.

Recently, the VA Finger Lakes sent out a flyer asking for nursing assistants. But, those with the VA say they have been anticipating this for some time- even before COVID-19.

“Child care was an issue, school was an issue, so people really had to kind of change their lives to really meet the needs of themselves and their families,” Timberly Shepard MSM RN CNE with the VA told RochesterFirst.com. “There’s over a million nurses who are older than 50 years old. So that means within the next 10 to 15 years one third of our work force is going to just disappear.”

Employment opportunities in the nursing field are expected to explode over the next 10-20 years.