Examination of the nursing shortage in the New York region reveals that solutions are hampered by a lack of coordination or a long-range strategic approach. These issues and more were brought to light in November 2006 when The New York Academy of Medicine and the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence released the findings from Nurse Retention and Nursing Workforce Diversity-Two Key Issues in New York City's Nursing Crisis at a symposium with more than 350 health care, business and philanthropic leaders. The 30-page report directed by School of Nursing associate professor David M. Keepnews, has garnered coverage in Nursing Spectrum and WBAI radio.

US hospitals are currently experiencing a shortage of an estimated 118,000 nurses. The overall shortage in all settings is projected to reach one million nurses by the year 2020. The report Professor Keepnews spearheaded focuses on strategies for increasing nurse retention and workforce diversity.

Below are highlights of the report's findings:

A Coordinated Response to Retaining Nurses in Practice is Critically Needed: Increased recruitment efforts, while important, are insufficient to address the nursing shortage. Many significant initiatives have taken place in the New York area to increase retention, but for the most part these efforts are fragmented and uncoordinated.

Ensuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Nursing Workforce Must Be a Priority: The report shows that although New York's nursing workforce is far more diverse than the overall US nursing workforce, aggregate figures mask ongoing problems in access to entry and advancement for minorities and immigrants. In particular, the four percent of Hispanic nurses, while much higher than the US average of 1.8 percent, is alarmingly small compared to a region that is over one-fourth Hispanic.

To Improve Nurse Retention, We Need to Recognize the Needs of Different Segments of the Nursing Workforce: New nursing school graduates entering the workforce, who are middle-aged and older, face different challenges. This is a point of particular concern for a rapidly aging nursing workforce.

Professor Keepnews has a long history of leadership in addressing nursing and health care policy issues. Prior to his Adelphi appointment, he served as the director of The New York Academy of Medicine's office of policy development. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal. He is the former director of policy for the American Nurses Association and currently serves on the organization's Congress on Nursing Practice and Economics. He is also a fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the New York Academy of Medicine.

The full report, funded by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene through an allocation by the New York City Council, is available at http://www.jonascenter.org/downloads/nurseRetDiv_report.pdf.