nursing shortage should cause nurses aides to consider nursing schools as a means of career advancement |
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Our analysis of CPS data indicates that many nurse aides have sufficiently low earnings and family incomes to qualify for public benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid. While 11 percent of all workers had family incomes below poverty, 18 percent of aides working in nursing homes and 19 percent of aides working in home health care had incomes below that level. One in three aides working in nursing homes earned less than $10,000 per year, and 36 percent reported family incomes below $20,000. In addition, aides working in nursing homes and home health care are more than twice as likely as other workers to be receiving food stamps and Medicaid, and they are much more likely to lack health insurance. One-fourth of aides in nursing homes and one-third of aides in home health care are uninsured compared to 16 percent of all workers. Studies have also identified the physical demands of nurse aide work and other aspects of the workplace environment as contributing to retention problems. Nurse aide jobs are physically demanding, often requiring moving patients in and out of bed, long hours of standing and walking, and dealing with patients or residents who may be disoriented or uncooperative. Nursing homes have one of the highest rates of workplace injury, 13 per 100 employees in 1999, compared to the construction industry with 8 per 100 employees. The 2000 IOM study of quality in long-term care identified several environmental and job design factors that directly affect nurse aide turnover, including adequacy of training; methods for managing workload and schedules; opportunities for career advancement; respect from administrators; organizational recognition; workloads and staffing levels; clarity of roles; and participation in decisionmaking. Go back to resources for nursing schools, resources, and jobs |
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