A study on the geographic mobility of registered nurses (RNs) recently published in the December Health Affairs magazine suggests that the profession's relative lack of mobility has serious implications for access to health care for people in rural areas.
According to the study—part of the RN Work Project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—more than half (52.5 percent) of newly licensed RNs work within 40 miles of where they attended high school. Even more nurses reported working in the same state in which they attended high school. Nearly four in five (78.7 percent) of the nurses surveyed who held associate's degrees and more than three in four (76.8 percent) of those with bachelor's degrees practiced in the state they had attended high school.
According to the study's authors, this lack of geographic mobility means that hospitals and other health care settings must rely heavily on locally-trained RNs and find it difficult to recruit nurses when there are not enough in the local area. This may be a particular problem in rural areas where there are fewer schools of nursing.
Lead investigators for the study were Christine Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor at the College of Nursing, New York University; Carol Brewer, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor at the School of Nursing, University at Buffalo; and Sean Corcoran, PhD, associate professor of educational economics at New York University. Kovner and Brewer direct the RN Work Project.
The lack of geographic mobility is higher for nurses than for most other professions. According to the study, six in ten (60.8 percent) professional workers with an associate's degree and 53.3 percent of workers with a bachelor's degree resided in their state of birth as of the 2000 census. Among RNs with bachelor's degrees, 61.6 percent ages 20-39 were living in their state of birth compared with 56.8 percent of comparable professionals in other fields.
Most of the nurses surveyed attended their first nursing degree program in the state where they graduated from high school and 88 percent also took their first registered nurse job in the state where they received their first nursing degree. Approximately two-thirds of the RNs in the survey were working within 100 miles of where they grew up and more than a third (35.1 percent) were working within 15 miles of where they attended high school.
"Given the strong tendency for nurses to practice close to where they attended nursing school and to attend nursing school near where they graduated high school, it's not surprising that parts of the country with few or no schools of nursing are struggling to find nurses," said Kovner. "We did not investigate the reasons for nurses' lack of mobility, but this reality suggests that more needs to be done in areas with few nursing schools in order to meet the health care needs of those communities."
The authors of the study recommend four policy changes to expand the supply of nurses in underserved areas:
The findings are based on a cross-sectional survey of 1,765 RNs in Metropolitan Statistical Areas and rural areas in 15 states.
About New York University College of Nursing
NYU College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Arts and Post-Master's Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Philosophy in Research Theory and Development, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. For more information, visit http://www.nyu.edu/nursing .
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, measureable and timely change. For nearly 40 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit http://www.rwjf.org .
Health Affairs