How are millennials affecting nursing?

Tara Noorani was like many 18-olds, heading off to college without much of a long-term plan.

“I just knew I loved science,” she said.

But in her fourth year of undergraduate studies at UCLA, Tara spent a year working with a nurse practitioner in a mobile clinic, treating the homeless.

That helped to crystalize Tara’s vision for her career. She’s now in Emory University’s accelerated Master of Science program and on the way to becoming a nurse practitioner herself.

Tara graduates from Emory this year, one of a growing number of millennials flocking to the nursing profession.

A study published in the journal Health Affairs late last year found that young adults born between 1982 and 2000 and classified as part of the millennial generation are nearly twice as likely as baby boomers to choose a career in nursing. Millennials also are 60 percent more likely to become registered nurses than the Gen X’ers, those born between 1965 and 1981, the researchers found.

They concluded that the millennial generation’s embrace of the field could come close to compensating for the retirement of baby boomers in the next few decades and could help avert shortages.

For about 30 years, from 1981 to 2012, baby boomers accounted for the largest share of the RN workforce.

The study by researchers at Montana State University’s College of Nursing looked at Census Bureau data on 429,585 registered nurses from 1979 to 2015. Excluded from the analysis was data on advanced practice nurses.

True, nursing schools are reporting more applicants. But not everyone is certain that can be linked to exuberant millennials. Nor are they certain how far that will go to fill current and future needs.

Emory University’s nursing school had 2,185 applicants in 2017, a 213 percent increase over 2013. Much of the growth, Emory officials say, is due to the popularity of the school’s accelerated program option for second-degree students, such as Tara. That program, which allows students to prepare to become registered nurses in 15 months and nurse practitioners in 2.5 years, accounted for 59 percent of last year’s applicant pool.

Dr. Linda McCauley, dean of Emory’s nursing school since 2009, said many of the second-degree students “are millennials.”

But critical shortages still exist in the healthcare industry, she said.

“This is most pronounced for experienced, not novice nurses,” McCauley said.

Dr. Sharon Radzyminski, dean of Georgia Southern University’s school of nursing, said the nursing shortage is less acute than it has been in the past.

But she said she “would not go so far as to say millennials will stave off the shortage.”

“We are still in need of nurses, and the nursing shortage is not likely to end soon,” Radzyminski said.

She said she’s not so sure it’s the generation that’s making the difference. Rather, Radzyminski said, it’s likely due more to the economy.

“When the economy is unstable or when we have a recession, nursing is extremely popular,” she said.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, when the economy was unstable, waiting lists of students were trying to enter nursing school. By contrast in the 1980s, when the economy was stable, nursing schools were closing due to low enrollment, Radzyminski said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is forecasting a 15-percent increase in jobs for registered nurses between 2016 and 2026, faster growth than the average for all occupations.

Several factors appear to play into that. The most obvious is the growth in the number of aging Americans, who typically have more medical problems and needs than younger people. That’s particularly true as health providers see more people with chronic conditions – arthritis, dementia, diabetes, and obesity.

Nurses also will be in greater demand in other settings – home healthcare, outpatient care and long-term care included – as hospitals face financial pressure to discharge patients as soon as possible, according to the Labor Department.

In Tara’s case, the nerve-racking tasks of resume writing and job interviews are still ahead.

But she’s not overwhelmed at the prospect.

“Of the mentors and peers I’ve had at Emory, most have had no trouble finding jobs,” Tara said.

Taryn Connelly, a 2017 graduate of Emory’s nursing school, is a millennial already at the bedside.

She’s working at Emory Johns Creek in the emergency department with the long-term goal of working in policy.

Her mother, Taryn said, sort of pushed her to consider a career in nursing beginning in high school. “She knew it was a great career, and she knows I’m a people person and that I really like doing a lot of different things.”

Mom also recognized there were opportunities to do research, education and policy, not just bedside care, Taryn said.

She became convinced herself when she went as a Spanish interpreter in high school with a group providing health care to farm workers in south Georgia.

At DeKalb Medical’s facilities, nurse recruitment is always ongoing.

“Our strategy focuses on reaching nurses where they live, work, and play through the media they connect with,” said Annissia May, manager of workforce planning and retention.

That means going on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In with digital ads since millennials are more likely to use mobile devices to communicate, as well as apply for jobs, May said.

DeKalb Medical’s facilities have seen a drop of late in its millennial nurses, she said.

At DeKalb’s Hillandale hospital, 11.47 percent of the nursing staff was 30 or under in 2016. A year later, only 6.84 percent of nurses were in that age group, May said.

However, many of the new graduates and nurse externs are millennials, she said.

HERE IS THE DATA FOR CHART:

2017 national picture – registered nurses by age

Total number of registered nurses – 2,875,000

Age

20-24 104,000

25-34 655,000

35-44 695,000

45-54 699,000

55-64 626,000

65+ 95,000

Average age of all nurses 45