Impending retirements threaten VA's nursing workforce

Impending retirements of nurses at the Department of Veterans Affairs will exacerbate the agency's nursing shortage unless VA finds a way to attract and retain more employees, according to witnesses at a Senate hearing Thursday.

Dr. Thomas L. Garthwaite, VA's undersecretary for health, said the average age of a VA nurse is 46, and 77 percent of all VA nurses are over 40. By 2005, 35 percent of the agency's current nursing workforce will be eligible for retirement.

"We must do what we can to foster good working environments for our nurses, to recruit the best and brightest to VA, and to encourage more enrollment in nursing schools," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, in his opening statement.

Concerns over low pay and mandatory overtime have made it difficult for Veterans Affairs to recruit and retain highly skilled registered nurses and other health professionals. Downsizing at VA has also played a role in the current nursing shortage: from 1995 to 2000, the agency reduced its ranks of registered nurses by 10 percent, licensed practical nurses by 13 percent and nursing assistants by 30 percent.

"The problems that the Veterans Health Administration is experiencing with nursing recruitment and retention will remain and likely worsen if changes in the workplace are not addressed," said Sandra McMeans, a registered nurse at the West Virginia VA Medical Center.

Still, VA was more successful retaining its nurses last year than the rest of the health care industry. Last year, VA had a lower nurse turnover rate than the national average-9.5 percent compared with the overall rate of 15 percent.

Garthwaite said the agency is trying to increase employee job satisfaction and address the possibility of a nursing shortage created by retirements. In the meantime, he said, VA can use existing flexibilities in its locality pay system to recruit and retain nurses, including pay advances, job appointments above the minimum grade rate for nurses with superior qualifications, and relocation bonuses.

In January, a law guaranteeing VA nurses an annual pay raise under the national comparability system used for other federal employees took effect.

In March, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., introduced the Registered Nurses and Patients Protection Act (H.R. 1289), which would abolish mandatory overtime for registered nurses and certain other licensed health care employees, except in the case of a natural disaster. The bill has been referred to a House committee.