It's Graduation Season - But Where Are the Nurses?

As we celebrate the graduation of our eldest daughter from high school and her trade school (cosmetology) program, I couldn't help but notice a significant disparity at her recent completion ceremony. There were considerably more graduates in programs like cosmetology and aesthetics compared to medical assistant and nursing programs, with a ratio of approximately 4:1.

The nursing shortage in 2025 is projected to reach a deficit of over 500,000 registered nurses in the U.S., driven by an aging population, retiring nurses, and insufficient nursing education enrollment. A significant number of nurses, particularly those from the Baby Boomer generation, are expected to retire in the coming years, with approximately 600,000 more registered nurses projected to retire by 2030. This will exacerbate the shortage, and the existing nursing workforce is facing higher workloads, leading to increased burnout rates and impacting job satisfaction and patient care quality.

For those of us interacting with clinical teams today, we hear firsthand how demand and workloads are pushing many from continuing in the profession. The problem is only going to get worse as nurses may face higher patient-to-nurse ratios, leading to potential declines in the quality of care. I know that this comes as no surprise to all of you, but this is a stark reminder of the reality we are experiencing as an industry and a profession right now. While we may not be directly involved in nursing education, we must consider how we can support our fellow nurses and caregivers.

A recent article listed the top 15 reasons why nurses are leaving the profession. While many of the reasons revolved around pay, leadership, and culture, several in the top 15 could be directly improved by an enhanced built environment:

  • Staffing Shortages

  • Mental Health

  • Feeling Undervalued

  • Work-Related Injuries

  • Unsafe Working Conditions

Take a look again at that list… those are 5 things that a better built environment could directly improve to support nurses! 

The nursing shortage is real and is not going away anytime soon. Therefore, a better-built environment needs to be extremely efficient to allow nurses to care for their assigned patients in the most streamlined manner. This might include creating 'nurse servers' to bring frequent supplies closer to the bedside, decentralized pharmacy medication options, centrally located supply and equipment rooms, and more. By thinking of these things in a design built for less nursing staff, and making accommodations to support their work environment, nurses will also feel a greater sense of value which will lead to an improved mental state too.  Circling back to a previous newsletter where I discussed respite rooms and dedicated spaces for nurses to replenish and rejuvenate during a shift, these too will directly impact a nurse’s mental health and current feeling of being undervalued.

Lastly, how we build and remodel spaces has a direct impact on work-related injuries and unsafe working conditions.  Building facilities that incorporate safety guidelines from FGI and OSHA, monitoring for air exchanges, providing designs that protect staff from patient violence, and implementing technologies such as mounted lift systems and more will all drive us to a safer working environment.

What’s most important here to me is that as nurses in design, we can’t just sit back and look at the nursing shortage as someone else’s problem to figure out.  We have to take professional responsibility to do our part to create environments where nurses, new and old, will be able to efficiently accomplish their increasingly demanding work, feel valued and have their mental health cared for in dedicated spaces, and do all that in an environment that is safe from injury and harm!  We can make a difference in supporting more graduates entering the field of nursing… and we do it, by helping create environments that nurses would love to come to work in each shift.  Let’s go do our part!