ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Implications of an Aging Registered Nurse Workforce

REGISTERED NURSES (RNS) COMprise the largest group of health care professionals in the United States, with more than 2.0 million RNs employed in health care organizations in 1998. This profession has experienced substantial changes during the last decade. However, little attention has been given to the change in the age structure of the RN workforce. Data from the Census Current Population Survey (CPS) show that between 1983 and 1998 the average age of working RNs increased by more than 4 years, from age 37.4 to 41.9 years. During the same time period, the proportion of the RN workforce younger than 30 years decreased from 30.3% to 12.1%, and the actual number of working nurses younger than 30 years decreased by 41%. In hospitals, the average age of RNs increased by 5.3 years between 1983 and 1998. In contrast, the average age of the US workforce as a whole increased by less than 2 years during this period (age 37.4 to 39.0 years), while the total labor force in the United States younger than 30 years decreased by less than 1%. Explanations for the increasing average age of RNs involve a combination of demographic, social, and educational forces. Although the proportion of men in nursing has been increasing, explanations focus on women, who continue to make up more than 90% of the RN workforce. The size of the cohort of women aged 15 to 19 years from which nurse education programs drew students during the 1960s and 1970s declined in the 1980s, thereby decreasing the number of younger prospective nursing students in the US population. Also, the recent expansion of career opportunities and rising wages for women relative to men may have further reduced the pool of prospective nursing students because many women entered other careers. Similar aging trends have occurred in other professions and occupations traditionally dominated by women (eg, teachers, social workers, secretaries, and hair dressers). In addition, the aging of the RN workforce has been attributed to the