2023-09-05
Nursing shortage: the real need and the possibilities of attracting and retaining them are unclear
Nurse demand planning needs to be improved, and attracting and retaining them in the workplace needs to be more effective. These are the results presented by the National Audit Office's auditors in their report "Ensuring Demand for Nursing Professionals".
"Audits by the National Audit Office show that Lithuania is facing a shortage of professionals providing public services: there are not enough teachers, police officers and doctors. This also applies to nursing professionals, who are responsible for preserving our health, preventing diseases and caring for sick people. Unfortunately, it is difficult to talk about the actual demand for nurses as there is no reliable data on the current shortage or the future need for them", says Vita Želvienė, Audit Team Leader.
Nurse demand planning needs to be improved at the national level, as there is still no health professionals (including nursing) forecasting, that would consider the restructuring of the healthcare network, regional disparities, and the nursing qualifications and specialisations. Reliable data are essential for demand planning, however, the figures for the shortage of nursing professionals provided by the Ministry and municipalities in 2022 differ by a factor of 5 for nurses and a factor of 36 for nursing assistants. In addition, more than half of the municipalities and a quarter of the surveyed healthcare institutions do not plan for the need for these professionals at all.
The auditors estimate that the state funding for nursing studies has been increasing, while enrolments in state-funded nursing courses have fallen by 19% between 2020 and 2023. Enrolments in master‘s degree studies have also fallen by 15%, therefore they will not produce the higher-qualified nurses needed to reduce the workload of family doctors and manage patient queues.
According to the auditors of the National Audit Office, attracting and retaining nursing staff in the workplace should be more effective. The Ministry has drafted a plan for attraction measures for 2022 and has earmarked funding of EUR 14 million for attracting measures for all health professionals, but the plan has not been approved. Furthermore, the Ministry does not know what share of the funds will be allocated to attracting nursing professionals.
Only 16% of nursing staff find nursing an attractive profession. Less than half (40% of all) of the municipalities and 44% of the healthcare institutions surveyed by the auditors had measures in place to attract and retain nursing professionals. Only 22% of municipalities and 30% of healthcare institutions provided funding for the measures. Only 19% of the healthcare institutions considered the measures taken by the municipality to attract and retain nursing professionals to be adequate and sufficient.
Considering that the Ministry is taking steps to address the problem and has actions planned until 2023 (including updating the model for the forecasting for health professionals, taking into account the restructuring of the network and regional disparities, and the adoption of a plan for attraction measures), and taking into account the developments that have already taken place, the National Audit Office concludes the audit with a preliminary study.