title: Better late than never: workforce supply implications of later entry into nursing.
abstract: Although the number of people entering nursing in their early to mid-twenties remains at its lowest point in forty years, large numbers of people are entering the profession in their late twenties and early thirties. And although it remains unclear why people are becoming nurses later, there is evidence that nursing is attracting interest from different segments of the potential workforce than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. We analyze these trends using data through 2005 and a revised forecast model that still predicts a nurse shortage by 2020, but a smaller one than previously forecast.
authors.affiliation: Health and Human Resources Division, Congressional Budget Office, Washington, DC, USA. david.auerbach@cbo.gov
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Auerbach
authors.forename: Peter I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Buerhaus
authors.forename: Douglas O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Staiger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D002321:Career Choice; D019352:Censuses; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006291:Health Policy; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009729:Nursing / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States