HJBR Sep/Oct 2024

46 SEP / OCT 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE NURSING Findings from the 2023 Nurse Employer Survey In 2023, the LCN launched the state’s fourth statewide Nurse Employer Sur- vey (LCN-NES) to determine the demand for RNs, APRNs, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and nursing assistants (NAs) in Louisiana based on data obtained from employers. Major healthcare industries employing the vast majority of nurses — such as hospitals, long term care (LTC) facilities, home health agencies, hospices, and public health facilities — were sur- veyed to gather information about vacan- cy rates, turnover rates, and growth rates for the various types of nursing personnel. Additional questions such as the num- ber of licensed beds versus staffed beds, number of nurses hired within the last year, and hourly wage for entry level and experienced nursing personnel were add- ed. A total of 1,328 surveys were sent to healthcare facilities across the state, and 357 were returned, resulting in an overall 27% response rate. The following are a few highlights from the 2023 LCN-NES. A complete list of ma- jor findings can be found at the end of the report. The report, in its entirety, and info- graphic can be found at the following links: • 2023 Louisiana’s Nursing Work- force Demand Report: https:// www.lsbn.state.la.us/wp-content/ uploads/2023-nursing-workforce- demand-report.pdf • A Snapshot of Findings from the 2023 Nurse Employer Survey (NES): https://www.lsbn.state.la.us/ wp-content/uploads/center-for- nursing/lcn-employer-survey- snapshot-2023.pdf Highlights from the 2023 Nurse Employer Survey: • Healthcare facilities that completed the 2023 LCN-NES provided infor- mation on 23,898 permanent, full or part-time, nursing personnel across nine industry groups. When 1,667 ad- ditional temporary personnel were included, the number of nurses em- ployed by responding healthcare in- dustries totaled 25,565. • In 2023, there was an unmet demand for 4,579 RNs, 1,860 LPNs, and 1,128 NAs based on data obtained from the nine major types of healthcare fa- cilities that participated in the 2023 LCN-NES. • Although the greatest number of RNs were employed by hospitals (10,583), public health continues to have the largest proportion of RNs among all nursing staff: 87.8%of the entire nurs- ing staff for public health are RNs, followed by ambulatory surgery care centers (74.7%) and hospitals (66.9%). • LPNs represent the greatest propor- tion of the nursing workforce in home health (32.9%), LTC (30.9%), rural health clinics (25.8%), and federal- ly qualified health centers (FQHCs) (22.6%). • LTC facilities and hospitals employed the largest number of nurse aides (NAs): 3,413 and 2,480, respectively. NAs represent the largest proportion of the nursing staff for LTCs (59%) followed by dialysis centers (34%). • Of the 1,786 APRNs employed by re- sponding healthcare facilities, 78.6% were nurse practitioners (NPs), 19.8% were certified registered nurs- es (CRNAs), 1.4% were clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), and 0.3% were certified nurse midwives (CNMs). When compared to the other types of healthcare facilities that were sur- veyed, FQHCs (47.7%), rural health clinics (29.3%), and ambulatory sur- gery centers (9.3%) had the greatest proportion of APRNs as a part of their nursing workforce. • In 2022, 1,667 temporary nursing staff were reported by responding em- ployers compared to 1,758 temporary staff reported by responding employ- ers in 2018, which represents a 5.2% decrease in number. • The highest vacancy rate for direct care RNs was 22.5% for dialysis cen- ters, 19.8% for home health agencies, 17.5% for hospitals, and 16% for public health. • In 2022, the median turnover rate for RNs in hospitals in Louisiana — the largest employer of RNs identified in the survey in terms of the number of budgeted positions — was 35.4% compared to a median turnover rate of 20.2% in 2018 and 13.8% in 2014. In 2022, the national turnover rate for RNs in hospitals was reported to be 22.5%, an increase of 6.6 percentage points when compared to the 15.9% turnover rate reported in 2019 (Nurs- ing Solutions, Inc. “2023 National Health Care and Retention and RN Staffing Report”). • Registered nurses were reported as among the most difficult types of nurses to recruit by hospitals, LTC facilities, and dialysis centers. LPNs were identified as being one of the five most difficult types of nurses to recruit by LTC facilities, home health agencies, and rural health clinics. Nurse administrators were identified by four of the nine types of healthcare facilities surveyed as being one of the five most difficult types of nurses to recruit. • As of Jan. 1, 2023, there was a three-percentage-point increase in the proportion of RNs that were pre- pared at the baccalaureate level in hospitals and, similarly, a three-per- centage-point increase in the propor- tion employed by ambulatory surgery centers when compared to data ob- tained in the 2018 LCN-NES. • In 2022, a total of 610 new RN grads and 133 new LPN grads were hired by hospitals, which represents a 30.8% decrease in the number of RNs hired by responding hospitals and a 33.5% decrease in the number of new LPN grads hired by hospitals when com- pared to 2018. • Approximately 23.5%of hospitals that completed the 2023 NES reported offer a nurse residency program. n Sarah Luneau is the public information director/proj- ect manager at LSBN’s Louisiana Center for Nursing. Sarah received a Bachelor of Science in marketing from the University ofWisconsin in 2001.She joined LSBN in 2012 and has served as the project manager since 2021. In this role, she is charged with collect- ing, analyzing, and reporting on the RN and APRN workforce.Sarah addresses issues related to nursing education capacity,nurse supply,and nurse demand.