More than 40 million Americans will be 65 or older by 2010, and hospital officials are already bracing for a staggering increase in the patient population as baby boomers creep closer toward senior citizenship. But it's not just the patients who are getting older.
Experts say the country's nursing corps is aging faster than nearly every other profession.
The average age of a nurse in the United States is now more than 44 years. The mean has grown so steadily this decade that some healthcare experts are predicting a professional crisis in the making. That may just be part of the bad news. The pipeline of younger nurses entering the profession is not replenishing the supply of older nurses who are retiring, opting out of bedside nursing, or opting out of the industry altogether. Hospital involvement is way overdue.