The Chattanooga region is home to six different nursing programs producing nearly 500 graduates per year. But despite more than 6,500 registered nurses living in Hamilton County, according to Tennessee Board of Nursing data, local hospitals struggle to fill critical nursing roles.
It’s a national problem, and Chattanooga’s supply of nurses is better than many areas of the country, said Rhonda Hatfield, chief nursing officer at CHI Memorial. However, several factors, including an aging workforce, near record low unemployment, competition between hospitals, insurance companies, ambulatory surgery centers and physician practices both locally and in nearby Nashville and Atlanta, make recruiting and retaining hospital nurses in Chattanooga a challenge.
“There are so many options,” Hatfield said. “As they get their two to three years experience, they look for that next advanced step.”
Nurses are a critical aspect of hospital quality and safety, and studies show that an understaffed and overworked nursing force decreases hospital efficiency and increases the risk of medical errors. It’s one of the issues contributing to overcrowding in Erlanger’s emergency department and why California mandates hospitals maintain certain nurse to patient ratios.
“You ride these roller coasters of patient swings, and you have to look at your supply and demand,” Hatfield said. “How do you keep your physicians happy, keep your patients happy, keep your nurses happy? You have to devote daily planning to that.”