Impact of Increased Supply of Newly Licensed Nurses on Hospital Nurse Staffing and Policy Implications

Abstract

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0)If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium. Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the impact of increasing the supply of newly licensed nurses on improving the hospital nurse staffing grades for the period of 2009~2014. Methods: Using public administrative data, we analyzed the effect of newly licensed nurses on staffing in 1,594 hospitals using Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) ordered logistic regression, and of supply variation on improving staffing grades in 1,042 hospitals using GEE logistic regression. Results: An increase of one newly licensed nurse per 100 beds in general units had significantly lower odds of improving staffing grades (grades 6~0 vs. 7) (odds ratio=0.95, p=.005). The supply of newly licensed nurses increased by 32% from 2009 to 2014, and proportion of hospitals whose staffing grade had improved, not changed, and worsened was 19.1%, 70.1%, and 10.8% respectively. Compared to 2009, the supply variation of newly licensed nurses in 2014 was not significantly related to the increased odds of improving staffing grades in the region (OR=1.02, p=.870). Conclusion: To achieve a balance in the regional supply and demand for hospital nurses, compliance with nurse staffing legislation and revisions in the nursing fee differentiation policy are needed. Rather than relying on increasing nurse supply, retention policies for new graduate nurses are required to build and sustain competent nurse workforce in the future.

Retention Rates and the Associated Risk Factors of Turnover among Newly Hired Nurses at South Korean Hospitals: A Retrospective Cohort Study

“…It was also higher than the 17.7% turnover rate of new nurses within 1 year of service found in another study that analyzed the actual turnover rate between 2006 and 2008 using different datasets [ 25 ]. This result suggests that the turnover rate of new nurses has continued to rise even as the Korean government has implemented policies to increase the labor force of nurses and reduce turnover [ 8 , 11 ]. In comparison, Korea’s closest neighbor, Japan, has maintained a stable turnover rate of 11% or lower among nurses for more than a decade; the overall turnover rate of nurses in Japan was 10.7% in 2019.…”

“…Although the Korean government has gradually increased the entrance quota for nursing colleges since 2008 to train more nurses and address the shortage of clinical nurses, this increase has had a minimal effect on local small- and mid-sized hospitals, where the situation has not improved and, in some instances, has deteriorated [ 11 ]. Since March 2018, an additional measure has been in place to improve nurses’ working environment and compensation [ 8 ].…”

Nurses’ needs for care robots in integrated nursing care services

“…In 2011, the mean number of nursing graduates per 100,000 of the population was 43 in OECD countries and 94.9 in Korea, the average number of active nurses in OECD countries was 8.8 per 1000 people and only 4.7 per 1000 in Korea (OECD, ). Several reports said the inadequate ratio of practising nurses in Korea had been derived from the characteristics of the labour market in nursing where the pay rates are at a lower level to get a sufficient nurse staffing (Bunchan & Black, ; Yang, ; Kim, You, & Kim, ). This circumstance bred large numbers of inactive Registered Nurses.…”

The Study of Preceptor Nurses’ Occupational Stress and Burden

“…대비 2015년 전국 1,042개 병원의 간호인력 확보 수준을 조사한 결과 70.1% (730개)는 간호인력 수준이 그대로였고, 10.3% (113개)는 오히려 간호인력 수준이 악화되었으며 간 호인력 확보수준이 개선된 의료기관은 조사대상 병원의 19.1% (199개)에 불과한 것으로 나타났다 (Kim YM et al, 2017 (Cho EH et al, 2015).…”