Q: What are you hoping to achieve with the newly unveiled LTPAC Nurse Heroes campaign?
A:It’s a multiyear campaign. Our first phase is to raise awareness of long-term care and post-acute care (PAC) nursing opportunities. The video (at http://www.aapacn.org/nurseheroes) is a great presentation of leadership and career opportunities available to LTC and PAC nurses.
Q: How big a problem is nurse retention and recruitment?
A:When we ask our members what keeps them awake at night, workforce retention and recruitment are their biggest challenges. We need to shine more attention on this segment to recruit additional healthcare providers. Looking forward, in 30 years, over 20% of our population will be over age 65, with more than 23 million adults requiring specialized care. However, 60% of our current LTPAC nurses retire before then. We don’t have a sufficient workforce to replace them as they retire, so we need to rebuild this workforce.
Q: How do you know the campaign will be successful?
A:We will track the number of nurses in LTPAC roles. Our members will tell us that this is no longer their biggest challenge, and long term we’ll see a greater number of nurses in LTPAC.
