South Dakota Nursing Shortage Expected to Get Worse

Hospitals all over South Dakota are already scrambling to find nurses to staff their facilities and now new numbers suggest that problem isn't about to get better anytime soon.

Stacker has published the results of a NursingEducation.org investigation on the future demand for nurses in South Dakota using data from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Health Workforce Simulation Model.

It shows that the Mount Rushmore State will have the third biggest nursing shortage in the country by 2030, if the current trends continue.

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According to the projections, South Dakota will need 13,600 nurses in 2030 but will only have 11,700 nurses employed at that time. That's a shortage of 14 percent.

Only Alaska (22.7% shortage) and South Carolina (16.6% shortage) are expected to have a bigger discrepancy in their nursing numbers over the next eight years.

Earlier this year, Nurse Journal published the results of a study that showed South Dakota with 14.12 nurses per 1,000 people which is 18th worst in America, and well below the national average of 12.06 nurses per 1,000 people.

Nationally, the nursing shortage could reach between 200,000 and 450,000 by 2025,  according to a report from McKinsey & Company.

The contributing factors to the shortage are record high retirement levels among current nurses, an increased need for health care as the population ages, a lack of qualified educators, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Worldwide a shortage of nearly 5.7 million nurses is expected by 2030, according to forecasts by Becker's Hospital Review.