Seniors in rural Nebraska feeling brunt of nursing shortage

A national nursing shortage is hitting Nebraska hard, especially in rural areas. And it could be causing people to leave the state and feel more isolated.

Six counties in the state don’t have a single registered nurse on staff, according to the Nebraska Center for Nursing.

An additional six counties staff just one nurse.

All of the counties with zero or one registered nurse have populations less than 1,400 people.

University of Nebraska–Omaha professor of gerontology, Chris Kelly, said the shortage of nurses is a national problem.

However, 73 of Nebraska’s 93 counties are below the national average ratio of registered nurses to patients, according to a Nebraska Hospital Association report.

The lack of RNs was a problem prior to the pandemic.

Rural seniors may be feeling the brunt of the looming shortage of RNs, and the problem is on a trajectory to only get more intense.

According to the Nebraska Center for Nursing, Nebraska will experience a workforce shortage of 5,435 nurses by 2025.

In rural areas, the challenge is pay.

“I think much of it has to do with nursing salaries not being competitive in different parts of the state,” Kelly said.

Many rural nursing homes can’t financially support competitive salaries for nurses and end up closing.

He said many registered nurses are aging out of the profession. Young nurses are more likely to take jobs in higher-paying, metro areas.

That leaves many seniors in rural Nebraska forced to move to cities where nursing homes are equipped with more staff. Sometimes that means moving to a different state, like Colorado, Kelly said.

And moving far away from home can heighten feelings of isolation.

“They are less likely to see, regularly, family members and friends. And so that does make loneliness and the risk for depression worse,” Kelly said.

Nebraskans need to find ways to generate higher salaries for nurses in rural areas, Kelly said.

Otherwise, the nursing shortage in rural areas will only escalate.