Long-term care providers should continue to pursue in-house and self-generated nurse training programs, even though new study results indicate outside formal nurse education revenues may soar by more than 60% over the next five years, experts said Monday.
By 2030, nursing education is expected to grow more than 11% annually to reach $14 billion in revenue, up from $8.5 billion this year, a new report by Validated Insights said.
Brady Colby, the head of market research at Validated Insights, told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Monday, however, that the study’s findings may still indicate staffing shortages in long-term care.
“Financially, nursing education is a very large and strong market that is positioned for growth. But beneath the surface, the trendlines are complicated, even counter-indicated in some ways, with an enormous amount of variation in projections based on the type of certification or degree,” he explained.
As evidence, he cited a study by the National League for Nursing that revealed that despite a projected uptick in nursing education, the nursing workforce still declined by 3.3% from 2021 to 2023.
Colby’s team found some impending trends that may help SNFs bolster their acquisition and retention rates.
“It’s not so much about getting nurses to have a bachelor’s degree. Now, it’s about getting them specialized training in a specific field of expertise,” Colby said. “So that would be one of the other things I’m looking for going forward, about how things might change.”
Many operators are getting a headstart by introducing in-house education, instead of waiting around for graduates to come knocking. They’re creating career pathways for licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants and others.
The Good Samaritan Society says in-house training has been a game changer.
“To help address these challenges, we invest in training programs to attract, develop and grow our workforce,” explained DeeAndra Sandgren, chief nursing officer at Good Samaritan Society, on Monday. “We have proactive strategies in place to ensure we have the positions we need to continue to provide care as close to home by investing in growing our own frontline nurses. For example, our CNA program pays caregivers to prepare for and obtain their CNA license. We often see students participate who later enroll in nursing school and then return to long-term care to work as a nurse.”
She said the company also has been working tirelessly to strengthen nurse recruitment and retention by investing in annual pay raises, creating positions that offer more flexibility, launching new onboarding programs to support hiring and retention, and offering bonuses, incentives and scholarships, especially for hard-to-fill rural openings.
Another of the many in-house examples across the country involves Kane Community Living Centers, a long-term care and skilled nursing provider working across four campuses in Western Pennsylvania. In an effort to improve retention and empower employees, it implemented a partnership with a licensed practical nurse program to educate certified nursing assistants and other staff members at no cost. This LPN program would provide a clear career ladder from CNA to LPN and LPN to RN.
Benedictine Living, a SNF with locations across North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois, is another operator that has taken matters into its own hands. It created its very own international talent pipeline to hire more than 130 highly-motivated nurses, who were then offered even more on-the-job training and education.
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