Health Care Today

Providing For the Future of Health Care In Our Community

Nursing Crisis in San Mateo Finding Local Help

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Health Care Today

Health Care Today is a forum for District Board members to openly discuss health care topics currently facing the District.

Periodically, we will update the page with new information and points of view. Please note that the opinions of the individual Board members are those of the author, and may or may not represent the views of other Board members.

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The San Mateo County Grand Jury recently released a report outlining a crisis that the health care profession has had their eye on for a number of years: the nursing shortage.

This crisis is not unique to San Mateo County. All over the country—and in California especially—there are simply not enough nurses to go around. And exacerbating this crisis is the fact that our patient population will continue to grow as our country’s population continues to age, thereby greatly overextending our county’s nursing resources.

The Grand Jury report both confirms the extent of the problem and outlines specific steps that various public, private and corporate entities can take to help alleviate the problem. We at the Peninsula Health Care District (the District) Board, charged with protecting the health care needs of the community, are thankful to the Grand Jury for preparing this report and calling attention to the critical issue.

We are also proud to say that we have already begun to implement many of the solutions that the Grand Jury recommended to help solve the problem. The programs we have in place now, which we began several years back when the nursing shortage became apparent, we hope will become the foundation for a sustainable effort to bring in new nurses, both now and in the future.

The District’s proactive approach is a testament to the efficacy of public health care districts in solving health care problems that arise in the community. Unlike areas with a strictly private hospital presence, our commitment is to the community and to the community alone.

This problem has not been created because people don’t want to become nurses. Nursing, as a profession, is in relatively high demand. Perhaps most indicative of the problem is the fact that two-thirds of the applicants to our local schools are turned away because there is a lack of professors who teach nursing.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take a local level to help alleviate the nursing crisis and build a foundation for the future of nursing in our community. And many of these steps are already in progress for the District.

To date, the District has committed almost a quarter million dollars for 2005-2007 to fund nursing education staff at the College of San Mateo. These funds will support 12 full-time nursing students through two years of school, as well as fund the salaries of two full-time nursing professors.

We also have programs in place to pay off our nurses student loans in order to encourage more individuals to enter nursing school without worrying about long-term financial repercussions. Over the past five years, we have provided more than $1 million in debt relief to nurses who are working within the District.

We have also begun a training and education program that allows nurses with Associate Degrees to earn Bachelor’s Degrees, and nurses with Bachelor’s Degrees to earn Master’s Degrees. These types of programs allow nurses to continually set goals to challenge the heights they can reach in the profession.

The District has recognized for years that the nursing shortage needs a solution that not only fills our immediate need for nurses, but also plans for the long-term sustainability of the profession. The programs we have in place now are designed to bolster the recruitment, training and retention of qualified individuals who will be the next generation of nurses and will support the health care of our District residents for generations ahead.