Falling recruitment and aging population point to critical shortage of nurses

In three years' time Poland could be facing a dramatic shortage of nurses, the National Chamber of Nurses and Midwives (NIPiP) is warning. The number of nursing college graduates is now just a sixth of what it was 10 years ago. Each year some 6,000 nurses retire, but just 2,900 graduate from nursing college, and of these only 1,800 actually take up work as nurses. "The situation is getting so bad that on some wards we postpone surgery because we don't have enough nursing staff," said an anesthesiologist at one Warsaw hospital. The problem is likely to become even more acute, since the aging of the population is expected to create an even greater demand for nurses. (Zycie, p. 7) T.J.