Beating back COVID right now comes down to balancing supply and demand.
With hopes pinned to vaccines, demand has far outstripped the supply of doses.
But, as an increasing number of vaccine vials are shipped in coming weeks, the concern about shortages may well shift to human capital: the vaccinators themselves. We need to mobilize more medical units to get more shots in people s arms, Jeff Zients, coordinator of President Joe Biden s COVID-19 task force, said at a briefing earlier this month.
Already, there have been scattered reports that vaccinators are in short supply in some areas. Absolutely, we do need more, said Tom Kraus, vice president of government relations for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, whose members work in hospitals, clinics and large physician practices.
Feb 18, 2021 1:05pm
Demand for nurses was strong even before the pandemic hit. There are about 3 million registered nurses in the United States, but employment is expected to grow 7% between 2019 and 2029, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Getty/monkeybusinessimages)
Last December, Mirande Gross graduated from Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, with a bachelor’s degree in communications. But Gross has changed her mind and is heading back to school in May for a one-year accelerated nursing degree program. The pandemic that has sickened more than 27 million people in the United States and killed nearly 500,000 helped convince her she wanted to become a nurse.
Michelle Andrews
Kaiser Health News
Last December, Mirande Gross graduated from Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, with a bachelor’s degree in communications. But Gross has changed her mind and is heading back to school in May for a one-year accelerated nursing degree program. The pandemic that has sickened more than 27 million people in the United States and killed nearly 500,000 helped convince her she wanted to become a nurse.
“I was excited about working during the pandemic,” Gross, 22, said. “It didn’t scare me away.”
Enrollment in baccalaureate nursing programs increased nearly 6% in 2020, to 250,856, according to preliminary results from an annual survey of 900 nursing schools by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.