ATLANTA — Georgia is facing a growing nursing shortage as healthcare leaders mark National Nurses Day and recognize the contributions nurses make across the state.
Recent reports show Georgia is expected to see a 20% shortage of registered nurses by 2035. The shortage is being driven by an aging workforce, high burnout, and increased healthcare demand.
By 2035, Georgia is projected to have the second-highest shortage of registered nurses in the country.
Anita Rich has worked as a nurse in metro Atlanta for 44 years and says there are multiple factors contributing to the shortage.
“There’s difficulty in the educational part of it, there’s difficulty in the staffing part of it and the burn out part of it, so I think there are just so many pieces to this dilemma,” Rich said.
Rich is also the founder of “Nurses Heart to Heart,” an organization that travels internationally to help train nurses around the world.
“We’ve taught in little bitty hospitals, we’ve taught in community centers, we’ve taught nurses and doctors, and military people, first responders,” Rich said.
Rich says volunteers with the organization have trained and helped equip more than 5,000 nurses, midwives, and healthcare providers internationally.
“It’s such a hard job, it’s so easy to get burned out,” Rich said.
Rich says she hopes the public understands the demands nurses face daily.
“Something that I would love for the public to know is that nursing is just incredible. It’s very hard, it’s a very hard job, with lots of training and lots of stress,” Rich said.
WSB Radio’s Sabrina Cupit contributed to this story.
