Idaho gained nurses. But not enough to deal with retirements and population boom.

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Over the past two years, Idaho has gained nurses.

But the growing number of new Idaho nurses aren’t enough to deal with retirements among older Idaho nurses and the growing demands brought by Idaho’s population growth, according to a new report by the Idaho Center for Nursing.

Idaho should raise nursing school faculty pay to expand school seats, the report suggested.

“The major factors identified by researching nursing workforce impacts in Idaho are nurses’ ages and pending retirements, employment needs based on an increasing census of older adults, (and) limitations on expanding education programs to produce more nurses,” the report found. 

Other issues contribute, the report found, such as “problems specific to job stress, job satisfaction, job site abuses by patients and families, workplace violence and a general feeling of lack of administrative support.” Costs of housing, child care and living also played a role, but to a smaller degree, the report said. 

Among the report’s recommendations is to boost pay for nursing school faculty, which it said isn’t competitive with wages in the nursing industry.

“We’re losing (nurses) faster than we can produce them,” Idaho Center for Nursing Executive Director Teresa Stanfill told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview. “We can’t produce them unless we have enough faculty. And we need to create the environment in which nurses want to stay in Idaho.”

What the report found about Idaho’s nursing workforce

The report, available online and issued every two years since 2000, largely focused on supply, demand and education for Idaho’s nursing workforce. 

Here’s what it found:

Supply:

• Idaho has a shortage of 468 registered nurses to meet baseline needs. But when the report excluded retirement-age nurses who are still licensed in Idaho, Idaho is actually short more than 1,800 registered nurses. Idaho’s rate of registered nurses per 1,000 residents fell to 7.06 in 2024, down from 9.97 in 2022.
• Since 2022, Idaho has gained 309 registered nurses, up to 18,959 this year. That’s according to the report’s “adjusted workforce count,” which excludes advanced practice registered nurses — who don’t typically fill registered nurse positions — and 1,399 licensed nurses who are at or above retirement age.

 

• Past reports by the group have predicted that Idaho’s aging nursing workforce would soon retire. The report found that’s happening, even though retiring nurses may retain their licenses. In 2022, 31% of Idaho’s nearly 3,200 licensed practical nurses were at or above age 67 — the federal retirement age. In 2024, only 7.8% of Idaho’s roughly 3,100 licensed practical nurses were at or above retirement age.
• Pay rates for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses in Idaho, this year, are below all six surrounding states, the report found. Idaho’s average registered nurse annual wage is $78,400, while its average licensed practical nurse annual wage is $48,420. But in 2022, the report found, Idaho had a mid-point placement in nurse salaries compared to surrounding states. 

Demand:

• From 2022 to 2024, health care institutions across Idaho reported ongoing nursing vacancies. Vacancies dipped in the last year, with average monthly vacancies between 750 and 1,000.

 

• Health care institutions continue using travel nurses, but the use of travel nurses has fallen significantly since their use peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, travel salaries have fallen, and fewer agencies accept Idaho-based contracts “primarily because” fewer travel nurses are available and often seek placements in states with higher pay. 

 

Education:

• Idaho nursing schools have maximized enrollments, leading to more graduates. Schools plan to continue boosting enrollments and graduations. And state-sponsored nursing education programs have focused on admitting Idaho residents, who the report said are incredibly likely to seek jobs in Idaho.

 

• Still, all schools say they have more qualified students applying than they can accept, besides College of Western Idaho’s licensed practical nurse program.

 

• Idaho nursing schools’ ability to boost student enrollment is constrained by limited clinical facilities and difficulty hiring professors “because salaries cannot compete with industry,” which the report said was the top barrier to hiring faculty.

 

Why boosting Idaho nursing school faculty pay could help address workforce shortage

To meet demand needs, Idaho needs to bring in nurses from elsewhere or build them up within Idaho schools, Stanfill said. 

Importing nurses from outside the state can be challenging because surrounding states have higher pay rates “and their shortages are greater than ours, and so they’re able to offer significant relocation bonuses and sign-on pay,” she said. 

“Our best initial step is to be able to compensate faculty in a way that makes it attractive to be faculty,” Stanfill said.

Many nurses are academically prepared to take on faculty roles, either on an adjunct basis or full time, Stanfill said. But if Idaho nurses were to leave a hospital for a teaching job, they’d face a significant pay cut, she said.

“We turn away a significant number of students every year because we don’t have enough faculty,” she said, adding that that also happens across the country. “So once we get the faculty, we’ve got places then that we can put them for patient care, learning, clinical experiences.”

Rural Idaho gained nurses. But nearly half of registered nurses live in Treasure Valley.

Almost half — 44.6% — of Idaho registered nurses live in Ada and Canyon counties. That’s down from 48% in 2022. But it’s part of a years-long trend of Idaho’s larger areas having more registered nurses than rural areas.

Still, rural Idaho gained another 520 nurses in the past two years, according to the report. But critical access hospitals, in small communities, and long-term care facilities still “struggle to maintain sufficient staffing levels,” the report found.

Idaho’s new rural nurse loan repayment program — approved by the Idaho Legislature in 2023 — has helped “slow some of the migration of rural nurses to larger towns or to Ada and Canyon counties” and is “a successful recruitment tactic for rural employers,” the report found.

But the report stressed that Idaho also should expand clinical partnerships, address nurse burn out and dissatisfaction, focus on retaining existing nursing staff, plan to boost Idaho nursing school enrollment and more.