Friday, March 05, 1999
Nurse vacancy rates jump this year
Need greatest for critical care, cancer
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Greater Cincinnati hospitals need more nurses, especially nurses trained to work with cancer patients and in critical care units.
Nursing jobs dominated this year's list of hard-to-fill positions assembled by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. The list details 789 openings in 31 job categories at 25 hospitals. Of those, 462 were nursing jobs.
Because nursing is the single biggest job category at a hospital, nursing openings frequently outnumber other jobs. But this was the first year in several that nursing vacancy rates (available by specialty category for the first time) pushed toward the top of the list.
The vacancy rate was 19.6 percent among oncology nurses, 13 percent among criti cal care nurses and 8.4 percent among general staff nurses.
Several other vital health jobs were among the 10 highest vacancy rates, including radiation therapy technicians (20.1 percent) and surgical technicians (17.1 percent). By contrast, last year's highest vacancy rates were among jobs such as physical therapy assistant, patient care assistant and medi cal records technician.
“Members are communicating to us that they are having more difficulty filling positions this year. The openings also seem to be causing more difficulty this year,” said Kerry Loeffler, health council vice president.
Some of the high vacancy rates are occurring despite signing bonuses and other perks recently offered by various hospitals.
Experts say hospitals, like many other employers seeking skilled employees, are struggling to fill jobs during times of low unemployment.
The health council will offer more details about hospital job openings and training programs at a job fair from 8 a.m. to noon March 13 at the Drake Center, 151 W. Galbraith Road. To register, call 531-0200.
Hospital jobs
Here are highlights from a survey of job openings, conducted by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. The biggest number of openings was for staff nurse: 368.5 jobs, a vacancy rate of 8.4 percent. The 10 highest vacancy rates were:
Job title Openings
Echo technician 6.5
Radiation therapy technologist 6.5
Staff nurse: oncology 12.3
Cyto technician 11.0
OR/Surgical technician 34.0
Vascular technician 3.5
Audiologist 3.0
Occupational therapy assistant 4.0
Medical lab technician 21.5
Staff nurse: critical care 48.3
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