A new report predicts San Diego and Imperial counties will face a severe shortage of registered nurses by the year 2030. KPBS Reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
The report comes from the Center for California Health Workforce Studies at UC San Francisco.
The study says the San Diego area currently has the state's highest ratio of nurses per capita. But the report's author, Joanne Spetz, says that situation won't last.
She predicts the region will fall about 6,400 nurses short by 2030.
Spetz: "Which is pretty substantial when you imagine hospitals trying to function with a quarter of their positions vacant. It's really hard to imagine that they can deliver patient care in the way that people need it delivered."
Spetz says all parts of California will face nursing shortages within the next few years. She says the state must find a way to generate more capacity at nursing schools.
