Over the next decade, one in five nurses in Castile and León will retire. This is the estimate of the Council that brings together the profession in the Community, which has prepared a study on the human resources of the sector for the future. According to this report, a total of 3,628 professionals currently aged between 55 and 64 will hang up their robes until 2034, while a total of 953 graduates graduate from the Community’s faculties each year.
It is for this reason that the president of the organization, Enrique Ruiz, estimated yesterday that one of the short-term challenges is that of “generational change” because, according to him, the number of graduates leaving the classrooms “will not be sufficient” to maintain “quality care” in the region. Furthermore, and despite the fact that the Community has a ratio of 7.35 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants – higher than the national average of 6.35 – the Council estimates that 5,000 additional professionals would be needed to reach the European average which is of 8.83. “From the almost 18,000 currently, we should reach 22,000,” estimated the president, who also declared that all provinces exceeded the national threshold, with the exception of Segovia, which has 5.94. Ruiz asked for more places in nursing faculties – there are currently training centers in all the provinces of Castile and León – in order to bring the Community closer to the European ratio and also cope with the personnel who will retire in the years to come. “There is a very significant increase in the number of people wanting to study a degree in nursing,” he said, adding that in fact, “the demand for places is tripling the supply and a large number of applicants are left behind. They also ask that students who complete their training be “loyal” in the same way as doctors who complete the MIR, said Ruiz, who stressed the importance of “retaining talent.”
And like he said, Castilla y León is the second autonomy behind the Balearic Islands where more professionals go to work in other provinces. Specifically, 3.57 percent of the 6,000 people from all of Spain who moved to other territories. The chosen destinations, he declared, This is normally the Basque Country or Catalonia, where salaries are between “300 and 400 euros more per month”. It is for this reason that he considered that “working conditions must improve” in Castile and León, where a graduate who has just finished his studies, with “nights and vacations”, would earn a “salary net of 1,800 euros per month. “There are more contracts than professionals,” he underlined, indicating that there are nurses who “in the same year” have several contracts.
But he also considered that the fact that the EBAU in the Community “be more demanding” than elsewhere This also affects the “walk” of health workers to other regions. “Those who come from abroad to study end up going to their place of origin,” he stressed. Foreigners also continue to exert an influence among young graduates and some continue to choose to develop their professional activity in other countries. “They go to the United Kingdom, France or Norway,” he said, after explaining that in the latter country the ratio of nurses per 100,000 inhabitants reaches 20.
Regarding hard-to-fill positions, Ruiz said the Health Ministry aims to achieve “parity” between doctors and nurses. But there are “areas where this is not necessary.” “Places with a lot of aging, dependency and polymedicated patients” can be taken care of by nursing staff, he believes, once the doctor prescribes treatment. So, he assured, if they had “total competence” in these longevity cases, doctors might not have to go there as frequently, “patient consultation time would be reduced ” and “expenses would be reduced.” In this sense, the Secretary of the Council, Isabel Galán, asked for “more places in EIR and, above all, in geriatric care.
