Colorado's nursing shortage is about double the national average, and the national average is horrible. Americans will have 800,000 fewer nurses than they need by 2020. And while demand for nurses rises, their numbers keep dwindling.
Two of the state's top health care leaders and thinkers have devoted much of their time to finding out why. From their different vantage points Jack Cochran and Sue Carparelli arrived at some startlingly similar and none-too-comforting answers. Among them: our system for educating nurses is in jeopardy; we've made nurses' working conditions close to intolerable; and the quality and costs of healthcare are suffering.
Now, as the state prepares to vote on two measures (Referenda C and D) that have a direct impact on funding nursing education, they offer their insights into the problems and their provocative thoughts about solutions.
Speakers
John H. Cochran, M.D.
Even since becoming head of CPMG, which contracts with the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan to form Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Dr. Cochran has taken an increasingly public role in pushing physicians themselves to take responsibility for many of the nation's most difficult care delivery problems. Speaking at numerous national conferences and in various journal articles, he has made a specialty out of both physician and nurse career satisfaction issues. Formerly in top clinical and executive positions at St. Joseph's Hospital and Exempla Healthcare, he joined CPMG in 1999. He has an MD from the University of Colorado, and served residencies at the Stanford University Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin Hospitals.
Sue Carparelli
With broad experience in the management of public, private and non-profit organizations, Sue Carparelli has a background in both workforce development and in health care. She was vice president and manager of workforce development for the Southeast Business Partnership (SEBP), a public/private partnership created to sustain and enhance the long-term vitality and quality of life of the Southeast Metro Denver area. Before that, she was vice president of business and program development for Rose Medical Center in Denver.
