Nurses Stay Close to Home

A new study finds that the U.S. does have enough nurses to meet the need, but they are not necessarily in the places where they are needed, partly because they tend to stay close to home:

The second Health Affairs study finds nurses to be more likely to practice near their hometown, where they went to high school, than virtually any other profession. This was particularly true for nurses who received a diploma in nursing or an associate degree, as opposed to a bachelor’s. . . . With nurses generally staying in their home states, this data suggests that our nursing shortage could be a regional one, with some parts of the country — particularly those with fewer nursing schools — more affected than others.

I found this interesting, since I am married to a nurse who works just a few miles from where she grew up. I suspect the distribution of archaeologists is quite different.