NYS
AHEC SYSTEM
Dept. of Family Medicine
University at Buffalo
462 Grider Street
Buffalo, NY 14215
(716) 898-4699 ahec-info@buffalo.edu
2002 Registered Nurses in New York State: County Level Nursing
Data
Carol S. Brewer, Ph.D., R.N., and Timothy Servoss, M.A.
Authors:
Carol S. Brewer, is Associate Professor, University at Buffalo School
of Nursing and Nursing Director of New York State Area Health Education
Center (AHEC) System. Timothy Servoss is a Research Instructor in the
Family Medicine Research Institute and Evaluation/Research Specialist
for the New York State Area Health Education System. All authors are affiliated
with the University at Buffalo.
Purpose:
Local policy decisions by health care administrators, educators, AHECs
and others need to be based on sound data. The purpose of these reports
is to allow these groups to examine the nursing workforce in the counties
important to them.
Survey and Data source:
The county level reports are based on the 2002 survey conducted by the
NYS Education Department (SED), Office of the Professions and Fiscal Analysis
and Research Unit. The three reports published by the SED and Office of
the Professions are based on this data, and are available at http://www.op.nysed.gov/nurseissues.htm.
These reports contain a wealth of data about the nursing workforce of
NYS, often categorized by Health Service Areas, which can be a useful
regional distinction.
Sample:
The survey was sent to over 31,000 nurses registered with the SED, and
a usable response rate of 45.6% (n = 14,233) was reached. SED conducted
four different sample tests that indicated the sample represented closely
the demographic characteristics of the individuals listed in the active
license file from which the sample was drawn (see Volume 1 for details).
For the county level reports, only RNs working in that county were included.
The RN may live outside the county in which the RN works. All data was
weighted by the weights provided by the SED to provide an estimate of
the actual size of the RN population in the county.
Our goal was to report the basic descriptive information for each of
the major variables in the survey for working RNs in each county. The
SED did not design the survey so that similar information could be reported
about non-working RNs.
For each county, in percentages and means, the following information
is provided:
· Demographic information (i.e. age, sex, etc)
· Job related variables (shortage assessment, job title, income,
commuting time, turnover)
· Policies that would “definately help” retain nurses
· Attitudes such as job satisfaction, job stress, pay satisfaction,
autonomy, etc. Scales are measured on a 1 to 5 scale, with 5 meaning high
agreement or strong values. Interaction with nurses and physicians are
each measured on a 1-7 scale (7=strong agreement).