The Chamber of Nursing of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has collected comprehensive data on the nursing situation. According to this data, several cities in the state will experience a drastic shortage of nursing professionals. According to the chamber, the cities at particular risk are Coesfeld, Höxter, Kleve, Leverkusen, Minden-Lübbecke, Neuss, Soest, Steinfurt, Viersen and Warendorf.

In these municipalities, the factors of an ‘ageing society’ and a shortage of personnel will have a particularly strong impact: three times as many nursing professionals are retiring than are entering the labour market. In five years, that feels like tomorrow.

According to the nursing chamber, when it comes to organising the care and health infrastructure, many cities are not keeping an eye on developments, or are doing so only to an insufficient extent. Politicians cannot postpone the problem until the future; they are called upon to act now.

For a long time, there was no overview in North Rhine-Westphalia of where which nursing professionals with which qualifications or age are employed. The register set up by the nursing chamber makes such forecasts possible for the first time.