HAMBURG/DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - According to a study, the vast majority of hospitals expect the shortage of nursing staff to worsen. 86 percent of the hospitals surveyed believe that the staffing situation on general wards will worsen in the next three years, according to a study published on Monday by the auditing company BDO and the German Hospital Institute (DKI), which was made available to the German Press Agency. "The clinics see black for the near future," it says.

According to the results of the study, the clinics surveyed primarily lack suitable applicants. In addition, imminent retirement of nursing staff is a common reason for the poor future prospects. The general exhaustion of employees also plays an important role.

According to the study, almost every hospital (94 percent) is currently short of nurses on general wards. On average, eight percent of full-time positions are vacant in the affected hospitals. In intensive care units, almost three quarters of hospitals have problems filling vacant nursing positions. Twelve percent of full-time positions remain vacant there.

Hospitals are trying to tackle the staff shortage by offering guaranteed employment to trainees, expanding training capacities and recruiting nurses from abroad. "Despite all efforts, the gaps can hardly be closed at the moment," says Karl Blum, Board Member and Head of Research at the DKI.

Neither the planned major hospital reform nor other health policy measures such as the reform of nursing training would improve the situation, according to the majority of respondents to the study. A third even assume that the merging of nursing, pediatric and geriatric nursing training will actually increase the shortage. "If this continues, hospitals will have to close departments, not because they run out of money, but because there are no longer enough nursing staff available," says Volker Penter, Head of Healthcare at BDO./vni/DP/zb