Oregon Healthcare Workforce Index: Understanding Nursing in the Broader Healthcare Labor Market

Nurses are deeply impacted by fluctuations in the broader healthcare labor market. The Oregon Healthcare Workforce Index, developed by the Oregon Center for Nursing, adapts a Michigan-based model to examine how 35 healthcare occupations rank across four indicators: growth, shortage, turnover, and wages. The result is a multi-dimensional view of where nursing stands within a highly interdependent system.

The index moves beyond isolated metrics by comparing nursing with related healthcare roles that both support and depend on it. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants rank near the top due to strong growth and low turnover. In contrast, registered nurses land mid-range, demonstrating competitive wages but elevated demand and high turnover. This highlights the systemic pressures that shape recruitment and retention challenges across the board.

Rather than treating nursing as a standalone issue, the index urges policymakers and workforce planners to view stability and vacancy problems in context. Many occupations that bolster or collaborate with nurses face instability too, and when these positions falter, the ripple effects intensify the challenges nurses face. Strategic investment across the whole care team is critical to improving Oregon’s healthcare workforce resilience.