Patient numbers grow, nurses in short supply in Poland

The average age of nurses in Poland is 47 and soon there will not be enough of them to take care of patients, according to local press on Wednesday.

Some hospitals already employ nurses who are 67 years old. Of 192,000 nurses employed by Polish hospitals, those who are aged 30 or younger account for less than 2 percent.

Thirty percent of nurses are due to retire over the next eight years. In 10 years' time there will be 184,000 nurses while the need will be for 340,000.

Poland comes last in the European Union in terms of the number of nurses per 1,000 residents (5.4). For comparison: in Switzerland this figure is 16, and in the Czech Republic, 8.1.