A March 30 viewpoint published in JAMA lays out the statistics on the age distribution of America’s healhcare workforce. Substantial numbers of healthcare workers are over 55, and the proportion is even higher in some hard-hit areas.

For hospital nurses

Among the nation’s nearly 2 million registered nurses employed in hospitals, an estimated 370 000 (19%) are aged 55 to 64 years, and an estimated 55,000 (3%) are aged 65 years or older and thus, at even greater risk of complications and mortality from COVID-19.

For Non-hospital nurses

Of the approximately 1.2 million registered nurses employed outside of hospital settings, who could be called in to assist as hospital needs increase, even higher percentages are aged 55 to 64 years (24%) or aged 65 years or older (5%).

Physicians even older

The physician workforce is older still; of the approximately 1.2 million physicians in the United States, an estimated 230,000 (20%) are aged 55 to 64 years and an estimated 106,000 (9%) are aged 65 years or older.

The authors also estimate that some of the harder hit regions actually skew even older.