Lithuania faces potential nursing shortage by 2030

Lithuania’s Minister of Health, Linas Kukuraitis, has issued a warning regarding a potential nursing shortage, predicting that by 2029–2030, more nurses may leave the market than enter it.

To prevent this crisis, the government is committing to increasing nursing salaries and improving working conditions. The strategy includes negotiating salary hikes within sector collective agreements and implementing incentive systems for healthcare facility managers to retain staff.

Additionally, the ministry aims to redefine job functions to allow competent nurses to perform certain tasks currently handled by doctors, thereby reducing the workload on physicians. The goal is to bring nursing wages in line with European averages, as current salaries in Lithuania have not yet kept pace with the European ratio relative to the national average wage.