OMAHA - Trying to keep up with the demand for nurses in Nebraska, as in the rest of the nation, involves hitting a moving target. The state’s population continues to age. With that comes a need for more health care — and more nurses to deliver it. Changes in health care — such as performing more complex procedures in outpatient clinics — are also driving demand for more nurses.

“The supply has increased pretty dramatically, but changes in people’s health and health care are resulting in more demand,” said Juliann Sebastian, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Nursing.

To better track current demand and forecast future demand, the Nebraska Center for Nursing developed a new workforce supply and demand model. It factors in variables that affect demand — such as residents’ age, disease prevalence, available hospital beds — and projects it for nine economic regions of the state.