State nursing shortage to be addressed

[cougarnurse]

No comment needed from me: State Nursing Shortage Addressed

Texas is facing a critical nursing shortage, and some say it's putting patients in jeopardy. Now some state lawmakers on both sides of the issue are trying to stop the problem before it gets worse.

Some hospitals are turning more and more to nursing assistants because they just don't have enough registered nurses. This week, state lawmakers filed legislation they hope will bring more nurses into the field.

Last year, Texas needed 22,000 more full-time registered nurses than it had. To try to attract more people to nursing, lawmakers are discussing issues like mandatory overtime except in emergencies. Some say that and improving the work environment will keep nurses from leaving the profession.

The legislation would also give nurses more power in developing the nurse-patient ratios for each hospital. Nurses would also be able to determine how they evaluate those ratios, based on factors such as infection rates.

The Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies says without intervention, Texas will be short 70,000 nurses by 2020, as older nurses retire and baby boomers age, requiring more medical care.

The Texas Nurses Association, which supports the new legislation, says the shortage affects both public and private hospitals, as well as general and specialty facilities.

[paamul]

The shortage could be greatly reduced it Texas had a safe nurse to patient ratio law. Nurses are leaving in droves due to the conditions...not the pay. Too many patients=too much stress and poor patient outcomes. If the ratios improved nurses would return to the profession...as it is...they leave all too soon.

[cougarnurse]

Yet, with the nurses leaving, doesn't that cause the high ratios, also? Makes lots of sense to me.

[AmandaWIRN]

Originally Posted by paamul

The shortage could be greatly reduced it Texas had a safe nurse to patient ratio law. Nurses are leaving in droves due to the conditions...not the pay. Too many patients=too much stress and poor patient outcomes. If the ratios improved nurses would return to the profession...as it is...they leave all too soon.

I agree. I am currently on assignment in Texas, and the working conditions are having me count the weeks until I can leave.... The stress is just not worth it.

[nomadicnurse]

I just started a new contract in Florida. Friday was a diseaster and tomorrow I'll be ruffling some feathers and addressing what happened. I have never broken a contract but if Friday was an indication of the kind of care we give here that may well be my only option. Wish me luck.

[paamul]

No, the nursing shortage is not caused by nurses leaving the profession...IT is caused by the conditions on the floor that make nurses leave the profession.

I am a travel nurse who has seen the California travel positions decrease after the ratio law went into effect. This was before the economy began its downward slide.

I'd like to hear from nurses, like myself, who are getting ready to leave bedside nursing due to horrific conditions that can no longer be tolerated.

Personally, I am left ragged by the demands of too many patients to whom I must deliver substandard care because I don't have the time to do my job the "right way".

I just turned down a very needed position because the ratio was 7/1 on tele. . .this should be criminal.

[Aaron C.]

kinda one of those chicken or the egg things.

Which came first depends on how long you have been a part of the nursing profession. Were you a nurse before there was a shortage? As long as I've been a nurse, the nurse to patient ratio has been poor on average at most facilities and that is the number one complaint you hear.

Nurses are overworked because they are short staffed. As they leave the profession for that reason, the issue worsens.

In 10 years, the situation we'll be in dire straights and then the government will really intervene and in my opinion, likely screw it up like they do everything else but that's another topic altogether.

[DollySATX]

Talk about poor ratios...

I just finished up a 13 week plus an 8 week extension in Mother/Baby. I was working in Houston right after Ike demolished Galveston. The nurse manager told me that before Ike, their ratio was 4:1, but now it could be 8:1. One night I had 11. Oh and that is with NO CNAs and NO phlebotomists. When they tried to give me 12 on a different night, I complained and they told me I could have up to 14. I was in fear for my license, but financially I couldn't leave.

[ppanchorage]

Again, it all boils down to money!! There is no shortage of nurses. Just a shortage of job openings. Hospitals are going to work nurses like rented mules! Right into the ground. And we take it, and take it, and take it.
Until the public knows what is going on and demands that the hospitals provide them with basic nursing care, it will continue.
Pass it on. Educate the public!