The Nursing Shortage -- Your Opinions

[medi]

Mike...
It could be done. I think some enterprising nurse could set up a practice group along the lines nursing agencies use for starters. Instead of the nurses being "employees" of the group though they could be brought in more along the lines of a law firm- associates, and partners. A business plan could most definitely be drawn up.
Heck-- a forum such as this could have a discussion topic about the idea & we could begin a grass roots movement right here, right now, that could reform the profession. All it would take would be working up a plan & a few nurses with business sense & enterprising spirit to form it up! Someone younger and not as tired as me though.. *grin*

Sara
Medi-Smart.com

[redrosegal]

This is from an RN of 32 years who has left the hospital several times for desk jobs, occupational health and hospice when I have become burned-out and needed to leave for a while to recoup. I have always come back to hospital nursing because I feel the patients really need a competent, experienced nurse who will advocate for them, and because I have always learned so much from working the floors. This time, I left my permanent stressful job on a wound care unit in the hospital for travel nursing. After a 13 week assignment, I can take 2-3 weeks off traveling to the next assignment refreshed and ready to give all again for another 13 weeks. The three big problems in hospital nursing now I think is 1) money. They don't pay nurses enought for what they do for the patients and the stress on the body and mental stress. Why hospitals will pay agency so much rather than give their staff a raise floors me. Right now at the hospital I am at, they have raised the nurse/patient ration, and as a result, have had to bring in Fastaff nurses to totally staff their medical floor as all the night staff has left!!! Why can't they see what that means? 2) No support from charge and managers who are overwhelmed themselves and stuck in the middle. 3) Nurse-patient ratios, and loss of ancillary staff. Primary care of 6-8 patients is maddness. How I wish I could split myself into 8 of me so that each of my patients could get the care they deserve and their insurance pays for!!!
There are many more reasons nurses are leaving hospitals left and right. Hospitals need to look at retention of their seasoned nurses. Experienced nurses must be on the floors to help the newer nurses learn and experience care that will save their patients. Nurses must stop playing petty games, write each other up, gossip and instead help each other out and become a team. Travel nursing has allowed me to stay in the hospital, because I no longer have to be charge, precept and have 8 patients all at the same time anymore. I just have to care for my 8 in my 12 hours the best I can for 13 weeks at one place and then move on to the next experience. I am concerned that if and when I have to be hospitalized, that the care won't be there and no one will advocate for me.

[cassioo]

There isn't much of a shortage where I'm at in KY. It's a community hospital and most people grew up in the town and have stayed in the town. They are down a few nurses in ICU and M/S but it's covered by nurses from the other areas of the hospital when census is low. They also have a critical needs list and nurses from those other areas can sign up to work overtime in those areas (they get other bonuses too for working the critical needs time)

[bunnyboots]

I have been thinking a lot lately about the nursing shortage (espically since I havae been seriously thinking of leaving the field) and I feel that there are many reasons that I have identified: 1) Nurses are not nice to each other in many respects. We don't seem to work as a team, don't seem to support our new grads and new staff members - and we do like to talk behind others backs. 2) There is not enough staff to assist us, so we work short, work more hours, have higher patient loads - and we become more irritable, less likely to work as a team (after all I had to do it all alone) and more likely to be rude to each other 3) Nursing schools not giving a reaslistic picture of what its really like out there. You have 1-2 "Ideal"patients in your clinical experience - how about getting some patients who are rude, aggressively resistive to care, multiple issues such as skin issues, dementia, behaviours, etc. and give students a realistic picutre of what many of the patients are like. Not many are "ideal"4)Not being respected by management or patients and their families - 5) Salaries way below what nurses deserve to be paid.
I have worked with great coworkers and great management people, and have worked with the worst, rudest ones. Unfortunately its the encounters with the rude ones that seem to stick in your mind at the end of a long, stressful day. I have to consciously think of the good encounters to keep my spiritis up.

A supervisior I have now (and think the world of) summarized why she feels that nurses are so strained is the "Nursing is the ONLY field where you have to be 100%perfect 100% of the time." and I think that nurses should be paid accordingly for that.

[jillofalltrades]

When Hospitals start listening to their nurses, and treat them like the professionals that they are, all those nurses that have left the profession will come back. And that will be a cold day in hell...hospitals biggest budget item is always nurse's pay..We recently negotiated a first contract that gave us incredible power and voices in how we are staffed and over equipment changes etc. I have been a nurse for 22 years..with the same health system. I got a raise from 27 bucks an hour to 34 $$ an hour. We get incentive premiums of 18-19 bucks an hour if we work on our day off. We have a say in staffing ratios...For all of you who are at the mercy of the hospital...organize..it will do you good..Our small hospital had never been union..never needed it...then in the last five years we were getting screwed. We now have to have language in our contract that limits how many times in a year they can cancel us (overstaff)..we have very few empty positions...we now are able to command respect and decent wages and working conditions and it has done a world of good for our nursing shortage...email me if you have any further questions..
Laura B

[TNL]

It is estimated that with all the new hospital construction taking place in the Dallas/Fort Worth area 3,000 new nurses will be needed just to fill the new spots and this does not include surgery centers and Dr's offices that sprout up along side each new hospital.

The good news for nurses is that they all will be state of the art facilities and will have to offer great benefit packages. So the only real incentive they can use to get you to come to work over a competing hospital is more money

Of Course the bad news is they will all be barely staffed and you will remain overworked

[Smurfetjuz4u]

Reading all the replies and complaints about the nursing condition happening in your country, I can't help but feel envious and overwhelmed as to the impact on nursing shortage
all over the globe.

Envious because, you can't imagine how lucky you guys are to have the best of everything, in terms of facilities, tools, equipment, government support, various work opportunities not to mention fringed benefits. I know, things may really be very awful in terms of the standard in your country. So, it really concerns me, what is in store for us nursing students? What kind of future awaits us? Nonetheless, I salute all the nurses in the world for their perceiverance and hardwork. It really takes a great deal of patience and sincere desire to keep up to the demands in our field.

Overwhelmed... it's so ironic since currently, our country is at the brink of suffering the same fate as yours. LACK of QUALIFIED NURSES not to mention in terms of quantity. But nursing schools here is flooded with nursing students every where. I could just imagine the great vacuum this would create after most of the surgeons, pediatricians, anesthestiologist, dentist and other professionals has finished their respective nursing degree. My God can you believe the impact its gonna create? Still, it won't be enough. The good and well experienced nurses has been very fluid already. I mean... after being in years of service to their respective facilities, now, you can just see new faces... and wait for another month or two, new faces will appear.

I know it's pointless to compare to different countries with different socio-economic background, but I can't help but see things as a world wide dilema.

I am guilty! I am one of those professionals, now in the nursing academic arena (and loving it), who will be part of the brain drain. These thoughts never occured to me before. A certain "Charles" (not Chadwick, lol)suggested, "why not study nursing, seems like your gonna be a good one." I woke up one day and asked my self why not? I wasn't expecting so many 2nd coursers in school. Was thinking I'm too old to be going back to college. But not, here I am, one of the few young professionals in nursing school. Suddenly, am thinking twice? But am thinking, if nursing is a guy, and you fell in love with it, should one risk not knowing what's in store you?

Just a thought...

Thess

[Dixiedi]

I don't believe there is a shortage of qualified nurses. There are more than enough qualified nurses from MSN to LPN. Nurses are often underutilized, and over educated for the position they are hired for. This makes for unhappy nurses and nurses who do not remain in nursing.
So, to reiterate, there is no nursing shortage, just a shortage of BONs who are not strong enough to stand up to the demand of the ANA, the largest RN only organization in the country.

[pattin13]

It is all about respect, from other staff, MDs and nurses
and PRIDE in our profession. We keep waiting for someone to help us............we need to help ourselves.

[JuliaS]

The nursing shortage here in Texas is outrageous! The hospital I work at does not do anything to retain the nurses they have, but will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring nurses in from India, Africa and all over. I agree that everyone has a right to work where they want. But why can't the hospital administrators work on retaining and training the nurses they already have on staff? I am working on my RN, but the hospital has eliminated the scholarship and student loan program, but bring in nurses from other countries, paying all their expenses, plus sign on bonuses. At the same time, the hospital has eliminated sign on bonuses for Texas nurses.
All during this, the patient/nurse ratio keeps climbing, and when anyone says anything about such a heavy load, we are told to "suck it up" since they are so short handed. Are we expected to put our licenses on the line because administration won't pay enough to retain nurses?
Thank you for allowing me to vent. This is my soapbox subject. It just seems ridiculous to me.