I have to do a paper on the nursing shortage. I have to have 3 reliable sources to back up my statements. I would appreciate if you could direct me to any sites that could help me. One of the sources has to be from a reliable magazine (Time, Newsweek,Times)No local newspaper articles for they are bias. Thanks for all you help.

Karen

I have to do a paper on the nursing shortage. I have to have 3 reliable sources to back up my statements. I would appreciate if you could direct me to any sites that could help me. One of the sources has to be from a reliable magazine (Time, Newsweek,Times)No local newspaper articles for they are bias. Thanks for all you help.

Karen

Karen,

When I wrote my paper on the nursing shortage, I found some good info on the NurseWeek website, the National league of Nursing Website and Medscape website. Hope this is helpful.

Cheri

www.nurseweek.com/news/features/shortage www.nln.org www.medscape.com

Karen,

When I wrote my paper on the nursing shortage, I found some good info on the NurseWeek website, the National league of Nursing Website and Medscape website. Hope this is helpful.

Cheri

www.nurseweek.com/news/features/shortage www.nln.org www.medscape.com

Do you have the Google.com search engine? It's the best. Go to http//www.google.com and type in the inquiry.....Nursing shortage. I found about 92,000 possible sites in 0.6 seconds.

Do you have the Google.com search engine? It's the best. Go to http//www.google.com and type in the inquiry.....Nursing shortage. I found about 92,000 possible sites in 0.6 seconds.

Nursing Shortage Is Raising Worries on Patients' Care

By MILT FREUDENHEIM and LINDA VILLAROSA

Nurses, hospital executives and health care experts say that a shortage of

nurses across the country is becoming so severe that it threatens patient

care.

The vacancy rate for nursing positions at 73 hospitals in New York,

Westchester and Long Island is averaging 8 percent, up sharply from 5.5

percent in 1999, the Greater New York Hospital Association said last week.

The shortage is even worse in California: vacancies in the 470 hospitals

there averaged 20 percent in December, according to the California

Healthcare Association.

At Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., the largest and busiest

hospital between New York City and Albany, more than 25 percent of the

positions for operating-room nurses were unfilled as of late last year.

Surgeries backed up and some were postponed, sometimes for several days.

Since Jan. 1, the hospital has filled about half the openings by

recruiting from other parts of the hospital, bringing in recent nursing

school graduates, and hiring. But Ellen Widera, a longtime nurse at

Westchester Medical, says it often takes months for new people to learn

the operating room routine. "It is stressful having to do their job and

your job, sometimes at the same time," she said. "You're up to your elbows

in hepatitis blood and AIDS blood. It's dangerous." The hospital, which

currently employs 1,500 nurses, had 190 openings for nurses on March 1, up

from 144 only last November.

Because of short staffing, many nurses say they are forced to stay on the

job when they are exhausted after a 12-hour shift. "It really ought to be

illegal for nurses to work double shifts," said Lucian Leape, an expert on

patient safety at the Harvard School of Public Health. "You don't allow

airline hostesses to work more than eight hours. Why would anybody think

nurses are less important?"

Hospital administrators and nurses expect the shortage to worsen.

Enrollment in nursing programs is declining even as the population ages.

The average age of nurses is rising.

And some nurses are becoming bitter. The shortage means those still on the

job are responsible for more patients and those patients are often

sicker, thanks to managed care requirements that more care take place

outside hospitals.

Patients already find it harder to get a nurse to respond promptly when

they call for help. Eighteen percent of consumers rated their last

hospital stay fair or poor in a survey reported in 1999 by Karen Donelan

and Robert J. Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Frustrated, growing numbers of nurses are joining unions that threaten and

sometimes call work stoppages as their militancy increases. Working

conditions in hospitals were a central issue in at least 36 strikes by

nurses in the last two years, including three in 1999 by the New York

State Nurses Association. Many nurses are also pressing for state and

federal staffing rules.

Hospital executives say they would hire more nurses if they could find

them, but nurses say working conditions in hospitals are driving many of

them out of the profession.

"The nursing shortage is one of the dominant issues in health care today,"

said Peter Buerhaus, associate dean at the Vanderbilt University School of

Nursing in Nashville, whose findings were published in The Journal of the

American Medical Association last year. "In some cases the problem is so

severe that hospitals have had to shut down nursing floors and cancel

surgeries. This crisis has the potential to create a disaster scenario in

terms of the quality of care."

In many hospitals, nurses say they are required to take care of 10 or more

medical and postsurgical patients at a time, and those patients are often

seriously ill. They complain of injured backs after lifting heavy patients

and of risky accidents with contaminated needles.

"In the past year, the number of patients per nurse has increased and

workloads have increased," said Relie Dema-Ala, a nurse at Glendale

Memorial Hospital in Glendale, Calif. "The work is tremendously hard and

stressful," she said. On Wednesday, nurses at Glendale Memorial voted 167

to 136 to affiliate with the California Nurses Association.

At the same time, adjusted for inflation, average nurse salaries have

hardly changed since 1992, according to a report in February by the Bureau

of Health Professions in the federal Department of Health and Human

Services. The average salary of a full-time registered nurse was $46,782

last year, it said. Hospitals, squeezed by managed care, have generally

kept their salaries in check.

There were 2.2 million registered nurses working in health care last year,

according to the Bureau of Health Professions report, but 494,000 nurses

were not using their licenses, compared with 443,000 in 1996 and 387,000

in 1992.

"We've burned out an entire generation of care givers," said Jeff

Goldsmith, president of Health Futures, a hospital consulting firm.

Hospital executives say they are trying hard to recruit more nurses,

offering perks like health club and spa memberships, "night out" baby-

sitting for nurses' children and even vacations in Hawaii.

The Tenet Healthcare Corporation, the second-largest for-profit hospital

chain, is experimenting with providing cordless phones for nurses to use

at work, scholarships for their children and discount purchasing programs.

Tenet would like to hire 3,000 more nurses for its 110 hospitals, said

Alan R. Ewalt, executive vice president for human resources.

But recruiting has been only moderately successful, and demand for bedside

nurses has outpaced additions to the work force. There are now 100,000

openings for registered nurses, according to Joseph Boshart, president of

Cross Country Travcorps, one of the largest temporary nurse staffing

companies.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing in Washington said that

enrollment of nursing students in entry-level bachelor's degree programs

fell by 2.1 percent in the fall of 2000, the sixth annual drop. The lower

enrollments mean the average age of nurses is rising. The health

professions bureau says the average age of the 2.6 million registered

nurses is 45.2 years and rising. In 1980, 52 percent were estimated to be

under 40, compared with 31.7 percent currently. And only 18.3 percent of

nurses are under 35, compared with 40.5 percent 20 years ago.

Older nurses are often less willing to take on more patients and mandatory

overtime. "Some nurses are just unable physically to handle the heavy

demands of patients," said Linda Aiken, director of the Center for Health

Outcomes and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

In a recent survey in Pennsylvania, 41 percent of the 14,000 nurses

responding said they were dissatisfied with their job, and 22 percent were

planning to quit within the next year.

P. K. Scheerle, a nurse who is now chief executive of American Nursing

Services, a temporary staffing agency, said: "When I was a young nurse I

used to be able to work 12-hour shifts, but now that I'm in my 40's and

with children at home, if I worked that kind of shift, muscling eight

patients, I'd be totally exhausted."

About 350,000 of the 2.2 million nurses working in health care are union

members today, up from 300,000 in 1995, according to the Census Bureau.

And the nurses unions are becoming more active: the Massachusetts Nurses

Association voted to leave the American Nurses Association on March 24,

saying the national group was too moderate. The California Nurses

Association, which became independent in 1995, announced an alliance last

month with the United Steelworkers of America, which already represents

other employees in a number of hospitals.

"Wages are always an issue, but they are not the principal issue," said

Susan Bianchi-Sand, director of United American Nurses, the labor union

affiliate of the American Nurses Association. "Safe staffing and the

quality of patient care are higher priorities."

Nurses are getting increasing attention from legislators. In Washington,

they have been pressing, with bipartisan support, for increased federal

subsidies for nursing education. And last month, Representatives Tom

Lantos, Democrat of California, and James P. McGovern, Democrat of

Massachusetts, introduced legislation that would ban mandatory overtime

for nurses.

But last week, President Bush proposed to cut spending for medical

education by 60 percent, to $140 million from $353 million.

California, Kentucky and Virginia are setting standards for appropriate

staffing. Legislators have introduced less specific proposals in New York,

Ohio and Oregon.

In addition, 15 states, including New York, Connecticut, California and

Illinois, are weighing bills that would prohibit forced overtime for

nurses. Maine passed an overtime measure, and New Jersey is drafting

overtime regulations.

"Mandatory overtime is a huge issue," said Stephanie Reed, a lobbyist in

Washington for the American Nurses Association. "Nurses have to work

overtime when they are exhausted. The nurses have a tremendous fear of

making mistakes. It's a patient safety issue."

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Nursing Shortage Is Raising Worries on Patients' Care

By MILT FREUDENHEIM and LINDA VILLAROSA

Nurses, hospital executives and health care experts say that a shortage of

nurses across the country is becoming so severe that it threatens patient

care.

The vacancy rate for nursing positions at 73 hospitals in New York,

Westchester and Long Island is averaging 8 percent, up sharply from 5.5

percent in 1999, the Greater New York Hospital Association said last week.

The shortage is even worse in California: vacancies in the 470 hospitals

there averaged 20 percent in December, according to the California

Healthcare Association.

At Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., the largest and busiest

hospital between New York City and Albany, more than 25 percent of the

positions for operating-room nurses were unfilled as of late last year.

Surgeries backed up and some were postponed, sometimes for several days.

Since Jan. 1, the hospital has filled about half the openings by

recruiting from other parts of the hospital, bringing in recent nursing

school graduates, and hiring. But Ellen Widera, a longtime nurse at

Westchester Medical, says it often takes months for new people to learn

the operating room routine. "It is stressful having to do their job and

your job, sometimes at the same time," she said. "You're up to your elbows

in hepatitis blood and AIDS blood. It's dangerous." The hospital, which

currently employs 1,500 nurses, had 190 openings for nurses on March 1, up

from 144 only last November.

Because of short staffing, many nurses say they are forced to stay on the

job when they are exhausted after a 12-hour shift. "It really ought to be

illegal for nurses to work double shifts," said Lucian Leape, an expert on

patient safety at the Harvard School of Public Health. "You don't allow

airline hostesses to work more than eight hours. Why would anybody think

nurses are less important?"

Hospital administrators and nurses expect the shortage to worsen.

Enrollment in nursing programs is declining even as the population ages.

The average age of nurses is rising.

And some nurses are becoming bitter. The shortage means those still on the

job are responsible for more patients and those patients are often

sicker, thanks to managed care requirements that more care take place

outside hospitals.

Patients already find it harder to get a nurse to respond promptly when

they call for help. Eighteen percent of consumers rated their last

hospital stay fair or poor in a survey reported in 1999 by Karen Donelan

and Robert J. Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Frustrated, growing numbers of nurses are joining unions that threaten and

sometimes call work stoppages as their militancy increases. Working

conditions in hospitals were a central issue in at least 36 strikes by

nurses in the last two years, including three in 1999 by the New York

State Nurses Association. Many nurses are also pressing for state and

federal staffing rules.

Hospital executives say they would hire more nurses if they could find

them, but nurses say working conditions in hospitals are driving many of

them out of the profession.

"The nursing shortage is one of the dominant issues in health care today,"

said Peter Buerhaus, associate dean at the Vanderbilt University School of

Nursing in Nashville, whose findings were published in The Journal of the

American Medical Association last year. "In some cases the problem is so

severe that hospitals have had to shut down nursing floors and cancel

surgeries. This crisis has the potential to create a disaster scenario in

terms of the quality of care."

In many hospitals, nurses say they are required to take care of 10 or more

medical and postsurgical patients at a time, and those patients are often

seriously ill. They complain of injured backs after lifting heavy patients

and of risky accidents with contaminated needles.

"In the past year, the number of patients per nurse has increased and

workloads have increased," said Relie Dema-Ala, a nurse at Glendale

Memorial Hospital in Glendale, Calif. "The work is tremendously hard and

stressful," she said. On Wednesday, nurses at Glendale Memorial voted 167

to 136 to affiliate with the California Nurses Association.

At the same time, adjusted for inflation, average nurse salaries have

hardly changed since 1992, according to a report in February by the Bureau

of Health Professions in the federal Department of Health and Human

Services. The average salary of a full-time registered nurse was $46,782

last year, it said. Hospitals, squeezed by managed care, have generally

kept their salaries in check.

There were 2.2 million registered nurses working in health care last year,

according to the Bureau of Health Professions report, but 494,000 nurses

were not using their licenses, compared with 443,000 in 1996 and 387,000

in 1992.

"We've burned out an entire generation of care givers," said Jeff

Goldsmith, president of Health Futures, a hospital consulting firm.

Hospital executives say they are trying hard to recruit more nurses,

offering perks like health club and spa memberships, "night out" baby-

sitting for nurses' children and even vacations in Hawaii.

The Tenet Healthcare Corporation, the second-largest for-profit hospital

chain, is experimenting with providing cordless phones for nurses to use

at work, scholarships for their children and discount purchasing programs.

Tenet would like to hire 3,000 more nurses for its 110 hospitals, said

Alan R. Ewalt, executive vice president for human resources.

But recruiting has been only moderately successful, and demand for bedside

nurses has outpaced additions to the work force. There are now 100,000

openings for registered nurses, according to Joseph Boshart, president of

Cross Country Travcorps, one of the largest temporary nurse staffing

companies.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing in Washington said that

enrollment of nursing students in entry-level bachelor's degree programs

fell by 2.1 percent in the fall of 2000, the sixth annual drop. The lower

enrollments mean the average age of nurses is rising. The health

professions bureau says the average age of the 2.6 million registered

nurses is 45.2 years and rising. In 1980, 52 percent were estimated to be

under 40, compared with 31.7 percent currently. And only 18.3 percent of

nurses are under 35, compared with 40.5 percent 20 years ago.

Older nurses are often less willing to take on more patients and mandatory

overtime. "Some nurses are just unable physically to handle the heavy

demands of patients," said Linda Aiken, director of the Center for Health

Outcomes and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

In a recent survey in Pennsylvania, 41 percent of the 14,000 nurses

responding said they were dissatisfied with their job, and 22 percent were

planning to quit within the next year.

P. K. Scheerle, a nurse who is now chief executive of American Nursing

Services, a temporary staffing agency, said: "When I was a young nurse I

used to be able to work 12-hour shifts, but now that I'm in my 40's and

with children at home, if I worked that kind of shift, muscling eight

patients, I'd be totally exhausted."

About 350,000 of the 2.2 million nurses working in health care are union

members today, up from 300,000 in 1995, according to the Census Bureau.

And the nurses unions are becoming more active: the Massachusetts Nurses

Association voted to leave the American Nurses Association on March 24,

saying the national group was too moderate. The California Nurses

Association, which became independent in 1995, announced an alliance last

month with the United Steelworkers of America, which already represents

other employees in a number of hospitals.

"Wages are always an issue, but they are not the principal issue," said

Susan Bianchi-Sand, director of United American Nurses, the labor union

affiliate of the American Nurses Association. "Safe staffing and the

quality of patient care are higher priorities."

Nurses are getting increasing attention from legislators. In Washington,

they have been pressing, with bipartisan support, for increased federal

subsidies for nursing education. And last month, Representatives Tom

Lantos, Democrat of California, and James P. McGovern, Democrat of

Massachusetts, introduced legislation that would ban mandatory overtime

for nurses.

But last week, President Bush proposed to cut spending for medical

education by 60 percent, to $140 million from $353 million.

California, Kentucky and Virginia are setting standards for appropriate

staffing. Legislators have introduced less specific proposals in New York,

Ohio and Oregon.

In addition, 15 states, including New York, Connecticut, California and

Illinois, are weighing bills that would prohibit forced overtime for

nurses. Maine passed an overtime measure, and New Jersey is drafting

overtime regulations.

"Mandatory overtime is a huge issue," said Stephanie Reed, a lobbyist in

Washington for the American Nurses Association. "Nurses have to work

overtime when they are exhausted. The nurses have a tremendous fear of

making mistakes. It's a patient safety issue."

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

3 part article at Dr koop site re nurses wanted and shortage go to

www.drkoop.com and do a search for

Health News: Special Reports, nursing shortage (unable to copy link here).

From the goverment, Health & Human Services ,Bureau of Health Professions:

NEW 2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses Preliminary Findings

suggest more action is needed to keep the nation supplied with registered nurses; the nation's RNs continue to grow older; and the rate of nurses entering the profession has slowed over the past four years. http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/

Congressional report can be obtained from ANA link:

[ June 15, 2001: Message edited by: NRSKarenRN ]

[ June 15, 2001: Message edited by: NRSKarenRN ]

3 part article at Dr koop site re nurses wanted and shortage go to

www.drkoop.com and do a search for

Health News: Special Reports, nursing shortage (unable to copy link here).

From the goverment, Health & Human Services ,Bureau of Health Professions:

NEW 2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses Preliminary Findings

suggest more action is needed to keep the nation supplied with registered nurses; the nation's RNs continue to grow older; and the rate of nurses entering the profession has slowed over the past four years. http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/

Congressional report can be obtained from ANA link:

[ June 15, 2001: Message edited by: NRSKarenRN ]

[ June 15, 2001: Message edited by: NRSKarenRN ]