[Nursing News]

While the nursing shortage continues to challenge hospital recruiters nationwide, many Chicago area hospitals are meeting their staffing goals by touting innovative health programs and focusing on retention first.


It is a simple result of supply and demand. The demand for health care practitioners has increased and will continue to do so as baby boomers age, but the number of graduating nurses is not enough to support that growing population.


“Our number of applicants has gone down and we are not seeing seasoned, experienced candidates,” said Marjorie Maurer, vice president of operations and chief nurse executive at Advocate Good Samaritan in Downers Grove. “The data tells us it is only going to get worse, because of the high number of aging faculty.”


The Council on Physician and Nurse Supply’s 2007 National Physician and Nurse Supply Survey compiled results from 402 hospitals spread across all 50 states.

Of those responding, an overwhelming 99.5 percent replied that the number of nurses trained in the U.S. should be increased. Seventy-seven percent agreed that the nursing shortage is a serious problem that should be addressed, and 32 percent said that recruiting nurses has become extremely difficult, while 54 percent say that it is somewhat difficult.


And while many health care facilities are struggling to fill positions, nurses are having no problems finding jobs. Starting salaries are good, ranging from the high $40,000s to the lower $50,000s.


The salary and availability of positions makes the profession attractive for college students and working professionals seeking a second career, but unfortunately schools are having trouble providing faculty and facilities to accommodate the number of applicants.

Hospitals Stave Off Nursing Shortage
Oak Brook Business Ledger, IL - 21 minutes ago
Seventy-seven percent agreed that the nursing shortage is a serious problem that should be addressed, and 32 percent said that recruiting nurses has become ...



More... Hospitals Stave Off Nursing Shortage - Oak Brook Business Ledger

[oramar]

"our number of candidates have gone down and we are not seeing seasoned, experienced candidates" That is because seasoned, experienced candidates like me are taking themselves off the market for good because we are fed up with the nurse abuse.

[Freedom42]

Interesting. Yet another article about the nursing shortage that parrots the management point of view in its entirety. No wonder it's full of holes. The reporter repeatedly mentions that hospitals are focusing on "retention" but says nothing until the last line about what that might mean. Not one word about the number of nurses who've left the profession or why they choose not to work. Not one word about salaries for veterans. Very disappointing.

[reesern63]

Originally Posted by oramar

"our number of candidates have gone down and we are not seeing seasoned, experienced candidates" That is because seasoned, experienced candidates like me are taking themselves off the market for good because we are fed up with the nurse abuse.

Yes, so let's just crank out new, inexperienced nurses who will get burned out and overwhelmed and end up leaving after a few years. Rinse and repeat.

Are these people that stupid? How about doing a survey of nurses who are no longer active and asking why they have left?

Experienced nurses have darned good reasons for not applying. That these administsrators seem to be nonplussed over the lack of experienced nurses banging on the doors looking for jobs disturbs me. It tells me they really aren't listening.

[jmtndl]

This may be long...it is so hard to explain. I have been an RN for 35 years this year.It has been a rewarding,wonderful,difficult,humiliating,
frustrating experience.I am very accomplished and skilled.I make a good salary, and I have my peers respect. I also wipe human feces often, stick needles in people who are only going to die no matter what I do, and have absolutely no control over what my corporation considers a safe nurse to patient ratio.I have to call a doctor often who is so rude I wish I could speak to him in code..."Hello..Dr. XX..this is boop da tit."He says "morf dit tine" I say "bersmoof" and hang up.My manager has 1/6th the experience as me and is luckily intimidated enough to realize what the score is.I work nights...all night. There are people who want to tell me what kind of shoes to wear and see absolutely nothing odd about that.The nurses I supervise have to sign their names a minimum of 107 times..and correctly...in their shift. On Sundays we "update the nursing care plan" the most useless bit of paper work compliance I have ever seen people defend to the death.I have worked all over the world, in all kinds of situations, and this profession is not for the fainthearted.Something will have to change before more people will be willing to take the risks and hardships of a nursing career. Thank God I am at the end of my career. I do not know what the answer is, but I do know people need to not only start asking the nurses, they need to listen to them.And act on the information they receive.Maybe we need to start a campaign like Animal Planet's ROAR campign. It could be the LUCK acronym..Listen...Understand...Change the frustration,physical exhaustion,ignorant administration,meaningless paperwork,pointless JCAHO fears and regulations,lack of support...Keep the Nurses!

[oramar]

Originally Posted by jmtndl

This may be long...it is so hard to explain. I have been an RN for 35 years this year.It has been a rewarding,wonderful,difficult,humiliating,
frustrating experience.I am very accomplished and skilled.I make a good salary, and I have my peers respect. I also wipe human feces often, stick needles in people who are only going to die no matter what I do, and have absolutely no control over what my corporation considers a safe nurse to patient ratio.I have to call a doctor often who is so rude I wish I could speak to him in code..."Hello..Dr. XX..this is boop da tit."He says "morf dit tine" I say "bersmoof" and hang up.My manager has 1/6th the experience as me and is luckily intimidated enough to realize what the score is.I work nights...all night. There are people who want to tell me what kind of shoes to wear and see absolutely nothing odd about that.The nurses I supervise have to sign their names a minimum of 107 times..and correctly...in their shift. On Sundays we "update the nursing care plan" the most useless bit of paper work compliance I have ever seen people defend to the death.I have worked all over the world, in all kinds of situations, and this profession is not for the fainthearted.Something will have to change before more people will be willing to take the risks and hardships of a nursing career. Thank God I am at the end of my career. I do not know what the answer is, but I do know people need to not only start asking the nurses, they need to listen to them.And act on the information they receive.Maybe we need to start a campaign like Animal Planet's ROAR campign. It could be the LUCK acronym..Listen...Understand...Change the frustration,physical exhaustion,ignorant administration,meaningless paperwork,pointless JCAHO fears and regulations,lack of support...Keep the Nurses!

Standing ovation for this nurse. Take a bow. Glad you are still out there. Lucky for all of us.

[TheCommuter]

There is no true nursing shortage. This is evidenced by the 500,000 RNs and numerous LPNs/LVNs who possess active licensure in the U.S., but refuse to participate in the nursing workforce any longer.

There's a shortage of nurses who will continually deal with disrespect and horrid bedside conditions for pay rates that essentially amount to peanuts.

[BillEDRN]

JMTNDL - AMEN! It is unfortunate that nurses who could help, ie managers and educators, conveniently forget why they themselves are not at the bedside and perpetuate the conditions you so aptly cite. Careplans are worthless, and the fact that they are mostly pre-printed or computer generated, should say alot about their validity to what the bedside nurse actually does.

[llg]

While I whole-heartedly agree that the issue of working conditions and the retention of experiences nurses needs to be MUCH more in the spotlight, I have to disagree with one point that often gets made in these discussion.

There IS a real nursing shortage. Even if the people who have left the profession for other jobs were to return, there would still be a shortage. People often cite the figure that there are 500,000 nurses with licenses who are not working in nursing. They assume that those nurses could be recruited back into the profession and solve the problem, but they are wrong in that assumption.

Many of those nurses are over 60 years old and would not come out of retirement even if conditions did improve. I forget the exact figure, but it is approximately 30% of that group. Many others have "married well" and/or are raising families and have no desire to work in any profession regardless of the pay and/or working conditions. Some of the mothers might come back, but if they did, it would only be on a very part-time basis: great, but they would not fill a full vacant slot. Still others have illnesses or disabilities that have forced their early retirement. Others found that they didn't like nursing itself and wouldn't like it no matter what changed. Some have found some other passion in life that has taken them away from the profession (or out of the country) and they would not come back no matter what.

Most of the people in the groups I have just mentioned maintain their nursing licence either because they are proud of it or "just in case" they may need it someday. However they have no intention of working again and would not work again even if conditions did improve. Yet they represent a significant proportion of that 500,000 figure so often quoted. The number of nurses who might conceivably come back if conditions improved is far less than the whole 500,000 -- leaving us with a shortfall.

Again, I am not saying that retention messures and the improvement of working conditions is not important. I believe they are vitally important. But we can't afford to afford to have such a simplistic view of the situation. They are only one piece of a large and very complex problem.