[AMBERRN2B]

If you could choose one aspect of nursing to change, what would it be? And Why?

[GooeyRN]

I'll bite. I would like better staffing. Why? So that my patients can get what they need, and assessed more frequently, instead of getting bare bones care on night shift.

[weirdRN]

Better staffing. I would even settle for less pay if I had better staffing.

Better staffing = more time to care for the patients the way we are taught to care for them in school.

Better staffing = Better attitudes and less stress.

Better staffing = Better patient outcomes. Don't you do better when you have say one on one learning versus 40 to 1?

Better staffing would definately be the answer on this one.

[ragingmomster]

R-e-s-p-e-c-t!!!

[nurse_clown]

i think i agree with the staffing. i think i'd take a pay cut for better staffing. with better staffing, better care would be provided and the morale would improve. better staffing is just better for everybody.

[GilbertDaddy]

I'd try to find some way to compensate the nurses with 20 years of experience. It's a hard life when you've got 20 years of experience and make pennies more than new grads (this from a future new grad).

That's what starts the downward spiral or cannibalism in the ranks (i.e. nurses eating their young) IMO.

[GooeyRN]

Originally Posted by GilbertDaddy

I'd try to find some way to compensate the nurses with 20 years of experience. It's a hard life when you've got 20 years of experience and make pennies more than new grads (this from a future new grad).

That's what starts the downward spiral or cannibalism in the ranks (i.e. nurses eating their young) IMO.

I do agree with you. The last place I worked, I had one year expereince when I started. I made the same thing as a nurse who has been there 35 years! (and she was a supervisor)

But to me staffing is more important. I would take a pay cut to have more staffing.

[perfectbluebuildings]

Yes- better staffing. I would love to have the time to do more teaching, have the time to spend with patients or families who are scared and need some reassurance or just human contact. There's so much that could be done with better staffing- if I had just one less patient at a time that would make a difference. Ahh I'm dreaming now... what it would be like... wonderful!!!!

[Chaya]

I'd like to see nurses portrayed as the highly skilled and technologically advanced professionals they have become and not as li'l fluff-brained angels in cutsie bunnie scrubs!

[weirdRN]

I think respect and image improve with the attitude. I think better staffing improves attitude. I also think better staffing gives the families an opportunity to see that you really do know what you are doing and that you are not just an extension of the good physician, but have value in your own right.

Here is another question, kind of a tangent but, not exactly: How did the image of nursing come to be what it is? I mean to say, how did it evolve from knowledgeable, skilled, kind, compassionate professional to everything from sex pot, gossip, incompetent, and morons who couldn't get into medical school? When and why did our image change?