Causes Of The Nursing Shortage

Nurses General Nursing

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Just wondering.... We have all heard of the huge nursing shortage and that it is only going to get worse right???? Why is it then that pay and staffing conditions are not examined closer by the public or ourselves for that matter. It would stand to reason that if you needed someone to do a job that was in great demand pay would be higher. As for nurses, why is it that we have grown so accustom to taking the corporate crap? CONSTANT staffing shortages, low pay (hospitals in kansas pay less than home health, hospice, nursing homes -you name it) While pay n nursing homes and very limited acute care settings is slightly higher there is still no staff? Hmmm wonder why? Last as nurses we are thought of as caring people, but allow those we care for to be neglected by accepting assignments that are unsafe. ( 1 nurse to 57 pt? with 1 CNA maybe). We no longer seem to care for ourselves, our license, our profession or our patients when we allow these conditions to continue.....

SO, then it is what can we do? I'm not exactly sure but something. There is a blog site for bad tippers that waitresses can go to to let others know... We need to form one for facilities maybe? Or maybe it is as simple as standing up and saying NO. I mean really they might fire you but hey with the staffing being the way it is all the shifts to sign up for posted I don't see a long line of replacements. Eventually when there is no one there to clock in those famous administrative words " I'll do it myself" as they sneak out the back door. Corporations, the State Board of Nursing, And maybe even families will begin to care about the caring profession.

Specializes in LTAC, home health, hospice, geriatric.

1. I do agree that some type of solidarity or union needs to be formed period to unite the strength they tell us we don't have. Unfortunately nursing is a very catty, backstabbing, and fear based profession now days.

2. As for the massive walk out and the poor patients, well if we continue without enough staff allowing for pressure ulcers to develop, med errors to run rampant, honest care and concern for them to bring us back each day. really how much do we care about them allowing these places to continue? Or are we simply to scared to lose our job, because we need it and oh yeah there is a nursing shortage so I have to stay here.... what kind of insanity is thet?:bugeyes:

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Why are nurses paid so little when there is high demand? I think there's a kind of parallel to agricultural workers (and other jobs often filled by illegal immigrants). Some complain that Americans feel 'above' such manual labor. But isn't the bottom line that it's long, hard work and doesn't pay well? If it paid better, wouldn't college students be taking a semester off here or there to pick fruit to help pay their tuition? But it pays more to work in a comfortable coffee shop.

The same is true with nursing. Between the stressful work conditions and the remuneration, it just isn't worth it for many. For overseas nurses, the fact that they can make a lot more than they could at home makes the cost/benefit question different than for those who live here. Local citizens can more easily find a less stressful job with comparable pay... maybe even better pay.

But as with agricultural workers, the alternative is higher costs (better pay and/or higher staffing). Which means the cost to consumers would have to be passed on. And who wants to pay $2.50 for one apple? Health care is already astronomically expensive... I don't see any easy answers to deal with the staffing issues in nursing, though we do need to do something.

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Specializes in LTAC, home health, hospice, geriatric.

Health care cost have continued to rise rapidly without the increase of staffing or pay increases for nurses so i'm not buying that. Maybe healthcare costs would go down if patients received quality care on the initial visit they would not be readmitted because they were discharged to soon or developed an infection during their initial stay. What if QUALITY OVER QUANTITY was the way to lower healthcare costs? Let's stop with the remodeling and start with the staffing? Or how about patient teaching by both doctors and nurses to treat the problem and not the symptoms... Wait that's totally wrong then office visits and routine labs would decrease, pharmacies would lose money.... modern health care would become affordable. Crap now we don't have a job said the CEO to the CNO - - - JUST AN OPINION

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that is the topic...unions would be a totally different discussion, so run with it if you'd like to start a thread.:idea:

i agree that removing nursing care from the "room and board" charges is an important first step. we are not part of the building; we are a separate valuable health care resource.

there is an older semi-fictional book titled "nurse" by echo heron that says it all on the cover......

"doctors don't keep you alive [in the hospital]

nurses do!!:bow:

once again, you try to twist my meaning and denegrate me personally.the problem we have had as nurses is one in which we do nothing more than discuss the whys of the nursing shortage, i think we all really know the whys of it, what i was trying to get across is this: its time to put all of our discussions to work, by joining together to affect change, we can talk about this, no harm in that at all, but if talking does not turn into action, we have not done nothing more than just talked.

i believe that most on this thread understood what i said to mean that because of many long standing issues, nurses have allowed this type of treatment and that has caused the nursing shortage in part.mentioning unionization is very important in understanding the reason nurses have been dissatisfied with their working conditions. it is because they are not empowered to make the desired change.they are overworked, underpaid, under appreciated and undermined by those who would underestimate the the power of strength in numbers, a union.

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
once again, you try to twist my meaning and denegrate me personally.quote]

by suggesting you start a thread?!? :banghead: what a terrible insult on a message board.....

a little touchy today, are we??:redlight:

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

I am not a big believer there even is a nursing shortage. As stated before on these boards - there is just a shortage of nurses willing to work in bad conditions.

I work in a suburban community in which there is NO nursing shortage. The community health system actually pays decent and has reasonable ratios.....RN's flock to work there. Another factor is this community has really good schools, reasonable living costs, ect. There are also several nursing schools in the area.

A friend of mine just started nursing school - on the first day of class the instructor warned the students that they may need to relocate to find jobs.....which is what I am also thinking of doing.

So my theory is......places that treat nurses decent and pay in comparison to what the area living costs are aren't generally 'short staffed'.

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but I've always suspected that there are a lot who just can't put up with working conditions any more.

:yeahthat:You are describing me. I have to say conditions have chased me out before. Usually, I get my head together and go back. I doubt I am going back this time. Why? Turning age 60 just as federal gov. decides it is not going to pay for certain hospital aquired conditions. If previous experience bears out that will just make the bedside nurse's burdens heavier. No thanks.

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Without an organizing body (and strong leadership in the organizing body), there's not a whole lot nurses can do besides talk. I don't see how anything but a strong union or a strong professional organization could make a real impact on how policy choices are made. Many nurses, whether rightly or wrongly, don't trust the ANA to support them and so don't get involved. Some people feel unions are not approriate for 'professionals' and discourage them for nurses. And with any organization, there are the risks of bad leadership, poor management, and the like. Would it possible to build a new nursing organization from scratch? Are there some smaller organizations out there that might be able to step into such a role for nurses at the national level? If more RNs actually joined the ANA and started making waves there, would that make a difference? Besides writing letters to our representatives, besides "voting with our feet" by avoiding the worst employers, what else can we as nurses do to not "allow" work conditions to get worse?

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I have been in nursing for over 20 years and conditions have not gotten any better. I was fed all the same bull about how professionals don't join unions and did believe it for most of my years of practice. However, I starte thinking outside the box. What about teachers, firefighters, police officers, writers etc. are they any less professional because THEY have unions? I think not! The union crap was fed to us because those in power have much to lose if WE have one voice! Last year I found the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) from the California Nurses Association. My experience thus far has been exciting. We are a bunch of BEDSIDE NURSES, not administrators or educators or managers, but BEDSIDE NURSES who are working for change. Effective change! We have a active Ohio chapter and there are other states with chapters. It is the first time in my career in which I am surrounded by other like-minded nurses who not only TALK about how bad things are but who are ready and willing to be active in bringing it about. We want to institute ratios here in Ohio and recognize the Ohio Nurses Association, the Ohio Hospital Association and the Nurse Executive Association (or whatever their title is) will oppose it but we will continue our fight! I hope one day we will have hospitals here with NNOC as our union too. It is imperative for us nurses to take the risk, go out into the public and tell our story. It is time for us to go beyond the four walls of our hospitals and let the truth be told. WE ARE FIRST AND FOREMOST ADVOCATES AND THAT MEANS SPEAKING THE TRUTH. I urge any and all of you to contact NNOC. It is a place to start. We cannot afford to sit around another decade and watch these terrilbe conditions keep going on and on. (Can you tell how passionate I am about this subject....)

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
Health care cost have continued to rise rapidly without the increase of staffing or pay increases for nurses so i'm not buying that. Maybe healthcare costs would go down if patients received quality care on the initial visit they would not be readmitted because they were discharged to soon or developed an infection during their initial stay. What if QUALITY OVER QUANTITY was the way to lower healthcare costs? Let's stop with the remodeling and start with the staffing? Or how about patient teaching by both doctors and nurses to treat the problem and not the symptoms... Wait that's totally wrong then office visits and routine labs would decrease, pharmacies would lose money.... modern health care would become affordable. Crap now we don't have a job said the CEO to the CNO - - - JUST AN OPINION

You rock!!

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I don't know if anyone has already done this or not, but I think some research into why inactive nurses are inactive might be informative. I know that there will be some who don't have to work, some who have chronic illnesses, and so forth, but I've always suspected that there are a lot who just can't put up with working conditions any more.

I think this would be a great avenue for research for someone working on a doctorate with a management/administration focus.

I think it would be worthwhile to ask people who left, why, and what if anything would bring them back.

I've kept my license active, but I left nursing after 19 months (didn't start until age 49) 2 1/2 years ago. No way was I going to lose my license while caring for 5+ babies in a NICU. The stress caused me to discover I have mitral valve prolapse which was the explanation for the chest pain I was having on the job. Nursing wasn't the career I had imagined it to be. With the hospital refusing to address short staffing, no way was I going to put up with all the back-biting and cliques in the unit. Life's too short, and nursing would probably shorten mine even more!

I think your idea of researching this is great, but in addition to it you have to factor in what would happen if our entire system changes. I'm wondering with the push for universal (socialized) healthcare for the U.S., what's going to make it any different in the treatment of nurses than the U.K. where nursing jobs are public sector?

https://allnurses.com/forums/f195/nurses-react-public-sector-pay-announcement-uk-273250.html :( This was a UK article, but it only got 4 replies when it was posted not long ago.

How would we all feel if we knew our pay was frozen for 3 years? Would we all have the philanthropic spirit to continue nursing when our salaries don't rise with the cost of living?

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I've kept my license active, but I left nursing after 19 months (didn't start until age 49) 2 1/2 years ago. No way was I going to lose my license while caring for 5+ babies in a NICU. The stress caused me to discover I have mitral valve prolapse which was the explanation for the chest pain I was having on the job. Nursing wasn't the career I had imagined it to be. With the hospital refusing to address short staffing, no way was I going to put up with all the back-biting and cliques in the unit. Life's too short, and nursing would probably shorten mine even more!

I think your idea of researching this is great, but in addition to it you have to factor in what would happen if our entire system changes. I'm wondering with the push for universal (socialized) healthcare for the U.S., what's going to make it any different in the treatment of nurses than the U.K. where nursing jobs are public sector?

https://allnurses.com/forums/f195/nurses-react-public-sector-pay-announcement-uk-273250.html :( This was a UK article, but it only got 4 replies when it was posted not long ago.

How would we all feel if we knew our pay was frozen for 3 years? Would we all have the philanthropic spirit to continue nursing when our salaries don't rise with the cost of living?

Great post and very scarey!! :no:

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