Do you see the pendulum swinging the other way?

barefootlady, ADN, RN · Nov 22, 2003

SJOE! You rock man!

Fergus 51, Where are new grads getting this kind of shaft? Sounds like what happened to me in the early 80's, but now? Here in my poor, underpaid state, new grads, w/o experience are coming in and making good money. Getting the shifts they want and plenty of hours of OT. It's the experienced nurse and the long time employee who often gets called off, schedule changes, mandated to stay, and etc.

Since I am looking for a new position, I hope I am not considering one in your area, sounds like nursing is not in need of help there.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Nov 22, 2003

quote:

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Originally posted by indie

'there is no nursing shortage, only a shortage of nurses willing to work in poor conditions'

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Originally posted by ceecel.dee
This quote accurately conveys the trend we are dealing with at our institution, in living color. I think the issues are more complicated then the number of new grads flushing through.

EXACTLY. Anyone who takes the time to REALLY look into the situation and look at the number of licensed RNs who are currently working, but in NON-nursing jobs KNOWS that the "nursing shortage" is a myth.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Nov 22, 2003

Originally posted by roxannekkb
......healthcare jobs are always attractive options in economic downturns. Watch the economy pick up, watch and see a new industry awaken, and nursing will be a lot less attractive again. This cycle has happened before.

The only thing which will stem our so called nursing shortage is improvement in working conditions. The main problem is the flow of nurses out of the profession, and not a lack of students coming in.

Another person who knows the score.

roxannekkb · Nov 23, 2003

Originally posted by sjoe
P rn writes: "The last line says: Nurses have a lot of creativity and hospital administrators need to let them tackle this problem. "

I disagree with the tone and the approach of much of the article, myself. Way too passive and weak.

I am sick and tired of this business about "hospital administrators need to let them." NOBODY is going to hand any power to nurses, nor to anyone else. Nurses have to seize it, just as every group with power has seized it in the past.

Or things will simply continue much as they are today.

Enough of the "sleeping beauty"-type fairy tales, where the lovely, helpless, powerless, trapped heroine waits passively for prince charming to come and rescue her!

There ain't no stinkin' prince charming coming along in healthcare and there never will be. She needs to get up off her butt and get moving on her own, and rather than continuing to imitate Cinderella's mutually destructive and backbiting stepsisters, needs to find a way of working together with them for whatever changes are needed.

In My Humble Opinion

You hit it right on the nose, sjoe. And I agree about the article, it's as wimpy as it gets. That woman acts like she's afraid to hurt the hospital industry's feelings or something.

Like this quote,"There may well be a relationship between nurses' desire to improve their working conditions, hospitals' resistance to improving the way nurses work and the appearance of collective bargaining activities."

Hey, no kidding. A relationship to a nurse's desire to improve their working conditions and hospitals resisting it. Wow, and someone's going to give her grant money to study that? Does it take a rocket scientist to figure that out, or just someone with a 2-digit IQ.

Or this statement," We haven't adequately looked at nurses' working conditions. When nurses still are expressing dissatisfaction, there's room for improvement."

:rolleyes: Room for improvement? How about a complete overhaul?

I really have no tolerance for these so-called nurse researchers who putter around with this weak and wimpy rhetoric....Yet these are our nursing leaders, and I have interviewed quite a few of them and you know what? They all the sound the same. They refuse to really focus on the problems, and refuse to admit that nurses, themselves, have any accountability. Nurses are all poor Cinderellas waiting for their prince to come and save them. To this woman's credit, she at least acknowledges that stuffing more students into the system is not the answer.

fergus51 · Nov 23, 2003

Originally posted by barefootlady
SJOE! You rock man!

Fergus 51, Where are new grads getting this kind of shaft? Sounds like what happened to me in the early 80's, but now? Here in my poor, underpaid state, new grads, w/o experience are coming in and making good money. Getting the shifts they want and plenty of hours of OT. It's the experienced nurse and the long time employee who often gets called off, schedule changes, mandated to stay, and etc.

Since I am looking for a new position, I hope I am not considering one in your area, sounds like nursing is not in need of help there.

Don't worry, unless you are planning on coming to Canada, you're not looking in my area:) The upside is there are no call offs or schedule changes or mandatory OT thanks to our union, and jobs are fairly widely available where I am because it's the biggest city in the country.