WHERE HAVE ALL THE NURSES GONE?

bbnurse · Nov 23, 2000

While many of the comments are true, I am one who is still happy with nursing. There are changes that I have seen over the past 30 years. The nurses are aging. There are far more outside the hospital opportunities which nurses are finding. More entrapenurial use of their education contributes to the exodus. Hospitals' face poor reimbursements from insurance, HMOs, Medicare, Medicaid and no money from the multitudes who have no health care plans. Doctors don't want to be generalists, the money is in specialties. Access to care in limited to the affluent. It is a societal issue.

If nursings' average age is mid to late 40s, where are the replacements coming from? Schools report that once they could chose the cream of the crop with 3 applicants for every slot to fill. Now, they are lucky to fill each slot each year. The applicants, besides being less driven to fulfill the desire to nurse, are in need of basic education. Schools are setting up remedial math and science courses for persons who will care for the ill someday.

Hospitals in the area report a 50% vacancy rate for RNs. The only comment I have about those hospitals, is that these are also the ones which are now unionized and have the nurse patient ratio mandated for them and of course they can't meet that requirement. There aren't nurses graduating from schools. Those who graduate, only want to work days, M-F. What happened to working up the ladder or doing your time? One new nurse quit cause her kids didn't like her going to work.

Well, duh...what did they think going to school was going to accomplish if not work?

Enough rambling. It's a lot of things that has affected the nursing profession, not the least of which is the lousy hours, pay and lack of respect by physicians, patients and those holding the purse strings. And all of them want immediate curbside service with a smile and "fries with that"...

nurseliz · Nov 28, 2000

Here in New Jersey we do have a shortage, for quite a few reasons. I think the main reason is that Medicine in general is not what it used to be. It's being run as a "corporate" business these days. Hospitals are being run by conglomerates who come in and buy a large amount of hospitals, labs, MD practices, nursing homes, etc. and as in any other business are looking to cut costs to the bear minimum. They don't look at patients/residents as people, but as a asset...something that brings in $$$ and the services they provide as a liability. They have forgotten, or just plain chose not to acknowledge that we as nurses deal with human lives and that these assets are HUMAN BEINGS. Do you know that a cashier in a local off name grocery store who does nothing but ring up groceries makes $10.50 an hour, but an LPN who works in a hospital starts out at $12.99 an hour??? Once again...what is this saying about the corporate thinking in medicine today?

mustangsheba · Nov 28, 2000

Almost 20 years ago as a new RN, I made about $13/hr. Most entry level jobs now average about $15. Of course there are geographical areas and specialties where the pay is better, but I can think of no other job with such poor return on education and effort, not to mention the lack of support and respect accorded nurses. If the last stats I read are correct, currently somewhwere around 30% of licensed nurses work at other jobs, doing nursing only the required amount of hours to maintain their licenses. Hope springs eternal. I agree, if you want to write a truly accurate article, follow a nurse for a week. No fair taking a lunch break or going to the bathroom unless he does, and stay till all the paper work is done. Then go someplace and listen to the frustration because all the things that he/she would have done had there been enough time and support did not get did and will not in the foreseeable future. You've seen pictures of the atomic mushroom. That's medical care now, nursing being the stem and insurance, government, and hospital corporations the top. (These postings sound negative because of the question asked).

longforseaair · Dec 13, 2000

Like my friend told me the other day: she believes she is smarter than the computer guy who just charged her $100 an hour just to diagnose her home computer problem. He couldn't even tell her if it was repairable or what the final cost was until he finished.

She exclaimed, "I save lives and I get paid $14.00 an hour! And the patients aren't easy to satisfy. And the doctors are often grumpy! Each morning after a long shift and I lay my head on the pillow, I wonder, My God, what could I have done differently this night that will bite me or sue me later?"

Being dang smart, we could be earning gazillions fixing computers. We have the patience and critical thinking skills. We can do the math.

What were we thinking? I guess we ain't too smart after all.

[This message has been edited by bbqchick (edited December 13, 2000).]

casirn · Dec 28, 2000

I agree with everything my colleagues before me have said. Although your article has already been written, I feel I must add my 2 cents. Most of us went into nursing for all the right reasons. However, we are a highly overworked, underpaid and often underappreciated group of licensed professionals. I not only perform my nursing responsibilites at the hospital I work for; I also perform housekeeping, dietary, nursing aides, doctors, nursing managment and all customer services responsibilites. This according to the facility I work for has become required. If only nurses could concentrate on nursing and be compensated for the jobs they did, we would have a greater rate of retention. With the baby boomers coming of geriatric age, the number of people seeking medical care will increase. If improvements are not made in favor of the nursing profession, the shortage will become out of control.

nurshathaway · Dec 29, 2000

Wow! the replies on this post totally blows me away. Here I am a doing my prereqs so I can get into the nursing program for the same reasons I'm sure that you all did. If I was a timid person, I would turn right around and look for something else.

I guess the biggest reason that I am going into nursing is to help that scared patient lying in a hospital bed and hoping that I can ease their discomfort in whatever way I am trained.

I believe that it is time that we all start working together as a unit. The fact that there are nursing agencies that are paying so much in comparison to hospitals, LTC facilities, etc. shows their good insight.

Personally, my plan after finishing nursing school is to work one year on a med-surg floor as a kind of internship and then I am going to work with an agency and take back the control of what I want. I also plan on continuing as far with my nursing education so that the care I can give to my patients will only be more advanced.

We have to start working together and taking care of the nursing profession. As long as there is such conflict within, the big businesses/hospitals will win.

lisa30 · Jan 4, 2001

I know here in Canada we caused alot of our own delimas, we closed the diploma progrrams and made BN entry to practice. Now we have very few nurses entering the field, they can go to university and recieve thier degree in the same amount of time making better wages.