Dallas: Nurses to be more scarce with war in Iraq

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Dallas Business Journal, Jan. 6, 2003

Stephanie Patrick Staff Writer

GREATER METROPLEX-Angie Williams spent the holidays safe in Texas, but kept a sharp eye on news of the war in Afghanistan and the escalating troubles in Iraq and North Korea.

That's because, before Valentine's Day, it's likely Williams will leave both her family and the babies she cares for as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Medical City Dallas Hospital to do her duty as an Army reservist.

"I don't know where I'll be going or just how long I'll be gone but most tours last 180 days," said Williams, an Army medical regulating officer who recently attended training at Fort Hood. "I will be given 72 hours notice to report to duty."

Full story:

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/health_care/hospitals/2003/01/06/dallas_story1.html

[Glad2behere]

There was a special on the local news about this last nite, with the expectation that Tarrant County Hospitals would be hit hard also. Some public health official was interviewed and he stated that symptoms of the shortage would last only 72 hours, and the most a week, that there was ample staff to cover any anticipated losses to the military.

He never stated where the ample staffing was coming from.

[gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP]

The nurse in the article above has been deployed for a year - she left last week

[cindyln]

I work at an Army hospital and the doctors and nurses that have been deployed so far and there are more every day have been told to be prepared to be away for 1-2 years. The reservists that I work with have been told the same.

[oramar]

I am looking backwards at this point. That statement about " The healthcare staffing issues have gotten so much more sever since Desert Storm." made me think back to the five years of unprecedented abuse that was heaped on nurses in the years after the last Gulf War. I was on the receving end of most of it and I know exactly how things got to be such a mess.