Fox News- Nursing: Recession Proof Career?

Yes, actually I am a new nurse and you're correct when you say we are our worst enemy; it's obvious. Maybe because of this, in ten years, I will find myself reading allnurses.com and it will be about reading the same problems, over and over.

I hope not.......

I'm actually optimistic that the face of nursing can change and we can change the future of nursing.

There are some hospitals in Florida that are hiring. There is another one looking to hire new grads.....The one I am currently working for hires agency nurses due to staffing issues.

Although the story is less than a month old, it certainly illuminates the lack of integrity consistently demonstrated by the yellow journalists of Fox News.
fox-news-admits-they-dishonestly-spliced-joe-biden-quote

Im surprised they didnt cover the story of Palin shooting a Bigfoot!

great letter, val!

my boyfriend and i recently relocated to FL and the only reason that we both are employed is because we know the nurse manager personally. even his travel company told him that they are having an incredibly hard time placing travelers bc hospitals dont want to pay. no one here is hiring.

today, there were like 10 nursing students on my floor and they were so excited and saying "i am going to work here when i finish!"... and i wished so much i could have told them to start looking for jobs now. my NM told me that she posted for one position online and got over 16 applications and was only able to hire just that one new nurse.

fox news is shady. nursing is NOT recession proof.
alot of people i graduated with last year and have passed boards are still at their old jobs, waiting tables, desk jobs, etc, bc they cannot find a job as a new nurse.

As I read the posts in this thread, I had to sit here and shake my head.

I've been doing this since 1978 and I look at my work environment now, and look back at were I came from. I hate to tell you this but the problem isn't' our legislators, it isn't insurance companies, it's not hospital administrators, it's nurses and nursing. The ANA's comments to the contrary, the work environment is what we make of it. we as a group don't support each other, and when the work environment sucks we blame it on Joint Commission, or management or whoever, but are not willing to accept the blame. The statements about new comers leaving the workforce,isn't a simple one either. It's a generational issue. New employees in all professions as a rule don't have the connection and ownership that earlier generations did. When I precept new grads and nursing students, a large number plan on going into something were they can make $$$, become a CRNA or NP. They go to nursing school with that in mind. Not all, but enough.

Search the threads here about nurses eating their young. It's been a problem for the 30 years I've been doing this and it's talked about all the time, but nothing ever changes. We point fingers and blame, but few take on the responsibility themselves.

Nursing shortage. First you have to remember, different people are talking about different things when they mention nursing shortage. There is a difference between the number of nurses needed to get a job done, and the number people would like to have to get the job done. In economic times like this the number to get the job done takes a priority. I know a couple of those nurses who aren't working as nurses. they knew in nursing school that they didn't like it, but finished anyway. One wanted to have a family and her hubby is a pharmacy director and makes enough that she doesn't have to . The comments about, medical problems keeping nurses from working because of the physical requirements. Well I've seen postings were secretarial positions required to lift 50 lbs.

All in all I thought the foxnews piece was a decent positive piece. it's a couple of hundred words to state a complex subject. Is it the best article ever written, No but it's a positive article on nursing.

Oh and have you ever looked at the make-up of the Joint Commission and who makes a lot of the recommendations? They are nurses. Who sits on boards of nursing, nurses. Can't blame hospital management for that. Pt satisfaction surveys, Oh no. Funny I have a letter of counseling from 25 years ago, because my patient complained they didn't get a back rub. Doesn't matter that I had 12 fresh post ops and 4 appendectomies that had to go to the OR, oh and the patient also complained that I didn't leave the ashtray close enough to were she could reach it.

And of course money. But it's not about the money, or so people say. Well I turned in my taxes on the 15th. And according to my 1040, I made a lot of money as a nurses, and I only work 36 hours a week. Now some places make less, and some make more, but $$$ isn't the problem.

Look at the positive change that has happened over the years, Most if not all started from grass roots actions. Rosa Parks didn't go to the back of the bus, The Martin Luther King march. Women's rights, The didn't start from the top, they started from the bottom.

Yes by all means write those letters, and I applaud those who take the time to do it, it's to easy to ignore it.. But its' time to for us to take responsibility for our own plight. It's time for us to show up at our state boards of nursing and demand something that is standardized. It's time to realize that the old ways of teaching nurses, may not be the best. It's time for us to show up on our legislators doorsteps and demand nurse practice acts that let us be nurses. And that A nurse in Maine is the same as a nurse in CA.

and maybe it's time for a new nurses organization. the ANA is pointing fingers, but I can't really say that I can remember them doing anything but taking my money over the past 30 years. Maybe not new, but a restructure, something different, an organization that really supports all nurses, the LTC/SNF nurse as well as the acute care nurse.

But my point is has the corporate body of nurses in your organization done anything together as a group to improve things? Have you gotten together and pledged to support each other, and actually done it? Do you support, and do everything you can to help that new nurse, who is struggling, or do you as a group talk about them in the break room? Did your co-workers help you? Again I have to go back to "the old days" and AM care. I had 12+ patients, (yes they weren't as sick as they are now), but we worked as a team and got it done. Beds made, meds past, the works. and we had fun. Anecdotally I don't see that now.

It's not the best example, but have you ever read any of the stuff out of the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle? That is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Google it. There are also health care organizations that have embraced the concept and turned their work place into a fun place to be.

I've had incompetent management, or at least management who doesn't see things the way I do. That isn't their job.

Those are the issues that we need to address at the same time we're writing those letters. Personally I don't see much problem with the overseas nurses. The problem that I see, and the one that will keep anything from changing, is that nursing care is included in the basic room rate. we aren't a revenue generating department. Unlike Lab, resp therapy, OT, PT and the such, everything we do is included in the base room rate,a long with housekeeping, maintenance and such.

yes there is incompetent management out there, that is for sure. But there is also great management, Nursing is no different than any other profession when it comes to that.

not that I trust Fox News all the time... but the article was from the Associated Press not Fox =p