NPR Article: Need A Nurse? You May Have To Wait

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  1. by May 25, '12
    Thought some of you might be interested in reading this article, which is posted on NPR's website. Here's the link.

    http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012...y-have-to-wait
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    Print and share with friends and family.
    Compliments of allnurses.com.
    http://allnurses.com/showthread.php?t=714362

    by umbdude May 25, '12 6:47 am
    ©2013 allnurses.com INC. All Rights Reserved.
    SummitRN, lindarn, wooh, and 3 others like this.

  2. 21 Comments so far...

  3. May 25, '12 by
    sad, but true. One of the reasons why I am glad that I am no longer working med-surg. The patient load/acuity was too much for me...especially as a new RN. I am not sure if I "learned" much either from my time there. I was literally in survival mode.

    Luckily I found my niche in L&D/mom-baby. The RN to patient ratio is much safer and manageable. That and it was ultimately what I went into nursing for.
    Not_A_Hat_Person, lindarn, Aongroup1990, and 1 other like this.
  4. May 25, '12 by
    I dunno. :shrugs: Seems all the "smart" folks in healthcare seem to be making a lot of errors, or know darn well the damage they're causing, yet they just don't care, because they're on the "good" end of the stick.

    I literally will NOT work in med-surg, even for pay. I refuse to be treated like some sort of robot without needs and penalized for every last mistake I might make, even to the point of being punished with the revocation of my license. I refuse to cow tow to demanding family members and patients who care more about "an extra chair" for my Aunt Mabel than the lifesaving procedures we might be performing on the patient next to them. No one wants to say NO to these folks, and NO one wants to say NO to hospital administrators and bean counters -- yet the NURSE has to say YES to everything heaped upon him or her.

    It's an unsustainable situation -- much like the state of healthcare today.
    Miss Molly, tewdles, źNurse, and 13 others like this.
  5. May 25, '12 by
    Our healthcare system has become an out of control beast thanks to our government agencies like Medicare and private agencies like JCAHO.
    tewdles, lindarn, Kooky Korky, and 1 other like this.
  6. May 25, '12 by
    Like I always say, allnurses has over 590,000 members. Just think of the amazing things we could do IF we stood together!
    tewdles, Not_A_Hat_Person, timmedico, and 5 others like this.
  7. Asst. Admin
    May 25, '12 by
    The best quote from the article........
    "There's not an actual nursing shortage," Aiken says. "There's a shortage of nursing care in hospitals and other health care facilities."

    Pretty simple, really. Nurses get in the way of profits. Sad really.
    Miss Molly, tewdles, timmedico, and 12 others like this.
  8. Asst. Admin
    May 25, '12 by
    Quote from elprup
    Like I always say, all nurses has over 590,000 members. Just think of the amazing things we could do IF we stood together!
    I really wish it could happen but I seriously doubt it will. Facilities are pretty anti-union. Nurses have ambigous feeling about unions. Personally, there was a time I was one of those. Now? I think we need to to save ourselves and our profession.
    tewdles, nursel56, and VICEDRN like this.
  9. May 25, '12 by
    Quote from Esme12
    The best quote from the article........
    "There's not an actual nursing shortage," Aiken says. "There's a shortage of nursing care in hospitals and other health care facilities."

    Pretty simple, really. Nurses get in the way of profits. Sad really.
    Yes I was very happy to see they were thorough in this article. I think too often hospitals feel like they can get away with quoting the shortage so they don't look like stingy little buggers to the public. *hospital puts on sad face* "Oh public it's not our fault no body want so be a nurse even though we treat them so well sniff sniff but we are still going to charge you full price for half as much.*
    tewdles, SummitRN, lindarn, and 1 other like this.
  10. May 25, '12 by
    Quote from elprup
    Like I always say, allnurses has over 590,000 members. Just think of the amazing things we could do IF we stood together!
    Yes but the one thing we do here the most is disagree LOL
    tewdles, lindarn, nursel56, and 6 others like this.
  11. May 25, '12 by
    And they will all cluck their tongues at how bad it all is, and keep right on rolling. I don't know what the solution is, but we need one.
    tewdles and lindarn like this.