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| No. 30 | 
Sep 10, 2007, 12:10 AM
 Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by Treasure30  [size="2"]I
I was taught 20 yrs ago working in an obstetric / L&D unit, IF YOU DIDN'T CHART IT, YOU DIDN'T DO IT. The only time you don't chart it right away, if there a patient thats heart stop beating, stop breathing or bleeding. I still practice that rule & I'm glad. It's bad enough the greedy CEO, Administrators, Directors & Nursing managers feels you make enough money for what your worth but to turn around and have an attorney tell you, it wasn't written, How do we know you did it? CORRECTION, IT WASN'T WRITTEN, HOW DO WE KNOW YOU DID IT?  | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 31 |
Sep 10, 2007, 12:22 AM
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right
Just to add my 2 cent to the article. Nursing is predominantly a female profession. The ones who makes these decision about our pay are GREEDY men. I've worked under female directors who really care for the patients and not the bonuses at the end of the yrs. Our work condition & pay was okay. Anytime the nurses really stuck together & requested for anything, they got it. PAY INCREASES & WORKING CONDITION WILL CHANGE, WHEN GOD SAYS THATS ENOUGH OR WHEN NURSES COME TOGETHER & DEMAND WHAT THEY'RE WORTH. The way you change anything, starts off in your mind. If you have American nurses, who believe, they only worth .... and they take this hog watch / brain washing , "there not enough money or put it on the insurance company", Bull. I bet there yearly increases for CEO were above 1.9. JUST THINK ABOUT IT, EVERY TIME YOU WORK SHORT, THAT'S NURSE PAY WENT INTO YOUR CEO, DIRECTOR OR MANAGER POCKET.
| | No. 32 |
Sep 10, 2007, 12:40 AM
 Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by Hellllllo Nurse This reporter actually gets it- great article on the real factors behind the so-called nursing shortage. A Critical Shortage of Nurses Low pay for a grueling job keeps many Americans out of the field—and that spells trouble as baby boomers age
Read article in its entirety: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...tm?chan=search
I have read this article several times in the last few days, finding it on ANA site linked to Businessweek. I found it to be interesting and related to an article in 2003 Nursing Ethics 10 (6). The title is "The Ethics of Nurse Poaching from the Developing World" by Singh, Nkala, Amnah, Mehta, Ahmad
Has anyone ever thought how the recruitment of nursing from other underdeveloped countries affects those countries and their people? This is a compelling statement by these writers from Africa. Apparently the USA is not the only country doing it. The UK has made a law to prohibit doing it, but they get around it by using agencies that do recruit from these developing countries, a convenient loophole. These nurses are promised high wages but use their own country currency to magnify (inflate) the $$$ to entice them and don't mention how much the cost of living will suck out of their wallets. I'm in a RN-BSN bridge and this article was in one of our assignments and I found it a very interesting issue. Anybody read anything else in this regard?
I will try to find a link to this article so ya'll can read it.  to the hospital nurse recruiters!
| | No. 33 |
Sep 10, 2007, 05:59 AM
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by Silverdragon102 they are not supposed to do this, immigration has it set down that foreign nurses are supposed to be paid the same as US nurses, one of the reasons nurses go for the greencard as it offers them this protection.
They get around the law easily- the cost of the green card is counted as part of the wage. Foreign travel nurses are really paid a lot less than Americans- the hospitals pay the agencies the same, but the agency keeps a lot more of the money for the foreign nurses.
There are many laws that are regularly broken and not enforced.
| | No. 34 |
Sep 10, 2007, 06:07 AM
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by heathIam interesting perspective. However, working conditions are not deplorable everywhere and there is a shortage of nurses willing to work everywhere. So when the conditions are not that bad, and the pay is pretty damn good, why is it that there are not enough nurses?
You are in Canada. It is not the same situation that exists in the US.
Most hospital working conditions in the US are poor.
There is no nursing shortage- even the ANA says so- as well as the dept of labor. I have posted the ANA and US Dept of Labor links and quotes saying so here many times.
| | No. 35 |
Sep 10, 2007, 06:10 AM
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by awsmom8  There has never been a nursing shortage...but there is a shortage of working nurses. Schools are cranking out hundreds of RN's every year and hundreds of RN's are immigrating...yet has the US built THAT many new hospitals to need so many extra nurses? No--RN's are leaving nursing due to low pay, being overworked and not being able to provide adequate care due to high patient loads. Hospitals don't care-they know in a few months a new batch of RN's will have graduated or immigrated. They can hire them and pay them less than an RN who has been at the hospital for 5 years. The solution to the "nursing shortage" is to close all the schools and shut down immigrating RN's. That would force hospitals to improve working conditions, raise the pay and the shortage would disapear.
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Look at Calif- they mandated ratios- now they have attracted hundreds of thousands of nurses back to CA. It used to be easy to get a travel job in Ca (I'm a traveler) and the pay was high. Since the mandated ratios, it is hard to get a travel job and the pay is low- because so many nurses have gone back to work in CA.
| | No. 36 |
Sep 10, 2007, 06:13 AM
Updated
Sep 10, 2007 at 06:59 AM by Hellllllo Nurse
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by rjc729 Hmmmm...I am just beginning and only in second week of nursing school. This information leaves me a little uncomfortable with my decision. Are the working conditions really that bad out there? 
In a word....yes.
Here are some comments from nurses who read the article and posted comments to the paper.
Kathy Berg
Sep 10, 2007 1:22 AM GMT
I have been a registered nurse for 25 years. I left hospital nursing in 1998 and refuse to return due to high patient ratios, long hours (some mandatory), no respect from doctors and not being listened to by management when we try to help them open their eyes to the true problems. Their bottom line was always that there wasn't enough money. My license rode the line every time I went to work. Not only did I have to keep up with my patient load, but I also had to correct physicians' orders by calling them back and telling them they had wrong dosages, etc. There was a study out recently that said in a 12-hour shift, nurses spent a total of 15 minutes with each patient on that shift. Didn't surprise me at all. It's never about the patients anymore. It's about the money, and that's sad. I have so much more I could say, but the bottom line is... there is no nursing shortage. Only a shortage of nurses willing to put up with the way things are going!
Mimi
Sep 10, 2007 12:30 AM GMT
Lack of respect for nurses, from administration down to the unit clerks and PA's... Nurses are considered expendable; if you don't want the job, they'll find someone else to take your place. There are lots of foreign nurses who will accept positions and situations that no self-respecting nurse should! Also, nurses don't stand up for each other; each one is too afraid of "making waves" or causing trouble to support his/her coworkers. That's why the ANA is not a force to be reckoned with, like the AMA!
Teresa Meyer RN
Sep 9, 2007 9:57 PM GMT
Big business has turned our community hospital into a healthcare factory. I went to college so I wouldn't have to work in a factory.The working conditions are so outrageous and many nurses are doing all they can to escape this nightmare.18 years of service and I have lost my pension, all of my benefits and my healthcare stinks.
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Lori Beth
Sep 9, 2007 2:21 PM GMT
Of course, low pay is a problem. It's very discouraging when you realize that waiters make more than you do. But more importantly, I believe the reason the shortage remains is because we can't KEEP nurses. I think there are 2 reasons for that: 1) new nurses get into the profession without realizing the TREMENDOUS workload - 12 hours without time to urinate or eat - and MOST IMPORTANTLY 2)they realize that in reality THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME/STAFF to actually HELP people. Isn't that why we wanted to be a nurse? Anyone who truly CARES about the way sick people are treated gets tired of only being able to give minimal care because of understaffing. I know many nurses who QUIT working with direct patient care because they could no longer tolerate witnessing poor/dangerous attention/care to the population that needs it the most.
Ruth Engdahl RN,BSN
Sep 8, 2007 2:16 PM GMT
I graduated from nursing school in 1964. Until 4 years ago I was a practicing nurse. I currently am credentialing for health care insurance companies. I will never step back into a hospital again. It is the most stressful and physically demanding job I have ever had. It is also a job where hospital administrations treat with complete and utter disregard any nurse or ancillary worker who dares to complain about working conditions. It is no wonder that young nurses who go into nursing with high expectations of idealistic changes for their professsion leave 6 months later to go into another profession, or like me do something medically related. Ruth Engdahl
Avoidnursing
Sep 8, 2007 6:06 AM GMT
A patient at a hospital marketed like a hotel asked nurses to massage his penis and scrotum. Upon discussing his obnoxious request with the house supervisor, she pondered it for a moment then stated, "we should appease him in the name of customer service." I told her, "you want to play whore, feel free. I'm not." This is one of a thousand examples of how nursing is a disrespected, undervalued, degraded field. Intelligent people are not wanted in this field because they have a tendency to speak out. Speak out and you're fired. I'm out of clinical nursing after 20 years and will never return. I'm in a different field using my nursing background without direct patient care. Anyone can be a nurse and the field has become a welfare to work program. Enter a hospital at your own risk--have a family member there 24 hours a day. A nurse gave 25 units of insulin. In a report, I asked which type of insulin. Her response, "oh, are there different kinds?" God help us.
| | No. 37 |
Sep 10, 2007, 06:35 AM
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by Miriam57RN I wouldn't worry. Many hospitals seem to prefer new grads.
If hospital prefer new grads, I would worry. You won't be a new grad for long and "at-will" employment means the expensive folks are the first out the door.
Age discrimination is alive and well.
| | No. 38 |
Sep 10, 2007, 07:27 PM
Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right
Well, I have read the article and I too think it is right on the mark.
I would really love to see a $2-$3 pay increase across the board for all nurses (for a start). Followed by better working conditions (improved staffing) and being treated fairly by the hospital 1,2 and 3. It is depressing to see too many nurses turn on each other, play dead, and not willing to take a stand etc.
Noetheless, there is one aspect of nursing that attracted me to the field. And the attraction is real, and "as advertised". Most career nurses take it for granted and overlook the fact that it should be appreciated.
What is it? A job security. Not just Job Security, but a Job Security.
A hopsital may turn on you, tick you off, and blackball you. But a nurse can always find work somewhere. You may not like it, but you can work until something better comes along. You may be expendable at you particular job, but someone will always want you.
I came from a field that had a business was very cyclical. I made a lot more money, but the cyclical pattern (every 4 years) was like playing Russian Roulette. It will get you eventually. I made it 14 years in the company going between feast or famine before I got let go. I was told (indirectly) that I simply made too much money. They kept people who I had just trained a year before. There were not many companies who would hire me (regardless of the experince) and I knew that any companiy that did, would have me by my testicals and kissing butt to keep my job when the market turned again.
I had had enough and retrained to be a nurse. Since then, I found that I make a lot less money, and have to work a lot harder- under more stress than I ever imagined. But dispite options to return to the field, I have shunned them for the job security, and unlimited overtime options I have found in nursing. When some of my old colleges start talking the next downturn, I start smiling.
| | No. 39 |
Sep 10, 2007, 07:41 PM
Updated
Sep 10, 2007 at 07:45 PM by YellowFinchFan
 Re: Real reason for the "shortage" a reporter gets it right Originally Posted by momthenRN I am trying to go back to work after a 5 year break and quite frankly, the hospitals have literally snubbed my attempts to get back. I have taken the refresher course and applied in many departments. I am a bit afraid of what I am getting into. Is the staffing that terrible? Will I be able to deal with it? Are they afraid they will have to pay me more due to the fact that I had been a nurse for 7 years before my break? Maybe I SHOULD NOT go back to hospital nursing!!!! 
I don't understand why you can't get a job - you have had experience and took a refresher course. Are you particular about what dept?
I was out of nursing 11 yrs - and took a refresher course - attended a few open houses and interviewed at 3 hospitals (one over the phone) and I got 2 jobs in the same day a few days after the interview...
I will say that the 'phone interviewer' was rather rude and told me basically I could only probably work in their extended care facility and NIGHTS only (I could never be a PM shifter). I am so glad I didn't let her discourage me.
I got busy,organzied and kept my eyes peeled for open houses/names of nurse recruiters etc....
After I got the job I had a new challenge.... surviving the initial shock and stress level of acute care floor nursing 2+ yrs now-but's it's only because I was determined. And staffing is never adequate unfortunately - as fast as they hire them,we train em, they quit 
I would advise you to keep your eye open for 'open houses' look on hospital websites - they advertise them. Learn from the interviews too - did you see any areas you could improve your answers? I learned alot from the jobs I didn't get or want. Everythings a learning experience.
Keep trying you will get a job and hopefully one you like!  |
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