ABC News story on the Nursing Shortage and its EEffects on Patients

Nurses General Nursing

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Good story about the nursing shortage on tonight's ABC World News --thank you, Peter Jennings!

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/nursingshortage020807.html#

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Missed the evening news. Thanks for posting. Did see article in paper and BB thread here.

Nursing Shortage is killing patients:

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20353

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Thanks for posting the news article since I missed the report. After reading the article I was dismayed to hear the same old proposed "band-aid" remedies though: more money to entice people into nursing schools and recruitment efforts aimed at people out of the country. Sign on bonuses are also a waste of time and offer only short term relief.

It is time we address the reasons nurses LEAVE the field before we pour thousands of dollars into trying to make it easier to enter. Issues such as lack of respect, autonomy, flexibility and yes financial compensation for the work we do are key. :rolleyes:

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Thanks for the tip spineCNOR, my husband thought it was great too.

To me it seems like they focused on all the wrong stuff once again. "Training more nurses" for solutions to the so called shortage. Dumbing down the nursing process, recruitment money for immingrants and under-educated people, nothing mentioned about retention. Making teacher/student ratio larger - they don't pay RN PHD's college prof. enough either, so can't get them anymore. Course it was a Prof. of BUSINESS who suggested that plan. Who knew, he'd know!!

The quote "another problem is the strict education requirements, which have been raised as medicine and health care have become more complex" stuck in my craw. WHAT is the problem? We SHOULD be strictly educated in the more complex health care atmosphere of today. It seems like all they want to to is 'train' people in 'tasks' and let em go at it! The same old gimmicks, tricks, and prizes are being touted for recruitment. Then the mandatory quote on traveling nurses, housing, tuition - yadayadayada, like we are all gonna take off for wonderland and make it all better!

IF the average age of nurses is 45, then hell, we have about 20 good working years left in us IF IF IF the current negative issues are ever resolved and working conditions once again become doable.

Heck, it just sounded like the same old standard quotes from administrators, JCAHO, hospitals, Business professional 'experts', you know people who wouldn't know a foley from a firecracker, or thir as s from a hole in the ground.

Wish they would ask bedside NURSES these questions for a change, don't you.

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Specializes in ICU, Transplant, Dialysis..

Quote from the ABC article:

"Nursing is going to be competing with other professions for the best and brightest," said O'Leary. "But this is an attractive profession. This is a kind of thing where if you care about other people and you want to make a difference, this is a profession where you can really make a difference, but it has to occur in the context of something that is positive"

Well, they got the first part right about competing with other professions... but they're all wrong in their attemp to attract people in to the prefession with altruism. Altruism doesn't put bread on the table, kids in child-care and a reliable car that'll get you to work on time at 6:30 in the morning!!

Basic economics people!! Pay us fairly, for all the schooling we've gone through, patients we lift, 300 things we must juggle at one time and risk of exposure we face...and we just might stick around!!

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Specializes in ICU, Transplant, Dialysis..

Another thing...Did you know about 1/2 the RN license holders don't work in nursing??!! Training more nurse is NOT the primary solution!! Keeping the nurses in the field is!

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"They" won't ask bedside nurses what is needed to improve conditions because "they" don't want to hear the answers. Instead, the same old solutions are trotted out, and appeals are made to our sense of "duty", "professionalism", and "altruism."

Dumbing-down nursing programs isn't the answer...loosening entry requirements isn't the answer...more money alone isn't the answer...vigorous recruitment of foreign nurses and minorities isn't the answer.

Until "they" start talking, and truly listening to us, the bedside nurses, this profession will continue on an "exothermic slide", my chemistry teacher's pet expression for things (like grades, for example) that are in a state of rapid deterioration.

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I missed the report on TV but I know NYSNA nurses participated in it & were interviewed on it. I dont see any mention of them in the article or what they said along with those statements made by heads honchos.

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Why, whenever there is a discussion about the nursing shortage, it only mentions Registered Nurses. Licensed Practical Nurses are a regulated profession body of nurses, and play a vital part in the health care system. I have been one for 22 years, and still feel invisible sometimes.:rolleyes:

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Specializes in ICU, Transplant, Dialysis..

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Author? You tell me.

~SuperMan (LPN, RN, EMT, and Army Medic!!)

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Yes,they are going about it all wrong.I am in Iowa and we have the most senior citizens,including myself,and the lowest Medicare reimbursement. It's hard to raise wages with this reality,but it MUST be done. Also,the pay scale has to broaden-so you don't work a place for 26 years and stiull be at mid-point of salary! They think the answer is scholarships,but who is going to go to all the work of nursing school for LOW WAGES? I recently gt a telemarketing call from a nursing home hoping to recruit RNs-they offered me 17.45 an hour for "new grads" When I asked the pay scale for a nurse with 20 yr experience the answer was 18.85. I replied "that is what's wrong with nursing today" and "I am not interested in taking a pay cut" Actually I have been a nurse since 1976. I agree that there are many more nurses out there who are working in other fields. I overheard the guy behind the meat counter in conversation talking about having a nurse license,but he is cutting meat. I also know of some who are selling real estate.It MUST get profitable to be a nurse.

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