They cite US BLS forecasts for a shortage of nurses, and recommend to spend more money (over $500 million more) to increase nursing school programs to meet the projected shortage. And, after all, "there are throngs of qualified nursing school candidates unable to obtain a seat in programs due to a lack of adequate space to accommodate them." (Loosely quoted from the article.)
I am most definitely not qualified to make rational, reasoned arguments for or against at this point, because I am at the moment...feeling rather emotional.
That's great and all, but it's pointless if hospitals and other organizations aren't creating the jobs to go with them. Do they really think employers are so eager to fill the gap left by a departing nurse, not when they can try to get their existing staffing to fill it at a far cheaper cost?
I guess they thought it was a real victory to have that amended. My favorite part of their response was the supposed "low response rate". These people are masters at skewing numbers by surveying their like-minded cohorts and presenting the results as objective.
That article was written in January 2013, but I don't think you'll hear a non-biased source say too much has changed since then.
Sometimes they get cute and slip in "educated" or "preferred" and define a nurse as a bachelor's degree nurse and consider jobs filled by ADNs as somehow a job opening. The reporters they enlist to carry water for them rarely question what they say.
I guess they thought it was a real victory to have that amended. My favorite part of their response was the supposed "low response rate". These people are masters at skewing numbers by surveying their like-minded cohorts and presenting the results as objective.
That article was written in January 2013, but I don't think you'll hear a non-biased source say too much has changed since then.
Sometimes they get cute and slip in "educated" or "preferred" and define a nurse as a bachelor's degree nurse and consider jobs filled by ADNs as somehow a job opening. The reporters they enlist to carry water for them rarely question what they say.
The ANA is a well funded union and lobby organization that seems to favor big government solutions for perceived problems.
I wish they would focus on better working conditions for nurses, period. Alas, most of the emails I receive from our state ANA affiliate seem to be promoting their political agenda. That irritates me.
This is exactly why I do not support or belong to the ANA. Better working conditions and better pay for actual working nurses instead of supporting corporate healthcare and government agendas doesn't seem to even be on their radar.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
The ANA/union issue is really murky now mostly over the issue of nurse-patient ratios. The ANA is against ratios for reasons I never really understood. A number of state affiliates have broken away from the Mothership but still call themselves what was traditionally the name for state branches the Nurse's Association. When these groups voted to break away they took the name with them in some cases, causing the ANA to recreate a state branch with a different name.
National Nurses United was born out of the ratio fight in California and it is a collective bargaining entity. You have to read the fine print in your own state to see what their status is vis a vis the ANA who I don't believe calls for strikes or negotiates contracts, etc and the NNU, which does.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
The ANA/union issue is really murky now mostly over the issue of nurse-patient ratios. The ANA is against ratios for reasons I never really understood.
I can explain that for you easily. The ANA is ALWAYS against anything that could ever benefit nurses. Clearly the ANA is made up of people who have a deep dislike for nurses.
Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN
4 Articles; 7,907 Posts
That's great and all, but it's pointless if hospitals and other organizations aren't creating the jobs to go with them. Do they really think employers are so eager to fill the gap left by a departing nurse, not when they can try to get their existing staffing to fill it at a far cheaper cost?