Cherry Ames to the rescue? Addressing the nursing shortage

[lannisz]

Regarding any ideas for addressing our nursing shortage....I think what's been done previously in the history of the U.S to address the problem may provide a great model. Here is an excerpt from a brochure prepared by the U.S. Army Center of Military History by Judith A. Bellafaire. It talks about what we did during WWII to address the severe shortage of nurses both at home and abroad.

The Army Nurse Corps in World War II

The tremendous manpower needs faced by the United States during World War II created numerous new social and economic opportunities for American women. As large numbers of women entered industry and many of the professions for the first time, the need for nurses clarified the status of the nursing profession. The Army reflected this changing attitude in June 1944 when it granted its nurses officers' commissions and full retirement privileges, dependents' allowances, and equal pay. Moreover, the government provided free education to nursing students between 1943 and 1948. !!!!!

The Army Nurse Corps listed fewer than 1,000 nurses on its rolls on 7 December 1941, the day of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Only eighty-two Army nurses were stationed in Hawaii serving at three Army medical facilities that infamous morning. Tripler Army Hospital was overwhelmed with casualties suffering from severe burns and shock. Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, there were 12,000 nurses on duty in the Army Nurse Corps. Few of them had previous military experience.

From July 1943 through September 1945 approximately 27,330 newly inducted nurses graduated from fifteen Army training centers.

Public health administrators as well as the American public believed that the increasing demands of the U.S. armed forces for nurses were responsible for a shortage of civilian nurses.

Responding to these concerns in June 1943, Congress passed the Bolton Act, which set up the Cadet Nurse Corps program.

The U.S. government subsidized the education of nursing students who promised that following graduation they would engage in essential military OR civilian nursing for the duration of the war.

The government ALSO subsidized nursing schools willing to accelerate their program of study and provide student nurses with their primary training within two and a half years.

Cadet nurses spent the last six months of their training assigned to civilian or military hospitals, which helped to alleviate the critical nursing shortage. Possible assignments included hospitals run by the Army, Navy, Veterans Administration, Public Health Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Cadet Nurse Corps training program was extremely successful and enjoyed enthusiastic public support. By 1948 when the program was discontinued, more than 150,000 nurse graduates testified to its value.

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

Wow thanks for the history. Interesting read. The army and nation is so short of nurses and this would be a great way to get more.

[lannisz]

I agree. I read this to my husband and he said "well, we have a war going on now too...against disease, potential pandemics and an evergrowing aging poulation." Obviously our goverment is not taking the nursing shortage seriously, it's only going to get worse. During WWII they realized how important nurses were and what their job skills really involved. I think if the goverment put a similar program in place today, we would at least replace some of the nurses who are retiring from nursing. Lord knows we have so many capable people wanting to enter the profession who would jump at the chance for a subsidized education and accelerated program of study.

[elkpark]

While I have no dispute with any of the programs listed in the original post, keep in mind that there is a legitimate debate nowadays about whether there actually is a general nursing shortage, or merely a shortage of nurses willing to work (put up with the crummy employment/practice conditions) in hospitals. It isn't just the number of nurses retiring that is the problem, it's also the large number of young(ish), healthy nurses with many good years ahead of them who are leaving the profession in droves because they're fed up and burned out.

Until that situation changes, we are all just bailing out a boat without fixing the leak ...

[PANurseRN1]

Not to mention, who would be teaching all of these prospective nurses? You can't just pluck educators out of thin air.