Could THIS Be the Cause of the Nursing Shortage?

[Q.]

"...you haven't even been a nurse long enough to even have an opinion."

"...she has nothing to contribute to the nursing profession until she acquires some more experience."

"The nurse was created to assist the physicians with her or her duties, like wiping butts, emptying urinals, giving baths, giving pills."

"...Diploma nurses are the only true nurses. The rest just don't stack up."

"...you are glorified butt wipers, that's what you are...."

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These statements are just a sampling of what I collected from the short week I have been visiting this site. Reposting these statements is not meant to bring up old issues or further attack the individuals who said them. What it is meant to do is alarm you. These statements were said BY nurses TO nurses. As you can guess, these statements are hurtful, both to the person it was directed at, and the nursing profession itself.

Could this be why nursing school enrollment is down?

I am convinced that the nursing shortage has more to do with the lack of new nurses than with old ones leaving the bedside. Every profession has some amount of atrition, but when the average age of a staff nurse is in his/her mid 40's, it makes you wonder.

These kind of statements and attitudes cannot go on. While we may disagree on if a Bachelor's degree should be the point of entry or if NP's should really be allowed to practice without so many years as a staff nurse, we can't continue to foster this type of resentment towards our own. We have to encourage younger nurses and make the profession attractive to others.

We are not the only profession that has problems. Most people enter the nursing field and know full well that they will have to deal with crappy conditions, like a sudden influx of patients, or bodily fluids, mean and nasty patients, death and dying, emergencies. But those aspects of nursing are a GIVEN. What is NOT to be expected is the kind of attitude that is displayed above. It is this attitude that drives people to either leave the profession completely, or never begin it. I'd like to focus on those who never begin it. Those potential nurses that we lose because we constantly berate new nurses and make them feel inferior. Those nurses we lose because RNs are viewed as unskilled paper pushers and order givers. Those nurses we lose because we consider BSN prepared nurses "glorified butt wipers." Tell me what person would want to persue this career if this is what we think of it ourselves?

Most high school students want to go to college, but how many really want to go to college to be a "glorified butt wiper?" I know I didn't.

If we want to solve a piece of the nursing shortage, I think making our profession attractive to young people, standardizing nursing requirements, and showing a little bit of dignity for our own profession may be a start. Then, once we have ample staff in the hospitals, schools and community again, we can start to work on things like pay....

[Q.]

Gpip, I know my history. I have mentioned that the nursing profession has always had a pendulum swing.....a shortage occurs, the salaries go up, the units are at staff, then admin cuts back, drops salary, and then the shortage again. The thing is, the hospitals never learn from each shortage we've had because we never make a stand against what causes it!! I don't like taking an apathetic "oh well, that's how it's always been" attitude. There needs to be changes.

In addition, THIS particular shortage is proported to be the worst. The babyboomer generation of nurses are close to retiring, and there aren't any new grads to fill those spots. The problem to me seems to start in nursing school. Enrollment is down, that is a known fact. Don't quote me, but I believe AJN has reported a steady decline down to 25% of school enrollment.

My very own husband, who was a junior in nursing school, decided to leave the profession because of the pettiness, nastiness and politics of it all...not to mention little pay and all the other conditions that play a part. He enjoyed nursing - wanted to be a critical care nurse, loved cardiology, but the hen-clucking that our profession is known for turned him off. He realized as I've realized...the "warm and fuzzies" of nursing only lasts so long when you're working in a stressful environment. I attribute that environment partly to our nastiness to each other: the belittling, the competition, the HORRIBLE way we treat new grads and nursing students. This kind of thing we can actually control...so why don't we?

I see it as a stack of dominos. We get our act together, define ourselves, agree to it, unite, speak in one, unified professional coherent voice, and demand changes. I see the rest will follow suit. But until then, as we continue to voice our concerns separately, focusing on LPNs vs RNs vs NPs vs BSNs vs new grads, NOTHING will get done.

[Brownms46]

Originally posted by Susy K:

Brownie, thanks for the compliment. Coming from you, I find that compliment to be worth a million.

You remind me of a nurse I work with: She's been a nurse for over 20 years. Graduated with her RN the year I was born! (1973) she used to be an LPN and has a wealth of knowledge, about even the simplest things.

I consider it a priviledge to work with her.

Susy K,

I'm honored, and humbled! And it seems, you were born the same year as my son! YIKES!

Brownie

[Thistle]

Ok, here's my 2 cents worth....

I left nursing nearly 2 years ago although I have kept up my license. I worked 12 hr night shifts on the renal floor of a major hospital. Why did I leave?.... I'd had enough of the abuse! The docs treat nurses as if they were mindless maids or servants, and blamed the nurse for anything and everything that went wrong. The administration did not support the nursing staff in the least, and continuously increased our workload, even after multiple complaints that the load and conditions were unsafe.

I'd typically have 8 high acuity patients, mostly fresh transplants, multiple systems failure, CAPD, and such. There would be one other nurse who had her own heavy patient load, and if we were extremely fortunate, we'd have a CNA. After the Unit Secretary died, we were then required to do her work as well. All too frequently I'd have to go to other floors in the facility to do the CAPD exchanges (several times per shift each) for patients in ICU or elsewhere, in addition to caring for my own patients. For the last 2 years I worked there was no such thing as a coffee or lunch break. I'd work 8 nights in a row, and still they were calling on my days off begging me to come in. The working conditions were deplorable, the docs were the epitome of rudness and excessive egos, the administration was uncaring and even complained when we'd have to stay longer after the shift was over so we could finally sit and do some charting. Then they announced "no raises this year". Nurses were quitting by the droves, and were not being replaced with new hires. They sucked the enthusiasm, positive attitude, and the life out of me. And for what? Less than what new grads were earning elsewhere?

The last straw was at the end of a particularly horrible shift, when a hot shot transplant doc stood in the middle of the pod and yelled at me for not calling him about a patient that was going bad. It was clearly documented that repeated attempts were made to call him for the previous 7 hours. Aparently he was no where near a phone or his pager. I saved his patient, but he accused me of nearly killing the man.

Enough was enough! I quit.

This is only my story, there are hundreds more out there, most I'm sure more horrific than mine, but I believe this is why there is a shortage of nurses!

I miss doing patient care, but I don't miss the abuse.

[JennieBSN]

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[Q.]

I can vouch for that as well.

I work at a large teaching hospital and a 50 bed community hospital in an upscale neighborhood. WORLD of difference....

[ANnot4me]

I have been out of nursing for over a year now. I feel like a new person, but sometimes I just miss it sooooooo much. Brownie, your post about nursing and how young people view us touched me very much. My aunt was a nurse and I thought she was up there with God (in the good karma department -- not in the way people view physicians). I don't think people see nurses that way anymore. People say "Oh, a nurse? How wonderful! I could never do that." But they say it in the same voice they use to patronize their cleaning lady or anyone else who does something the wouldn't be caught dead doing.

When you think about it, society as a whole has lost all respect for all things directly related to caring for others (clergy, full-time mothers, nurses, teachers, etc). Make a million dollars selling sex to people on the internet and you're a socialite.

[Q.]

Originally posted by chigap:

I have been out of nursing for over a year now. I feel like a new person, but sometimes I just miss it sooooooo much. Brownie, your post about nursing and how young people view us touched me very much. My aunt was a nurse and I thought she was up there with God (in the good karma department -- not in the way people view physicians). I don't think people see nurses that way anymore. People say "Oh, a nurse? How wonderful! I could never do that." But they say it in the same voice they use to patronize their cleaning lady or anyone else who does something the wouldn't be caught dead doing.

When you think about it, society as a whole has lost all respect for all things directly related to caring for others (clergy, full-time mothers, nurses, teachers, etc). Make a million dollars selling sex to people on the internet and you're a socialite.

This is so true, and so sad.

[Mijourney]

Hi colleagues. What thoughtful posts! You've all hit the nail on the head in your own way. Nursing is not an attractive profession for all of the above reasons. The question is who will mind the store when no one is there to pick up the pieces? When we need help ourselves, what will we have available to us for nursing staff?

I have no plans of ever returning to institutionalized bedside nursing. But, I feel strongly that facility-based bedside nurses must get the support needed, because what I do and what happens to my patients in the home is directly affected by what happens to the patient in the hospital.

[JeanthePHN]

well I dont agree. I am 40 and had 2nd generation immigrant parents who never graduated from high school and worked menial jobs all their lives and told me to "be a nurse cause nurses always have work" I was so shy and naive and ignorant when I was 16 17 yrs old I did not know I was chosing a job that wiped butts or body parts, or worked all hours and days of the week. My stupid little world did not know what nurses did as a job and neither did my parents. Of course teenagers and parents and the public dont really know what nurses do today either. When I finally graduated from school, thinking of all the glory and money I could make, I quickly learned I was a slave labor in a hospital as a med/surg nurse and got out. I took a easy, but almost minimum wage clinic job and stayed 10 years. I am one of those 40 something nurses and do regret every going into it. And if I had been born in 1975 or 1980 instead of 1960 I hope my choices would have been more than what my Depression era parents gave me.

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[JennieBSN]

I think nursing is like every other job out there...it's not for everyone. I also think that part of the problem with young people not wanting to go into a field that isn't 'glamorous' or high-paying is because they have idols like rap stars and athletes that basically do nothing and get paid millions, and that is the standard.

On another note, it really makes me angry to see/hear other nurses discouraging young people from going into the profession. They may not be happy or like nursing, but it doesn't mean some of these other young folks won't. If it's their dream, don't crush it simply because you're unhappy with your choice. Let them decide for themselves if nursing is what they want to do. If they get into it and don't like it, they can always leave. I was in a sorority in college and HATED it, but when my sister in law asked my opinion on sororities before she stared college, I told her that she should at least try one out if she wanted to, because her experience might be different from mine. Just because I didn't have a good experience didn't mean she wouldn't. The same is true for nursing. Just my 2 cents.

[CEN35]

what can I say?

I think Kday makes a valid point.

CEN35 (Rick)

[jo1998]

Originally posted by Susy K:

"...you haven't even been a nurse long enough to even have an opinion."

"...she has nothing to contribute to the nursing profession until she acquires some more experience."

"The nurse was created to assist the physicians with her or her duties, like wiping butts, emptying urinals, giving baths, giving pills."

"...Diploma nurses are the only true nurses. The rest just don't stack up."

"...you are glorified butt wipers, that's what you are...."

I know that historically nursing shortages cycle every five or so years, cycling disciplines as well. I have been taking care of patients long enough to have seen two of these shortages! I have also worked in several other "professional" atmospheres and learned that no career choice is immuned to caddiness. Also, being relative of police officers and fire persons, I can say that their unity does not spare them from public opinion, and untruths. The medical field has received much publicity from the debate of managed care health insurance. Managed care has crippled many hospitals, both in financial and patient care areas. It pains me to know that patients are d/c'd before they are ready, that I can not adequately treat them as their insurance would not cover appropriate testing, surgeries, meds, etc. I often wonder, if the patients, and future nurses are disuayed after receiving care. It's not that we don't do the best we can, it's that insurance companies don't allow us. I could only imagine what a tainted opinion some patients must get, and how many people they discuss their experiences with. It is not so much nurses giving nurses a bad rap, but patients can be very verbal, often lashing out at direct care staff, and ignoring my plea to call their insurance company and complain! I don't know how enthusiatic I would be going into a nursing program, when the media floods viewers with exaggerated negatives. My daughter wanted to become a nurse, and I asked her to evaluate this decision. She did a pro vs. con list. Not surprising she is enrolled in college with a double major in business management and computers. Had her data confirmed her desire to be a nurse, I certainly would have supported that decision as well, although I am somewhat relieved to know that someone will still be able to prepare holiday meals, while I work LOL! My compassion and love for nursing keeps me very content. I wonder though, is there a nursing shortage or is it Managed Care Restructure? (I hope not)