Despite High Demand For Nurses, Colleges Aren't Keeping Up

[TheMoonisMyLantern]

I'm curious for everyone's thoughts on this article. The nursing shortage or surplus depending on your region has been discussed many times here but I think this article would be more accurate if it said there's a shortage of experienced nurses willing to tolerate the poor working conditions of the bedside. I can't think of a single peer of mine that doesn't have the goal of either going to a non-clinical position, or becoming a nurse practitioner. I think the pandemic is driving even more people from the bedside making working conditions even worse for those that remain. What's happening in your region? Is it feast or famine? What do you feel this article gets right/wrong? 

Despite High Demand For Nurses, Colleges Aren't Keeping Up

[TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN]

7 minutes ago, JKL33 said:

The contracts are practically proof all on their own that there is no nursing shortage. If there were a real shortage, there would be no nurse anywhere who would have to sign one to get a job, even as a new grad.

I wonder if hospitals and LTC's staffed how they should and not how they deem appropriate if there would be a shortage. 

I don't know, do you think we can afford more than 1 nurse for 60 residents on a noc shift in a nursing home? 

[Julie]

allnurses® would love to hear from you.

Are the nursing schools keeping up?

Will hospital budgets stay adequate for PPE?

What will be the long term effects of the cut back on clinical training?

How long will the overworked veteran nurses stick around?

Here is one publications' opinion on this:  click here

 

[TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN]

Haha I posted the same article in the General form.

[Julie]

Awesome @TheMoonisMyLantern we think alike.  Thank you. Please refer comments to:

 

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, TheMoonisMyLantern said:

I wonder if hospitals and LTC's staffed how they should and not how they deem appropriate if there would be a shortage. 

I don't know, do you think we can afford more than 1 nurse for 60 residents on a noc shift in a nursing home? 

With a ratio like that, it shouldn't even be called a "nursing" home.

[Emergent, RN]

The diploma programs of yesteryear were excellent apprenticeship type systems that truly did utilize the hard work of nursing students. They built character in the young women, and took no-nonsense from them.

Of course societies have evolved, nursing is not only for women, and social mores have vastly changed. But, there is something powerful in a hierarchical system such as that. It's too bad we are not able to learn from the past and revive things that worked, into what we have today

 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I know that for our first year nurses that graduated and started during this pandemic, their experience has been far different than what they will be expected to handle when the pandemic has passed. For example, our medical surgical floor has become the COVID unit and the nurses hired for the med-surg floor, in many cases, have not had any surgical patients. They haven't had NG tubes, dressing changes, pre or post-surgical prep, and those things will come back when they've been long since off orientation. So they will be back on the learning curve and trying to figure things out without the benefit of a preceptor, or even adequate staff because ratios have increased over the course of their first year. The impact of this pandemic will be felt in many ways for years. 

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

9 hours ago, Emergent said:

The diploma programs of yesteryear were excellent apprenticeship type systems that truly did utilize the hard work of nursing students. They built character in the young women, and took no-nonsense from them.

Of course societies have evolved, nursing is not only for women, and social mores have vastly changed. But, there is something powerful in a hierarchical system such as that. It's too bad we are not able to learn from the past and revive things that worked, into what we have today

 

It seems that no one goes into Nursing today to stay at the bedside.  Everyone wants to be an NP, CRNA, Manager, clinic, school, or doc's office nurse, or Midwife.  Nothing wrong with having a desire to advance, but I just wonder if anyone wants to stay in direct care.

[JKL33]

On 12/23/2020 at 3:17 AM, Kooky Korky said:

It seems that no one goes into Nursing today to stay at the bedside.  Everyone wants to be an NP, CRNA, Manager, clinic, school, or doc's office nurse, or Midwife.  Nothing wrong with having a desire to advance, but I just wonder if anyone wants to stay in direct care.

Because if you have to wager a bet, chances for being treated like a human being are better in any of those other roles/places (except maybe the middle management role). That's just sad.

I guarantee you that some of it isn't just some need to shore up oneself with the idea of "advancement" but rather laying eyes on the situation and just saying no.

There are a ton of people that love bedside care. But not enough to lose any sense of well-being.

[caliotter3]

On 12/22/2020 at 5:31 AM, Tweety said:

I remember over 20 years ago being frustrated with the number of students on waiting lists unable to get into schools because of lack of spots, all the while importing nurses from the Philippines (awesome nurses by the way but seems a bit off).  This caused a prevalence of for-profit institutions that capitalize on students wanting the education quickly or because they don't have a 4.0 on prereqs to get the coveted few spots.

Any evidenced based studied on idea that there are enough nurses but they just don't want to do hospital work?  Seems like here in Florida that is not the case as there are thousands of job openings including plenty of openings outside the hospital. 

Students are very eager to help in any way and I generally don't mind having them.  But they shouldn't be considered "an extra pair of hands".   I don't think on people that do not want to take them it shouldn't be forced.  

I once spoke with a person who told me of a nurse recruiter from the famous KP entity who made trips to the Philippines to recruit for their 20 hours a week or less subsidized jobs here in the US.  Did that recruiter ever step foot inside a US nursing school classroom to recruit?  We know the answer to that.

When we were having a discussion about the nursing import pipeline one night, I made the astute observation that perhaps (knowing employers and their motives) our low wages were largely due to the pipeline.  One of my coworkers who was a result of that pipeline, looked at me with a quizzical look on her face.  She had not heard the nursing school spiel on nursing being considered a "profession" if it paid "professional" wages.

There are also nurses who won't step foot inside certain places of employment because of the entrenched culture, be it as it may.  That is a question or situation that I never see being addressed in discussions of why nurses don't seek work in certain places.  I was once waiting in the cafeteria area of a hospital for a late appointment.  For more than four hours I did not see a single person enter that I could identify with.  Mentally I made the decision that this was not a place where I would fit in as an employee.  Not bad, not good, just a fact.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

That article is quite misleading in the way it focused on a demographic of students in California community colleges.  Pre-pandemic, even Med Surg Units in California require at least 1 year of in-patient experience not to mention the "preference" for BSN grads.  In my area, hospitals have been bringing in agency nurses who can hit the ground running rather than train new nurses and that is even more common practice now than before the pandemic. 

It makes me wonder which "power-brokers" are behind the article...the schools who have lost a chunk of enrollment due to the pandemic (community college enrollment apparently are low this year)? It can't be hospital executives seated in their leather office chairs right now crunching numbers and making sure staffing ratios are stretched as far as possible.  BTW, I'm familiar with Peter Buerhaus' research output on nurse staffing - he actually says the same thing over and over that there is a nursing workforce shortage.

[guest1143647]

Maybe there is a shortage of BSN educated nurses?

Why don't these article just state that?

In my area hospitals do not give ADN's a second look,even experienced ones.

The hospitals caused this themselves. Maybe they could cut back expenses while still having adequate staffing by employing team nursing but with a different approach to the more traditional RN.Lpn,CNA.

Maybe something like BSN RN,ADN RN,then CNA,