Discussion Question for Nurses

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i am currently a nursing student. i am participating in a clinical class where i have patient contact. there are also other written assignments. one of my written assignments is post a question to a discussion group.

my clinical experience this semester has taken me to two very different settings, one was a labor and delivery unit at a hospital and the other is a planned parenthood. one issue that both of my clinical sites have in common is a lack of personnel. according to aacn there is currently a nursing shortage that is only going to get worse in the future. some of the contributing factors of the shortage include a shortage of nursing school facility, the average age of rns is climbing, and burnout and job dissatisfaction are causing many to leave the profession.

i would like to know how you think the nursing shortage is affecting you. is it affecting the care that you are able to give your patients? does it ever make you want to leave the profession?

also according to a study published in the journal of the american medical association nurses educated at the baccalaureate level or higher have a lower patient mortality rate (aiken, clarke, cheung, sloane, silber, 2004). although this does not mean that they are better nurses, i have heard in clinical settings that baccalaureate level nurses are not appreciated because established nurses feel that they did not experience enough clinical time, that too much of their time was spent in lecture halls. i would appreciate any feelings you have on this topic, especially anything from your personal experiences working with associate vs. baccalaureate level nurses and if you feel that this is a difference in their capabilities as a nurse.

thank you for your time and i look forward to reading your responses. i need at least three for the assignment but would appreciate as many responses as possible so i can get a better feeling of the nursing environment.

references

aiken, l.h., clarke, s.p., cheung, r.b., sloane, d.m., silber, j.h. (2004). educational levels of hospital nurses and surgical patient mortality. the journal of the american medical association. 290(12), 1617–1623.

aacn, fact sheet. (october 18, 2005). retrieved april 1, 2006, from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media/factsheets/nursingshortage.htm

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i am currently a nursing student. i am participating in a clinical class where i have patient contact. there are also other written assignments. one of my written assignments is post a question to a discussion group.

my clinical experience this semester has taken me to two very different settings, one was a labor and delivery unit at a hospital and the other is a planned parenthood. one issue that both of my clinical sites have in common is a lack of personnel. according to aacn there is currently a nursing shortage that is only going to get worse in the future. some of the contributing factors of the shortage include a shortage of nursing school facility, the average age of rns is climbing, and burnout and job dissatisfaction are causing many to leave the profession.

i would like to know how you think the nursing shortage is affecting you. is it affecting the care that you are able to give your patients? does it ever make you want to leave the profession?

also according to a study published in the journal of the american medical association nurses educated at the baccalaureate level or higher have a lower patient mortality rate (aiken, clarke, cheung, sloane, silber, 2004). although this does not mean that they are better nurses, i have heard in clinical settings that baccalaureate level nurses are not appreciated because established nurses feel that they did not experience enough clinical time, that too much of their time was spent in lecture halls. i would appreciate any feelings you have on this topic, especially anything from your personal experiences working with associate vs. baccalaureate level nurses and if you feel that this is a difference in their capabilities as a nurse.

thank you for your time and i look forward to reading your responses. i need at least three for the assignment but would appreciate as many responses as possible so i can get a better feeling of the nursing environment.

references

aiken, l.h., clarke, s.p., cheung, r.b., sloane, d.m., silber, j.h. (2004). educational levels of hospital nurses and surgical patient mortality. the journal of the american medical association. 290(12), 1617-1623.

aacn, fact sheet. (october 18, 2005). retrieved april 1, 2006, from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media/factsheets/nursingshortage.htm

hi rudy, i am not yet a nurse but you might want to put this post in the nursing student assisstance forum. you will probably get more traffic there. good luck and i look forward to reading people's replies! :)

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i believe that the nursing "shortage" is a pseudo shortage. in other words, it's not that there aren't enough licensed nurses in the u.s.- it's that so many nurses have left the profession because working conditions pretty much suck, and nurses are treated badly in many places.

stats from the dept of labor bureau of labor statistics bear this out.

yes, i've thought of leaving nurse many times. i've taken breaks from nursing from time to time. i've now found my niche- as a traveler.

here are some stats and sources from an old thread-

almost 500,000 licensed registered nurses were not employed as nurses in 2000.*

data from the health resources and services administration's (hrsa's) 2000 national sample survey of rns shows that more than 500,000 licensed nurses (more than 18% of the national nurse workforce) have chosen not to work in nursing. this available labor pool could be drawn back into nursing if they found the employment opportunities attractive enough**

the ana maintains that the deterioration in the working conditions for nurses is the primary cause for the staff vacancies being reported by hospitals and nursing facilities - not a systemic nursing shortage. nurses are opting not to take these nursing jobs because they are not attracted to positions where they will be confronted by mandatory overtime and short staffing. **

76.6% (of) licensed rns (in the u.s. are) employed in nursing***

* projected supply, demand and shortages of registered nurses: 2000-2020 (released on 7/30/03 by the national center for health workforce analysis, bureau of health professions, health resources and services administration, u.s. department of health and human services). the bureau of labor statistics, in an earlier report, predicted that that we will need one million new nurses by 2010 (monthly labor review - november 2001) to cover new positions and replace the nurses who have retired.

**http://www.nursingworld.org/gova/fed...107/ovrtme.htm

***https://www.aacn.org/aacn/practice.n...6?opendocument

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I just checked, and the links are no longer good. You can go the original web sites and search for the articles & stats.

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Thanks for the post, and you do make a very good point about it being a pseudo shortage. If you or anyone reading this would like to comment on ways that you think the profession should change to make it more appealing and likeable to those currently working and those that have left the profession, I would greatly apperciate it! Thank for your time!

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

Actually, I find that the nursing shortage, whether real or not, does benefit our profession.

By keeping nurses in such high demand, it forces employers to pay us a (nearly) fair wage and give us decent benefits.

In a market saturated with nurses, HN and travellers like her would quickly find themselves out of work. The rest of us would be working for wages that would remain flat for the next thousand years.

And working conditions? Forget it. We'd all be silenced by the need to have a job.

So to me, the nursing shortage is our only leverage to keeping the status quo--such as it is.

Like I said, JMO.

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Well that is a good point though. If there were not shortages there really would not be a need for travel nurses except for when there is a disaster or a strike. And it is true that it gives nurses leverage, especially when bargining, I mean if hospital boards knew there were thousands of nurses out of work just waiting for a job at any second what would be the incentive to listen to the demands of the nurses currently working for them. I apperciate anything anyone else has to say on this topic, it is really giving me other ways to look at the "shortage" we hear so much about from all of my teachers.

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Well that is a good point though. If there were not shortages there really would not be a need for travel nurses except for when there is a disaster or a strike. And it is true that it gives nurses leverage, especially when bargining, I mean if hospital boards knew there were thousands of nurses out of work just waiting for a job at any second what would be the incentive to listen to the demands of the nurses currently working for them. I apperciate anything anyone else has to say on this topic, it is really giving me other ways to look at the "shortage" we hear so much about from all of my teachers.

well, after 22 years i am truly burnt-out. i actually burned out after the third year but i kept going because i had to. i worked hard, put up all all of the stuff and last year spent three days in telemetry but i was not working. so, i would say that the hospitals know the conditions in which they operate but it is much easier to get travelers or just hire more staff, keep recruiting and recycling, than change the system to make it better for all.

i am glad that you are a student, hurry up and finish because in the next 60 days there will be another vacancy, left by me!

good luck:balloons:

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