Nursing Shortage Makes the Prime Time News!

cargal · Dec 31, 2000

Originally posted by reg06:
EXCELLENT replies everyone. I wanted to see this on the evening news but I work nights and didn't wake up on time. I am very upset that it was not bringing up so many very important issues that nurses have been working to address.

Thank you for posting where we can send in comments about the crappy journalism. I am borrowing the 5 minute clip on video from a friend and will respond to CBS as soon as I can.

Interesting information about the mainstream media can be found at http://www.fair.org/ This site brings out the facts about how mainstream media journalism is lacking and often misses very crucial information. I plan to write to them as well about the segment on the eening news.

We need to fight back nurses! We need to wake up the public to what is going on. It takes activism and pressure and UNITY to rise up against corporate driven mongrels who don't give a damn about human beings and only care about PROFIT.

This brings me to the next question, is it right to have FOR PROFIT healthcare?
More and more I am starting to really question our system in the U.S. I guess I should start a new post on this issue.

Keep up the great work out there on awareness and involvement in advancing the nursing profession!!

There is no doubt in my mind that we need for profit health care. First, our ecomomy is based on capitalism and that is one thing ( not the only thing) that makes America prosper. We also have a healthcare system that is second to none. Why? Because people make Money by being creative and inventive and smart, to go to schools to learn skills to make this system the best, in technology and first rate care. No it is not perfect and we should strive for improvement. The health care in England is antiquated according to our standards- stories of full incision abdominal surgery because they lack the technology and lack of supplies. The socialized system of Canada is even worse- the incredibly long waits for treatment, the long lines and the inferior medical care. Give me the US any time, where I know compensation for inventions and high tech treatments will be available as I age. When the government steps in to socialize or rule, the system will crumble. We've all heard reports about the $800 toilet seats and hammers. Also , isn't that want nurses want, compensation for skills and experience? That is the heart of a capitalistic society and increases incentive for top notch care ( similar to what teachers had experienced in the 70's when increases in income (and working conditions and respect) were needed to to keep them from migrating to other more profitable fields).

natalie · Dec 31, 2000

cargal-

You're making huge leaps of faith when you state our healthcare system is second to none. We rank 37th of all countries according to World Health Organization. I remember a few years back, we ranked somewhere around 18th for infant mortality! And if you think you will have access and compensation for care as you age, think again. Boomer morbidity with lack of healthcare workers is going to send this country into a tailspin. I'm not so much arguing against the capitalist system, as much as stating that our current system is a disaster. There in fact, IS NO system.

natalie · Dec 31, 2000

jt-

The topic of retention bothers me greatly. It seems the drive to increase nursing numbers will be geared towards recruitment, with very little effort put in to retaining the veteran nurse. And I believe we are in HUGE numbers. I read somewhere that one of the midatlantic states (New Jersey or Maryland I think) was handing out nursing coloring books to children in first grade. Sounds like brainwash to me. Career choice persuasions for a 5 year old!!!! What a shame.

natalie · Dec 31, 2000

Saw the CBS report and sent a blurb to them about the lack of insight re: the shortage. Suggested they dig a little deeper.

reg06 · Dec 31, 2000

Way to go nurses, keep sending out those complaints to CBS news, it is the only way there will be any public awareness on the issues nurses are dealing with.

We need to get the PUBLIC on OUR side. Interestingly enough, common people love and respect nurses, as indicated by a poll recently ranking nurses in the top five professions for honesty and trust. You guys, the public is on our side. If they know that nurses are fighting for them, we have the POWER over any of the administrators who want to keep cutting costs.

KEEP PRESSURING CBS EVENING NEWS until they buckle and shed some light on the true issues.

Also I started a new post for the debate on healthcare in the US as for profit. Please help me understand what is best: Universal healthcare or for profit. I am very upset with the current system here in the US.

fergus51 · Dec 31, 2000

OK being a nurse in a "socialized" medical system I had to respond to the claim that we are "inferior". Reg, I have worked in the States and moved back to Canada a few years ago and I can tell you that the technology and supplies are no different here. The reason we have long waitlists is because of the fact that ALL of our citizens have access to medical care and we lose nurses to the higher wages in the States every year.

I lived in the States from the time I was 12 until I was 23 (worked there for 2 years) and I was one of those not rich enough to be able to afford a trip to the hospital. As a teenager in school I thought I had wrecked my shoulder or something but I couldn't even go to a doctor. Turns out it was only dislocated and because of our lack of money I learned to pop it back in myself. The only time I went to a doctor in my teens when I was there I was told there was nothing wrong with the fact that all my joints cracked. Here in Canada I found out that if I hadn't gotten diagnosed and started taking meds I could have had serious problems as I got older (heart problems, birth defects in my children and losing my sight).

I know I am rambling here, but this issue has really touched my family. You yourself said that America is a prosperous country, so why does it deny the poor one of the most basic of needs. I am not advocating communism, I am advocating fairness. Everyone should have the right to some basic services like education and healthcare.

Unfortunately our system is moving more and more in the direction of for profit healthcare. And I really doubt that saves a lot of money when CEOs are taking home salaries in the million dollar range. Already people can avoid those long waitlists for MRIs and some minor surgeries by paying for them in private clinics. Supporters claim it will reduce waiting lists by opening new hospitals and clinics, but they fail to mention that just opening a clinic doesn't make more nurses appear and that is the main reason for the waitlists. All it will do is take nurses away from the hospitals that already exist leaving the system even worse off than before.

pk · Dec 31, 2000

Lets solve the problem!Have your human resouces organizations lobby state boards to make it easier to become liscenced in you state.Haven't you made a decision in your career not to go to states who want $150 plus

have you get endorsements from every state you ever practiced in.If you were a traveler for 20 years licensed in 20 states that could run you $1500.Stop bonuses for nurse managers who keep FTE positions unfilled and require mandatory overtime while they go home everyday at 4pm.Give the bonuses to the staff nurses.Have each state nursing organization to have an annual conference on solving the nursing shortage and then have a very visible national conference just on this topic.Make sure it is run by staff nurses not the old guard who perpertrated this mess.National conventions must start focusing on nurse job satisfaction issues instead of being multimillion dollar product extraviganza's.Finally,support the legislation now before congress to limit the number of hours nurses can be made to work.This one issue scares more nurses away and out of the profession than any other.Oh and salaries,perhaps a national subsidy for nurses funded by private industry or some tax dollars.

reg06 · Jan 1, 2001

Fergus51 I think you misread my post as I did not say anything about the Canadien system of healthcare as being "inferior."

I started a new topic on a different post called "for profit healthcare, is it working?" Please go to it and share your views. I stated I am very UNHAPPY with the current US healthcare system

pk · Jan 1, 2001

Excellent report on CCN this morning at 9am cst on nursing shortage by Linda Campiana.It lasted 10-15 minutes.Sources included Chicago Tribune articles and South Florida Nursing Shortage Consortium.Perhaps CNN will do town meetings on the shortage.Write in!

OC_An Khe · Jan 1, 2001

Originally posted by pk:
Excellent report on CCN this morning at 9am cst on nursing shortage by Linda Campiana.It lasted 10-15 minutes.Sources included Chicago Tribune articles and South Florida Nursing Shortage Consortium.Perhaps CNN will do town meetings on the shortage.Write in!

do you have a link to this story/site? All help is appreciated. Thanks and a safe and happy new year.

Mijourney · Jan 1, 2001

Hi colleagues. You all make great valid points regarding this vital topic. It's unfortunate that CBS decided to participate in the politics of the powerful in addressing the shortage. I think it's fair for nurses to email them regarding their approach. The one positive about the CBS piece is that the nursing shortage is getting some air time and its encouraging some of us to take action. If the major networks won't be fair to nurses, then we should seek more airtime on cable networks such as C-SPAN. There is a direct link between what we need as nurses and how politicians legislate, judges adjudicate, and presidents or prime ministers execute.

As for the poster from Canada, you mention that you have long waits because of the shortage of staff? Well, let me inform you that rules, regs, managed care, and corporate profiteering cause me, a U.S. citizen, to have unduly long waits in doctor's offices, clinics, emergency rooms, and inadequate attention in the hospital. Not only that, we ration care in this country depending on your insurance. What's the difference in the systems colleagues? How will making more money solve this problem? Should we have a system of quality health care for a few?

Tiara · Jan 1, 2001

What's frustrating is that these news stations have a bias toward the hospitals and the slant is always in that direction. The poor hospitals can't get nurses! They need to know that hospitals have been messing up budgets and putting nurses at the bottom of the food chain for years and years. Nurses become the "bad guys" for not being loyal to the poor put-upon institutions that can't get any money!