Survey: Do you think the federal government is taking the nursing shortage seriously?

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  1. Do you think the federal government is taking the nursing shortage seriously?

    • 6
      Yes
    • 76
      No

82 members have participated

Here are the results of last months survey question

Do you think the federal government is taking the nursing shortage seriously? :

surveyresults01-03.gif

Please feel free to read and post any comments that you have right here in this discussion thread by clicking the "Post Reply" button.

Thanks

There is alot of truth to what Mommy1 said, but if you find a good working environment in a hospital you can enjoy your work and find it very rewarding;)

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Originally posted by lee1

I would like to see an elected FEDERAL politician be an anonymous patient in a hospital WITHOUT all the hoopala that goes with political patients or without all the extra benefits that go with their medical insurances that we as tax payer give them. Do you think they dare????

They live on another level and decide other well being. That is something that should be stopped.

Amen to that. My mother-in-law is currently arguing with Medicare about whether she really "needs" a hip-replacement (apparently there are people running around having these done for fun somewhere!). :rolleyes: She's gome from being a very independent and self-sufficient person to someone who needs a walker for every ambulation and who relies on her daughter to do the shopping because she can't get in and out of her car anymore. Her physician says she needs it, their physician says she needs, but they don't want to pay for it. Do you think Jesse Helms or Strom thurmond would still be alive today if they had had to depend on Medicare to keep them that way? :wink2:

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I have to agree with NancyRN's post.

If there was a teachers shortage, we would see more action on this...

Seems nursing doesn't generate the same amount of respect as the teaching or other professions.

When was the last time you saw a President's Award for the Best Nurse Award? Every year you see the attention given to anyone but nursing.

Could it be that self satisfaction is the only reward there is ??

In that respect, we will attract fewer and fewer dedicated individuals to this profession.

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Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

If they did we wouldn't have one....Anyone who continuously works short knows there is a definite shortage in nursing. In PATIENT oriented nursing that is. Nursing is its own worse enemy in my opinion.....

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:( It's not the Feds who are choosing to sit on their laurels about the nursing shortage.....it is also our State representatives who are not responding to our dilema. These people seem to forget just who "VOTED THEM TO OFFICE"!!! I would love to be a staff nurse during an election time and have one as my patient. I am a Registered Nurse that has worked for the State of Wisconsin for almost 20 years. We have been without a union contract for the past 20 months!!! This really hurts our ability to hire more staff from the small pool that is out there to begin with. We can't strike because we are government workers. We are all working beyond our mental and physical capacities and some of us are looking elsewhere for employment as the private sector can offer higher salaries. Our union is lobbying in Madison, WI but it seems as though the legislators only hear one thing....we are in a deficit and everyone must sacrifice! Would they say the same if there loved ones were patients being tended to by a nurse trying to do the work of 2 or 3 after doing 3 double shifts in a row? I think not!!!
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Noone is taking the nursing shortage seriously! The public doesn't have a clue how bad it is going to be in about 10 years when us baby boomers retire. I believe we, as nurses, need to inform the public. Dateline, 20/20 or one of those shows had a piece on the nursing shortage. I have been e-mailing these shows and encouraging them to do more pieces about the topic. Maybe if more nurses did the same we might get some air time. I have worked in a 21 bed CIC/CSU for the past 17 years. We had a core night shift staff of 22 nurses (no travellers). We are now down to 7 core staff, 3 new grads and the rest are travellers. Our hospital doesn't seem to get it. We have a new DON and he said our hospital does not work on retention. How observant of him. We've been telling administration this for years.

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I agree with NancyRn. I believe they are not shortess. People doesn't want work under the sweatshop.

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The nurse reinvestment act did pass, but they haven't voted yet for the funding. We as nurses have to let our representatives and congress know we want them to apropriate funding- where this will come from is our guess- (taxes???)

Part of the idea of the nurse reinvestment act is to help get more nurses into education since the average age of faculty in nursing schools is 55+, (getting ready to retire):eek:

And to make money available for more students to be enrolled into nursing schools- but a BIG issue is pay for the educators- theirs is quite a bit lower than nurses in practice, and the universities want the educators to have PhD's. I don't much like the idea of going through all that to get the PhD and then be paid lower than a Family nurse practitoner with the MSN....

Better Pay, better working environment, have actual nurses in administration who know how it is in the "trenches", get the business men who have almighty $$ signs instead of eyes out of the direction of healthcare- it isn't " just a business" and what we do as nurses isn't "just part of the room charge", and nursing shouldn't be the first department to get cut in a hosp since the nurses are generally the "biggest portion of the payroll". The system Needs an overhaul!!! Ok enough opinion ....:rolleyes:

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Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.

I think Obama and Biden are very concerned about nursing and health care issues.

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Absolutely not! If it were, there would be more flexibility for LPNs.

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Specializes in Med-surg, tele, hospice, rehab.

No, and I don't think Obama or Biden will take it seriously. I don't trust either of them.:down:

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:bowingpur:bowingpurI work for a VA Hospital and No............ they are not taking the nursing shortage seriously. We are working short, we can not keep nurses, the computer paper work is tremendous and also someone is watching over all the nurses and hounding them if they don't do it right. Ok...eye to eye contact with the patients, communication with patient's and family is so not..... No time...how safe is that...patient, family and nurses satisfaction is a neallllllllllll to none........We do get good pay and benefits working at a VA Hosptial but it is scarey to think of who is going to be taking care of us when we get old.

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