Help finding some critical issues in nursing...

beesnest · Jul 4, 2005

Are you kidding me? We have a "nursing issues" forum, but you don't have to look far for an issue on this site.

The best fights are RN vrs BSN (but don't start another thread on THAT!)

Have some mercy and use the search function.

TigerFan8503 · Jul 4, 2005

Are you kidding me? We have a "nursing issues" forum, but you don't have to look far for an issue on this site.
The best fights are RN vrs BSN (but don't start another thread on THAT!)
Have some mercy and use the search function.

I saw that forum, and I have been skimming it...he just has so many sets of criteria that the paper has to meet that it's hard to find an issue relating to nursing only...excluding the ethics the doctors face, etc. But he definitely wants it to be ethical or controversial. :uhoh3:

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jul 4, 2005

Use GOOGLE and type in

important issues facing nursing

There ar 781,000 hits

TigerFan8503 · Jul 4, 2005

Use GOOGLE and type in
important issues facing nursing
There ar 781,000 hits

Yes, there are, but sometimes it is better to hear what real nurses are facing as far as ethical issues go, and then I can take that to the journals and research it.

stidget99 · Jul 4, 2005

Maybe this is not what you are looking for but I think that THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE facing nurses right now is the always low staffing ratios. Providing safe care with the most-times ridiculous staffing ratios is next to impossible. Also, people who are admitted to the hospital these days are much sicker than they were even 10 years ago and we are still expected to maintain the same level of care with fewer nurses.

This is all just my opinion but I know that out of the 12 or so permanent noc nurses on my unit, 8 are leaving because of this issue. And, of the last group of new grad hires (6 of them), not a single one is still there because of this same issue. They were thrown to the wolves too early.

Not only is patient safety compromised but our nursing licenses are also compromised because we are held liable of what management tells us that we "should be able to handle it".

I think that the "debatable" part would be management vs. staff.

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jul 4, 2005

I would recommend steering clear of issues like euthenasia and stem cell as those are really more medical (not nursing) issues.

Short staffing.

Importation of nurses from other countries to alleviate staffing shortages rather than fix the problems that keep people away from the bedside.

Shortage of nursing instructors (poor pay, high liability) - just check out the many threads on people who are on hideous waitlists because there are so few slots to get into nursing school.

"Conscience-based" refusal of care seems to be the hot topic right now.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2005

Stem cell research and euthanasia, while issues are primarily medical issues. Find a nursing issue.

Good luck on your paper.

Try going to the American Nurses Association, or the assocation for your state to find what their issues and concerns are.

What about the RN to patient ratio? There have been some good studies that RN to patient ratio has a direct outcome on patient safety and nurse satisfaction.

For me that's my #1 issue. There's no ratio law in Florida to protect me and I care for sometimes up to 8 patients at a time.

I wrote a paper on it from a Florida perspective. Here's my resources.

Aiken, A., Clarke, S., Sloane, D., Sochalski, J., Silber, J. (2002, October). Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288(16), 1987-1993.

Florida Nurses Association. (2005). FNA legislative priorities for 2005. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://congress.nw.dc.us/fln/issues/alert/?alertid=6778481.

Gallagher, R., Kany, K., Rowell, P., & Peterson, M. (1999, April). ANA's nurse staffing principles. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://nursingworld.org/ajn/1999/april/iss049ca.htm.

Massachusetts Nurses Association. (2004). New England Journal of Medicine Highlights publishes study demonstrating RN staffing levels directly impact patient health and survival. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.massnurses.org/News/2002/002005/nejm.html.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2005

pain management-lots of controversy regarding how to interpret pain in infants.

GrnHonu99, RN · Jul 4, 2005

help! i am a pre-nursing student at uab, and my english teacher has given us all the assignment of finding a critical issue question in our field of study and writing a definitional argument about it... i am having a hard time coming up with anything to write about. i know stem cell research and euthanasia are both high on the list, but they seem so overdone that i really want to try to find something else. i plan to specialize in neonatal intensive care, so anything relating to that would be wonderful. most of all, it just has to be debatable... any help would be greatly appreciated.

im taking a prof roles and issues class right now and thats all we really do, we sit around a discuss the major issues in nursing today. here are the topics we have covered, maybe they will help you.

1.low number of men and minorites in nursing and why-i actually did a debate on this topic:)

2.entry in to practice-should there be one or more?

3.incorrect delegation to unlisenced personel

4.unions

5.are the presence of unlicensed personell eroding the nursing workforce?

6.slow code/no code-are they ethical

7.informed consent-we were given an actual situation in which we had to write a paper-pm me if you want to know more about this one

8.substance abuse in the nursing field, should offenders be dismissed immedietly or sent to rehab, etc.

9.staff ratios

10.nursing shortage

in my class everyone had to do a 45 min debate on a current nursing issue, so most of these come from the debate topics that were chosen by the different groups in my class.

do you have a nursing text? i have the potter and perry book, which i hear is pretty common. most nursing books will have chapters on ethics and ethical situations and legalities-those situations are often a great concern to nurses on a daily basis.

all the topics i listed above have also been talked about here on the board too, im sure if you go with one of those that you can find a lot of threads concerning the same ideas.

good luck and pm me if you have any questions.

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Jul 4, 2005

buy or go to the lilbrary/bookstore and skim:

Nursing Against the Odd by Suzanne Gordon

Not only lots of critical issues related to nursing discussed, but would most likely be a great resource for any topic you ultimately pick.

And it's a new book, so up to date.

as far as NICU, there was a recent futile care issue in Houston, where care to an infant was withdrawn against the wishes of the parents because the hospital's ethics board decided the care was futile - no possibility of a positive outcome. I'm sure you could 'yahoo' it (sorry, not a google fan).

~faith,

Timothy.

TigerFan8503 · Jul 4, 2005

I think that the "debatable" part would be management vs. staff.

I think this might be a good thing to dig deeper into...although I didn't see it as a problem when my cousin had twins in the NICU in Birmingham, I have read a lot about it. The critical issue question could be something like, "Is the staff to patient ratio compromising patient care?" The thing is, we have to lay it out like this. X is (or is not) a Y. The example he gave us is this:

Beauty pageants (X) are not sexist events (Y). Then you must define your set of criteria. What is a sexist event....

So the problem I am having is laying out a nursing issue in this format... :uhoh21: