How hospitals created the nursing "shortage"

tonicareer · Jun 21, 2004

Maybe they are just saying there is a shortage so patients won't get angry there are not enough nurses? It sure saves them money to play that game. I know our local hospital just laid off a bunch of nurses. So maybe in some areas of the country there is a shortage but not in the midwest. Also schools can charge more tuition by saying there is a shortage - more people want to go to school and will pay more to get in. Maybe nurses don't want to work 12 hour or more shifts and so change to other types of work. There are lots of answers. I know here they say there is a teacher shortage but they just laid of tons of teachers in my state. I think it just something people say and maybe it isn't true everywhere that there is a shortage.

oramar · Jun 21, 2004

I remember the first time I saw this article I thought it was ground breaking. It has been posted here before but it always good to see it again. If I could I would pass a law that mandated that everyone going into nursing be given a copy.

Sheri257 · Jun 21, 2004

Here we go again ... :rolleyes:

Yes, working conditions are a factor, I don't doubt that. But so are aging demographics and high failure rates in nursing schools.

I guess you guys just want an excuse to complain about work all the time. You really don't want to talk about ALL the factors that contribute to the shortage.

Like the fact that retirements and deaths jumped by 150,000 in the last nursing survey, because the RN workforce is aging. Or, that there's 80 percent failure rates in pre-reqs and nursing schools.

Nah ... I guess it's more fun to say it's a hospital conspiracy.

:rolleyes: