I am finally, totally convinced: There is NO NURSING SHORTAGE.

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Nov 14, 2003

They are not employed in nursing by choice, thereby adding to the shortage.

Agnus · Nov 14, 2003

I've said it before on this board. The shortage is artificial. AND it is created by the very people who are "complaining," that is the employer.

The arguement is we would hire if we could find nurses.

The fact is employers will not hire and turn away perfectly good oportunities to hire. Consequently nurses work short.

Nurses working short is interpeted as they're not enough nurses in existance.

Now here is where it gets its momentum. nurses working short so they burn out. then nurse quit. Now employers try to hire and voila they can't find any.

What to do, what to do? Train more nurses. This results in an excess of nurses. Too many nurses drives down the employers' response to nurses' demands for wages, working conditions etc. It's the old supply and demand thing.

When the supply of nurses is abundant employers can afford to misuse and abuse them. Of course this eventually leads to burn out nurses quitting and the whole thing starts over.

Agnus · Nov 14, 2003

And of course the employer places the blame for the shortage squarely on the sholder of nurses. We are easily convinced, as we are overly responsible by our socialization.

The nurse who left did not create this. Those who drove them away did.

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Nov 14, 2003

Originally posted by Agnus
And of course the employer places the blame for the shortage squarely on the sholder of nurses. We are easily convinced, as we are overly responsible by our socialization.

The nurse who left did not create this. Those who drove them away did.

ITA, but that doesn't mean there is no shortage.

oramar · Nov 14, 2003

this is a summary of what has been said here over and over again

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · Nov 14, 2003

Put a spin on it, imagine if instead of a nursing shortage there were a policeman shortage. Can you imagine the public outcry? Would conditions change for policemen? Probably not, they would still be required to do what they do today but I bet they would be paid better. Perhaps nurses could be lured back into nursing if the salaries were better? Maybe, but I think the ones that have gotten out and don't HAVE to be nurse are better off. Nurses are abused, we are made to feel that it is part of being in the nursing profession to go above and beyond what our job description entails. We often feel guilty that we leave our coworkers and go to our homes because they are shortstaffed too. Most of the people in a hospital are there electively, most don't have life threatening illnesses. Most surgeries are scheduled to the doctor's schedule, they don't look to see if there will be enough nurses there that day to provide adequate care. When they don't look, suddenly it becomes a nursing problem when it's actually a logistical one, one of having the right people on the right floor at the right time. Things could be done to make our jobs easier, it's just easier not to. I don't know what the answer is. I've been a nurse for 16 years, sometimes I love my job, sometimes I hate it. If I could be soemthing else and make what I make now, I would do something else. I am burned out, but I have to support myself and some of my family.

cannoli · Nov 14, 2003

Well, there probably wouldn't be if the working conditions were better.

I work as little as I can possibly get away with, through agency.

If I get out on time, it's a blissful night, and I feel 100%, mentally.

Getting out on time doesn't happen very often, and I am usually exhausted mentally and physically.

If I could have a good shift and get out on time every time I worked, which means having safe ratios, then I would probably work a heck of a lot more. As it is, I work the shortest hours I can get, as far as the length of the shift goes.

cannoli · Nov 14, 2003

The hospitals also keep adding more and more on to nursing.

Emar for instance, which now instead of pharmacy doing the med charges, the nurses are doing them when they scan to pass the meds. Of course, the hospital says it's for patient safety and maybe that's a factor, but the nurses are still doing the charging now instead of pharmacy.

The meds now have to be signed out of the pyxis, then taken along with a computer to the patient and the meds and the patient have to be scanned, then the meds documented after being given. Some meds require two nurses signatures to document. It is very time consuming and they have not added any more staff or subtacted any patients from the workload. Also, it's the usual asinine computer charting where you have to select items from a list, as to variance time, and of course, the item you need is not there.

The rest of the computer charting is asinine also and very time consuming.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Nov 14, 2003

One reason I posted this topic is that I see newbies/students etc posting new threads all the time asking about the "shortage".

There is no flippin' shortage!

The only shortage is in nurses who are willing to work within the adverse working conditions of today. Period.

The fact that the "shortage" is a myth obviously hasn't sunken in yet, because I keep seeing posts saying that nurses must hate nursing, and other posts where the posters just don't seem to understand what the deal is.

I'm trying to get a clue out there.

I am also sending out letters re: the false shortage to my elected officials, have been sending them for some months now.

Also going to a political activism meeting in Dec and will bring up the "shortage" topic.

elkpark · Nov 14, 2003

There is no shortage of nurses -- there is just a shortage of nurses who are willing to work in hospitals and put up with the crummy/dangerous work conditions.

flowerchild · Nov 14, 2003

I agree that there is no shortage of nurses right now------------but there will be as the baby boomers cont to age, retire and need health care services at an increasing rate. A lot of the talk and hype is directly attributed to the future of health care and it's r/t the aging population. The nurses are aging too and the supply of new nurses can not meet the numbers of the retiring nurses b/c there are not enough spaces in the nursing programs to keep up as well as the fact that 25% (mol) will choose not to stay in nursing. Figure into this the number of nurses who will last about 10 years and a few more who will not work at the bedside and it doesn't look good.

Now, look at what has happened in the last 10 years to health care. Managed care has pushed hospitals to look at ways to cut costs. A new breed of hospital CEO's had entered the picture and now the bottom line is what it's all about. Remember the layoffs several years ago? A sure way to cut cost was to layoff nurses. Then cut back on resources to the nurses who are left by leaving them short staffed, without benefits in some cases, and short on care supplies that made the nurses job autonomous and more successful. Many of us left the bedside or pursued other careers during this "shake up". Surely the conditions of hospital nursing have caused some who would have become nurses to choose other degrees.

Nursing is currently in either a recovery period or this is just the calm before the storm. Only time will tell. It doesn't look promising though as a few schools have recently closed and those that are open are limited on spaces available d/t shortages in nursing faculty. Today there is only a minority of nurses who have safe staffing, autonomy, and the time to actually be a nurse.

UAP's and other assistants are doing skills that at one time only a nurse could actually do and hospitals and other nurse employers are ever increasing those tasks to non-nurses. They get away with bending the laws and re-writting them in many states on the gist of the "shortage". Yet, at the same time have made cuts in janitorial services and other ancillary services leaving the nurse to clean the room and take out the trash. Demeaning to those who consider themselves professionals.

Managed care is here to stay and so are the hospital CEO's, CFO's, and the like.

I'd say the prognosis for improvement is poor given the situations we are facing.