I got a reply about the Johnson &Johnson Nurse recruitment ads

and here it is!

Leah,

I'm responding to your email regarding the Campaign for Nursing's

Future, and the commercials that go along with the campaign. We're so

sorry that you find the commercials dismaying.

In fact, during the course of the past year and a half, we have learned

many things about the nursing profession, including the deplorable

working conditions that some nurses face. However, it is a fact that

recruiting MORE people into nursing will help these conditions, as just

the addition of people will address the workload problem,

which was the number of patients assigned to each nurse. If there were,

say, 100,000 more nurses right now, all of them would have a smaller

patient load and be able to provide the best care possible. Many of the hospital administrators we've talked to are eager to hire qualified nurses, and are truly feeling the effects of the nursing shortage.

That said, we know that this is not the only way to solve the problem.

Part of our campaign is also dedicated to addressing these issues,

and we also have a retention component which deals with keeping good

nurses and helping them solve their problems. We frequently read the

message boards allnurses.com, and have close contact with

NurseWeek, Nursing Spectrum, and the other major publications, so we are aware of the major concerns.

Please believe that we were in no way trying to be deceptive in our ads.

We have met many, many nurses who love their jobs, are honored to be in

the profession, and are doing a great job every day. We only hope we

can encourage more people to get into these situations.

Thanks again for writing. We do appreciate your concern.

Take care

Lori

[Stargazer]

Wow. An actual prompt, personal reply that speaks to your concerns (somewhat). If for no other reason, I'm impressed.

Nice job, l.rae.

I'm not getting the feeling from her letter that she entirely understands the points we were making, but at least she's open to listening to them.

It's a start, I guess.

[Nurse Izzy]

I agree with you, Stargazer - at least they're not on their high horse making comments like we know that nursing isn't perfect but we have to portray it like that or else people won't be interested, etc etc etc.... At least they are seemingly willing to listen...

[Glad2behere]

That's good, l.rae. It's nice to know somebody out there is monitoring the pulse of the industry, and trying to do something!

Kudos to you for writing them, and kudos to them for writing back.

That's what we need is some power, money, and authority to understand some of the issues as we see them.

[EmeraldNYL, BSN, RN]

Wow, a real reply from a real person! I'm so excited that they're reading allnurses. Now I just hope to see them trying to improve working conditions as well as recruitment-- they are a big company with the potential to make a difference.

[CANRN, MSN, RN]

They are trying, but one thing that came to mind as I read that......especially ....

"However, it is a fact that

recruiting MORE people into nursing will help these conditions, as just the addition of people will address the workload problem,

which was the number of patients assigned to each nurse. If there were, say, 100,000 more nurses right now, all of them would have a smaller patient load and be able to provide the best care possible. Many of the hospital administrators we've talked to are eager to hire qualified nurses, and are truly feeling the effects of the nursing shortage"

I found the "smaller patient load" funny. Do you really think they would lower the nurse to patient ratio????

[MrsK1223]

What they are not seeing is that until hospitals and other facilities make the conditions(not just patient/nurse ratios) more doable, something you can live with without stressing your guts out, there would be no problem in recruiting nurses....theres a reason...a BIG reason nurses are staying away.....they just don't get it... Nurses aren't taking it anymore...at least enough to cause a shortage. I just don't think all the nurses out of the hospitals running in to shorten patients loads will solve anything...Administrations don't want to pay a floor full of RN's when they can get one or two to slave away. I think most don't care about the patients...just the bottom line....$$$$$$$$$$

Sorry I"m just griping.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

Leah,

I got a reply to the letter I sent them too....

IT IS THE EXACT SAME LETTER THEY SENT YOU.

THEY HAVE REPLIED TO US W/ A FORM LETTER!

Nurses writint to them telling them that they disagree w/ their commercials must be a very common occurance in order for them to be able to reply w/ a form letter addressing the issue.

WTF.

[Stargazer]

Fasc-inating.

I take back my entire prior post. No longer impressed. At all. Grrr.

[sjoe]

We need to be wise and careful about differentiating "the enemy" from those who are trying, in their own ways, to support us (like J&J).

We need to avoid "eating our new friends," the way we don't avoid eating each other alive.

IMHO.

[Sally_ICURN]

I'm so glad that I found this message board. I am proud to be a nurse and proud to be represented by those of you who are proactive in OUR fate.

Thanks!!

~Sally

[Sally_ICURN]

Originally posted by sjoe

We need to avoid "eating our new friends," the way we don't avoid eating each other alive.

Never truer or wiser words spoken!