If you could change on aspect of nursing.

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · May 9, 2006

I'll bite. I would like better staffing. Why? So that my patients can get what they need, and assessed more frequently, instead of getting bare bones care on night shift.

weirdRN, RN · May 9, 2006

Better staffing. I would even settle for less pay if I had better staffing.

Better staffing = more time to care for the patients the way we are taught to care for them in school.

Better staffing = Better attitudes and less stress.

Better staffing = Better patient outcomes. Don't you do better when you have say one on one learning versus 40 to 1?

Better staffing would definately be the answer on this one.

ragingmomster, BSN, MSN, RN · May 9, 2006

R-e-s-p-e-c-t!!!

nurse_clown · May 9, 2006

i think i agree with the staffing. i think i'd take a pay cut for better staffing. with better staffing, better care would be provided and the morale would improve. better staffing is just better for everybody.

GilbertDaddy · May 9, 2006

I'd try to find some way to compensate the nurses with 20 years of experience. It's a hard life when you've got 20 years of experience and make pennies more than new grads (this from a future new grad).

That's what starts the downward spiral or cannibalism in the ranks (i.e. nurses eating their young) IMO.

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · May 9, 2006

I'd try to find some way to compensate the nurses with 20 years of experience. It's a hard life when you've got 20 years of experience and make pennies more than new grads (this from a future new grad).
That's what starts the downward spiral or cannibalism in the ranks (i.e. nurses eating their young) IMO.

I do agree with you. The last place I worked, I had one year expereince when I started. I made the same thing as a nurse who has been there 35 years! (and she was a supervisor)

But to me staffing is more important. I would take a pay cut to have more staffing.

perfectbluebuildings, BSN, RN · May 9, 2006

Yes- better staffing. I would love to have the time to do more teaching, have the time to spend with patients or families who are scared and need some reassurance or just human contact. There's so much that could be done with better staffing- if I had just one less patient at a time that would make a difference. Ahh I'm dreaming now... what it would be like... wonderful!!!!

Chaya, ASN, RN · May 10, 2006

I'd like to see nurses portrayed as the highly skilled and technologically advanced professionals they have become and not as li'l fluff-brained angels in cutsie bunnie scrubs! :twocents:

weirdRN, RN · May 10, 2006

I think respect and image improve with the attitude. I think better staffing improves attitude. I also think better staffing gives the families an opportunity to see that you really do know what you are doing and that you are not just an extension of the good physician, but have value in your own right.

Here is another question, kind of a tangent but, not exactly: How did the image of nursing come to be what it is? I mean to say, how did it evolve from knowledgeable, skilled, kind, compassionate professional to everything from sex pot, gossip, incompetent, and morons who couldn't get into medical school? When and why did our image change?

Retired R.N. · May 10, 2006

I think respect and image improve with the attitude. I think better staffing improves attitude. I also think better staffing gives the families an opportunity to see that you really do know what you are doing and that you are not just an extension of the good physician, but have value in your own right.
Here is another question, kind of a tangent but, not exactly: How did the image of nursing come to be what it is? I mean to say, how did it evolve from knowledgeable, skilled, kind, compassionate professional to everything from sex pot, gossip, incompetent, and morons who couldn't get into medical school? When and why did our image change?

When did our image change from what? Florence did quite a bit in her day to improve the quality of the profession. When I first started in nursing, it was a three year hospital diploma program, and registered nurses who had passed their state board exams were well respected.

If any one factor can be blamed for the deteriation or nursing's image, I think that the television soap operas may have been the most responsible for portraying nurses as non-thinking sex-kittens and/or secret drug addicts.

The next big blow to the profession came from the infamous "White Paper" written by the ANA wheels who took it upon themselves to declare that in the future, only a BSN from an accredited university would convey professional status. Recognizing that there was still a need for someone to do all the work, they invented what they considered a second-class rank of technical nurses who were educated in community colleges. Ironically, both these classes of nurses still take the same exams to receive their licenses, but the internal turmoil in the profession remains.

thumperRN · May 10, 2006

I would agree with staffing and attitude. I also wish I could change the relationship between docs and nurses. Although I must say, and this is surely true everywhere, that most docs and nurses have a pretty good working relationship - however, there always seems to be an underlying strain there. Wish I could pinpoint that and blow it off the planet. I'm not suggesting that our roles always be considered equal, I just think we need to be acknowledged for how vital our role is in the overall care and progression of the pt. Afterall, we spend more time with them than they do, so our assessments should be taken just as seriously as their treatment plans.