nurse shortage

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:rotfl: Reports state there are approximately half a million nurses currently employed in other fields, and that by the year 2010, the USA will need approxmately one million new nurses to fill vaciences. Considering the current nursing shortage, in what manner can we encourage some of those 1/2 million trained nurses to return to the field?

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Improving working conditions should do it!

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Bring back the "Baylor Plan" letting staff work wkends only - 12 hr. shifts, the rest wk. mon.-fri. There need to be more incentives to RNs after so many yrs. (20-25?) like - no more call, weekends, holidays, etc. They tell us here that we don't have enough staff to institute any of these, so all of us who have been loyal employees are burnt out & certainly not telling our children this is a good field to go into thereby making the nursing shortage worse. I like what I do, but after 25 yrs. I'd like to be taken off the call list for sure.

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full time jobs, part time scheduled jobs, fewer casual only hires...

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All of the above, but I don't know that anything will be enough to get them all back. It's time to be honest and admit that a good number of those nurses may be unable or unwilling to come back to nursing no matter what changes are made. We're going to have to look at retention as well as recruitment.

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Maybe they would come back if they were actually allowed to have "real days off." This means they would not be constantly harrassed on their days off to come in to work. This also means they would not be expected to attend "mandatory meetings" every week. :angryfire

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All of the above, but I don't know that anything will be enough to get them all back. It's time to be honest and admit that a good number of those nurses may be unable or unwilling to come back to nursing no matter what changes are made. We're going to have to look at retention as well as recruitment.

The fact is: a lot of RNs already have returned to work.

The half a million number is somewhat out of date. That survey was conducted in 2000.

This study concluded that the recession, as well as better pay, prompted 140,000 RN's to return to work in 2001-2003.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.w4.526v1

And even though 60,000 foreign nurses also joined the work force during that period, bringing the total to 200,000 additional RNs, there's still a shortage.

While retention is important, the shortage is more complicated than that. 70 percent of non-working nurses are over age 50 and many may be retiring. In the 2000 survey retirements jumped by 150,000.

Meanwhile, 125,000 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing schools last year, limiting the number of new RNs. In the meantime, aging baby boomers are dramatically increasing the demand for nursing positions.

Consequently, the shortage is likely to be around awhile, and may not be solved just by bringing more RNs back into the work force.

:coollook:

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Bring back the "Baylor Plan" letting staff work wkends only - 12 hr. shifts, the rest wk. mon.-fri. There need to be more incentives to RNs after so many yrs. (20-25?) like - no more call, weekends, holidays, etc. They tell us here that we don't have enough staff to institute any of these, so all of us who have been loyal employees are burnt out & certainly not telling our children this is a good field to go into thereby making the nursing shortage worse. I like what I do, but after 25 yrs. I'd like to be taken off the call list for sure.

Amen. This would help with retention. Seniority should have some perks. Who wants to look forward to working weekends forever.

If the Baylor Plan was attractive enough with salary and benefits, there shouldn't be a problem filling it.

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Too many perks for seniority and the newer people leave... It's a balancing act for sure!

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What nursing shortage.........That all depends in your location.......If you read statistics, many states actually will have a nurse excess in 2010, like kansas, dakotas and many middle states.........

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What nursing shortage.........That all depends in your location.......If you read statistics, many states actually will have a nurse excess in 2010, like kansas, dakotas and many middle states.........

Just wondering what statistics you're talking about. The U.S. Health department does say there's not much of a shortage in those states now, but they are projecting shortages in many of middle states by 2010.

:confused:

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goverment should realize that the retrogression of visa for nurses will only worsen the nursing shortage.

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