$10M to Study the Nursing Shortage

Heather, R.N. · Sep 28, 2006

Take the 10 mill and spend it on raises or scholarships. But first pay off my student loans!

Indy, LPN, LVN · Sep 28, 2006

"Nursing for life" eh? Funny stuff. How about using that money to pay full benefit packages for nurses over the age of (insert arbitrary age here... 50 maybe??)... while requiring them to work two instead of three days a week (I'm thinking in 12 hour shifts). That'd help retain some experienced nurses at the bedside. It would be a nice change from the attitude of wearing a nurse out like an old horse.

You could always just pay for more nurses, too... better ratios would be one of the best uses of that money.

cinja · Sep 28, 2006

They can give me the 10 million and I will tell them what is up and how to fix it!
I will even go as far as to buy everyone lunch while I put on my presentation!
Rachel

With 10mil it better be Morton's for lunch.

mvanz9999, RN · Sep 28, 2006

The Northwest Health Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have allocated $10M to study the nursing shortage.
http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/othercities/portland/stories/2006/09/18/daily18.html?b=1158552000%5E1348314
Do you think this will have any real impact for improving nurses' wages and benefits, or working conditions?
RN, BSN, JD
Denver CO

pffffffffffft! No. This has been done 10x over. The issue is not "what are the problems", the issue is "what are you doing to fix it?"

And the answer is "nothing". They aren't going to fix it, because they don't need to. The only way this can change is if the nursing profession simply takes a stand. If they refuse to work for X wages under X conditions with X patient loads.

Unfortunately there is no real way to make this happen. Except perhaps time. It would have to be ALL nurses taking a stand. It just kills me that someone continues to fund study after study after study.

I've got a friend in the PICU who is on a committee studying WHY there is such high nurse turn over. Read the above, give me the $10M, and start putting things in place to FIX the problem.

oramar · Sep 28, 2006

What a waste of money. Just come to allnurse and ask us about the problem. Read any of the 10,000 post called "Nursing Shortage".

Dorito, ASN, RN · Sep 28, 2006

I have not read the article but we already know there is a shortage .Why not use that 10 M and hire more teachers to get more nurses graduated and ready to work.

I couldn't agree more. When I signed up for my license renewal they had all the WI nurses complete a survey about why they felt there was a nursing shortage. Hopefully they gained a little information from that and will use it to improve the situation. Many nursing students in my area have completed all their nursing pre-reqs but are on long waiting lists to get into schools.