Nursing Shortage Makes the Prime Time News!

mustangsheba · Dec 30, 2000

That was it? Somebody actually got paid for writing that piece of nothing? Why aren't these hospitals trying to keep the experienced nurses they already have instead of spending thousands of dollars recruiting new grads? Where does this kind of thinking come from? (I use the term loosely.) Why didn't this "reporter" ask some of these questions? Maybe he doesn't know what a nurse looks like unless they're wearing one of those caps or carrying a bed pan. Same old story - nobody has a clue what nurses actually do. I challenge a reporter to follow a nurse, any nurse for a whole shift.

-jt · Dec 30, 2000

Originally posted by mustangsheba:
That was it? Somebody actually got paid for writing that piece of nothing?

not only did she write it, it was on the 6:00 news!!

here's their link for comments:
http://www.cbs.com/Common/customerservice/feedback/fb_hp_thanks.shtml

-jt · Dec 30, 2000

OOPS! wrong link! sorry......

THIS is the link for comments to be sent to CBS on their nursing shortage story....

http://www.cbs.com/Common/customerservice/feedback/fb_hp_form.shtml

I'd love to know what the reporter has to say in answer to your excellent questions!

OC_An Khe · Dec 30, 2000

The story missed one very salient point, why is a nursing shortage dangerous. It may seem obvious to us, but to people who don't work in the field, it is not. I used the link (thanks) to post a reply/comment to that story. Will let you know if and what kind of response I get.

[This message has been edited by ocankhe (edited December 30, 2000).]

nurshathaway · Dec 30, 2000

I think that it is important that everyone who participates in this BB comment on this report and its half-baked story.

And I don't just mean via the website comments section, but a letter directly to the reporter. Maybe if she gets enough responses back from the nurses, she may re-investigate her story and tell it straight this time.

In regards to the mother, Mrs. Kroll, having to stay by her son all the time standing guard. I personally would feel that if a parent choses to stay by their child's bedside that they are in good hands. I would definitely check up often, but I would also find myself geared towards patients that have absolutely no one by them. And if Mrs. Kroll would leave the area, I would request that she inform me and then her son would continue to be looked at with the best healthcare I can provide.

reg06 · Dec 30, 2000

EXCELLENT replies everyone. I wanted to see this on the evening news but I work nights and didn't wake up on time. I am very upset that it was not bringing up so many very important issues that nurses have been working to address.

Thank you for posting where we can send in comments about the crappy journalism. I am borrowing the 5 minute clip on video from a friend and will respond to CBS as soon as I can.

Interesting information about the mainstream media can be found at http://www.fair.org/ This site brings out the facts about how mainstream media journalism is lacking and often misses very crucial information. I plan to write to them as well about the segment on the eening news.

We need to fight back nurses! We need to wake up the public to what is going on. It takes activism and pressure and UNITY to rise up against corporate driven mongrels who don't give a damn about human beings and only care about PROFIT.

This brings me to the next question, is it right to have FOR PROFIT healthcare?

More and more I am starting to really question our system in the U.S. I guess I should start a new post on this issue.

Keep up the great work out there on awareness and involvement in advancing the nursing profession!!

reg06 · Dec 30, 2000

Here is my letter to CBS evening new if anyone would like it as a reference for their own letter.

Dear CBS evening news,

I am a registered nurse and watched your report on the nursing shortage. I found the report to be conspicuously incomplete - you utterly failed to capture the most important concerns of the nurses themselves.

In the news clip about the nursing shortage, there was not a word about what R.N.'s are fighting for all over the country. Why weren't their interviews of national R.N. leaders or organizations/associations about the reasons for the nursing shortage? Why was there an unbalanced amount of quotes favoring hospital executives verses R.N.'s?!

Now, let me enlighten CBS on some of the core problems facing the nursing profession and health care. CBS needs to take this and air a broader piece of journalism for the nurses.

First, why wasn't there any mention of unsafe working conditions in the hospitals around the country? The nurse to patient ratio in almost every hospital is dangerous. Patients are more ill then ever before and nurses are expected to do more and more of the care and technical procedures that doctors used to do. The hospitals cut their staff, while the CEO's of these hospital are making millions of dollars every year. The patients suffer worst of all.

Second, nurses are not being paid enough for the stress and life and death situations they encounter. At the hospital where I work, I recently found out that one of the CEO's got paid over $543,080 last year, which translates to $2,088 per each DAY of work!!!! This does not even include the bonus pay of $70,000 he received. All the while, talented, experienced nurses of 30 years can't even make $50,000 a year.

Now these are the central reasons for the nursing shortage. This is why so many young people are not going into nursing and why so many experienced nurses are leaving.

Nurses truly care and want to give the best to their patients. It is this health care as a business for profit that is so hard to understand and quite obviously exacerbates the nursing crisis.

If people only new what kinds of conditions they are headed for within a hospital, and how over worked, underpaid and short staffed their nurses are, they would be shaking with fear of any illness.

An idea for the evening news is to follow a R.N. throughout a typical shift in a hospital. Enlighten America and what they have to look forward to when an illness strikes and what nurses have to do to give just the basic care.

-jt · Dec 30, 2000

Originally posted by mustangsheba:
I will try to find a clip somewhere.

its on the website: http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,260229-412,00.shtml

Great letter. I cant wait to see the one they're getting from the ANA. I expect we will be seeing another report on this issue from CBS in the not too distant future.

send comments to CBS at:

http://www.cbs.com/Common/customerservice/feedback/fb_hp_form.shtml

oramar · Dec 30, 2000

You could just see that the whole segment was controlled and edited by the hospital exectives that were interviewed. Nothing got in or out that they did not want there. The only thing that rang true was the interview with the mother of the child with disabilities, they could not control that.

nurshathaway · Dec 30, 2000

Reg, you gave an excellent suggestion...why don't they have a reporter following a nurse through a full shift (preferably a 12-hour shift)? Maybe amongst we can petition a reporter from one of the national networks (such as Dateline or 20/20) to take this challenge. Any suggestions?

mustangsheba · Dec 31, 2000

Reg: Great letter! I didn't see this program as I was luxuriating where there was no TV! Out in the country, trees and birds. I will try to find a clip somewhere.