Nursing Shortage Makes the Prime Time News!

reg06 · Jan 2, 2001

Wow, great posts all,

I am learning so much here on these forums. It is such a relief to have other nurses to discuss the situations going on right now. I am so thankful to hear that people know what is going on!!!

It is so overwhelming when you start to read and educate yourself on the issues surrounding healthcare and all the problems. I was feeling so powerless, yet with this forum I feel there are MANY people trying to change the system for the better. All of a sudden I feel people are not so powerless.

I am looking at healthcare, but also how this all ties in with how huge conglomerate corporations seem willing to do anything for profit with no consideration to human rights, the environment or morality. Now that I see what the power hungry profit driven heads do to attain what they do, everything in the US capitalist society seems to come together and make sense. Basically, it is a disaster.

el · Jan 2, 2001

I replied to the article as well. I mentioned that a new grad perspective and sign on bonuses were not the way to go. I stated and I hope I was right that most RN's would be more interested in improved conditions and general professional respect from the Hospital's than a sign on bonus. I also brought up that they should consider all the elderly that come to the hospital with no family and no one to be their voice. I said they should research the amount of lay offs over the last years that hospitals did that caused RN's to leave our profession in droves. I said they should consider the real evil in our health care system is the INSURANCE COMPANIES, who have taken the money of these people for years and years and their employers and now set up criteria and rules and squeeze the hospitals. I basically said the problem is worth alot more than what seemed to be a 5 minute blip. I suggested that they visit one of the many Nursing Bulletin Boards to get a feel for what we think about this shortage. Hopefully, if they get enough response they will do a follow up piece. One more thing, have the reporter follow a staff nurse on a med-surg unit with no notice. Have them just walk in to the hospital and request to do a follow up to the story. Ask specifically for med-surg floors, where my experience tells me they are always short. If the hospital refuses, they should be able to draw some sort of conclusion from that!!!

-jt · Jan 2, 2001

Originally posted by Tiara:
What's frustrating is that these news stations have a bias toward the hospitals and the slant is always in that direction. The poor hospitals can't get nurses! They need to know that hospitals have been messing up budgets and putting nurses at the bottom of the food chain for years and years.

I hope you told them that too Tiara! heres a response I got from another CBS address besides the one I already posted:

Reply-to:[email protected] (CBSHealthWatch)

Hello

Thank you for contacting CBSHealthWatch.

CBSHealthWatch is a healthcare information site, providing articles, stories and tools to help you manage your health. We are a partner with the CBS Network and work with them to develop some health stories/segments as well as posting health-related stories aired on the network news programs, along with related articles from the in-depth archives on our own site.

Your opinion and commentary on the health segment "Is There a Nurse in the House?" is important feedback for CBS. Your comments will be forwarded to the network.

We thank you for your interest in CBSHealthWatch and we invite you to visit our website again.

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CBSHealthWatch Member Services

-jt · Jan 2, 2001

Originally posted by natalie:
jt-
The topic of retention bothers me greatly. It seems the drive to increase nursing numbers will be geared towards recruitment, with very little effort put in to retaining the veteran nurse. And I believe we are in HUGE numbers.

Hi Nat.
Maybe our huge numbers are exactly the reason they are driving us out! Theres power in unity & if all those numbers were together, the administrations would be shaking in their shoes. Maybe the goal is to get rid of us & theres a method to the madness after all! Why else would there be no attempt to keep veterans? "Get those renegades out of here!" And the focus on recruiting newbies is obvious.... those nurses dont know yet what they're in for, so they can be manipulated & "molded" into the nurses that the hospital wants them to be & with most of us out of the picture to show them the way of the world and what they dont have to put up with, they may just go along with it. That is until they burn & jump ship themselves... a lot faster than we did.

-jt · Jan 2, 2001

CNN new story on the nursing shortage - do you have a link to this story/site? All help is appreciated.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/01/ee.08.html

but how interesting that, with all our wonderful, out-spoken nurses, nursing leaders and nurses organizations out there, CNN chose to quote the American MEDICAL Association about the NURSING shortage. When will these reporters learn?
Comments can be sent to:
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/

Tiara · Jan 2, 2001

jt - totally agree with you about veteran nurses. I think there is a method to the madness! I have noticed a cycle: get new nurses, orient them and after they get what's going on, discourage them or encourage them toward early retirement, etc. and get some more green ones!

-jt · Jan 2, 2001

Originally posted by Tiara:
jt - totally agree with you about veteran nurses. I think there is a method to the madness! I have noticed a cycle: get new nurses, orient them and after they get what's going on, discourage them or encourage them toward early retirement, etc. and get some more green ones!

and if they can get rid of them before that big sign-on bonus comes due to be paid out after the first year, do they get a gold star??? or a bonus themselves? I have heard that hospitals in Florida that lured new RNs down there with sign-ons of up to $10,000 have started playing this game too. Use them for almost a year & get rid of them before its up & they dont have to pay out the money.

Nice.

nancyday · Jan 2, 2001

There was also a long feature on CNN on Jan 1, 2001 approximately 10 minues in length about the nursing shortage and how this is causing harm to the health and safety or our

Barbara Rose · Jan 4, 2001

I know some of you and I know you are active and not just venting. To the others of you I have to say, keep up the hard work. Nurses have to make our profession note worthy, we have to increase our visibility and worth ourselves. As more and more nurses become more and more vocal, the public and business will listen. Jt, just like your patient said about working conditions, the patients know when they are in the health care system, but once they are out or if they haven't been in, they don't know or forget fast. Nurses have to stay in the center of news, legislation, and work with each other, other groups, and even those we are fighting against to solve our problems. Write letters to not just the networks but your legislators both at the state and national level about your concerns. Get involved in other areas such as your state associations, new groups, unions, advocacy groups, etc. and keep nursing and health care in the lime light till a solution is found. It is the only way to ensure that our own futures are not plagued with poor care, misery, and unhappy endings. It really isn't that hard or that bad to get involved, and it will snow ball on you, so get out there and get going! We need some nurse leaders, not nursing leadership.

goldilocksrn · Jan 4, 2001

I also e-mailed CBS news. I told them what all of us have been posting on this topic, as well as the concerns of those planning the MNM. We have to remember that we are the most important and dirty little secret of hospital and health care today. I think we just need to blitz the media and public with education about what we do and what we deal with. Good luck to us all.

-jt · Jan 4, 2001

I also e-mailed CBS news. I told them what all of us have been posting on this topic,...blitz the media and public with education about what we do and what we deal with...

Yes, they must have gotten tons of letter by now from all of us but now I'm wondering will they pay attention? Isnt this interesting! Judging by that report alone, no one would ever know that nurses and our professional association had been thought of, much less interviewed. I knew the ANA was interviewed back in Sept for an ABC report & a CBS report. ABC didnt mention much & I completely forgot about the CBS one...until now! I wonder WHY none of this made it into the report & why ONLY hospital representatives were shown & allowed to be heard from. Could it be the hospital/business executives who manipulate the media didnt like what the nurses had to say??????:

ANA Press Release:

"Shortage Gets National Attention But Working Conditions Ignored...
1/3/01

ANA staff and ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN, provided information to CBS on a segment regarding the nursing shortage which aired Dec. 28, 2000 on the CBS Evening News. Foley was taped for the segment; however, her clip was not used at all in the piece that was aired.

Even though the segment brought national attention to the crisis of the impeding nursing shortage, it failed to look at one of the real problems which is contributing to this crisis - working conditions! During Foley's interview with CBS, she emphasized that nurses are being forced to work mandatory overtime, several hospitals have been legally charged with unsafe staffing practices and nurses are required to manage higher patient workloads, even when patient acuity is rising.

Unfortunately, NONE of this was mentioned in the segment! Though we applaud CBS for bringing national attention to the nursing shortage, we are disappointed that the overall message of improving the working conditions of nurses in order to recruit and retain RNs has been ignored. A written version of the story that aired can be viewed on the CBS website at http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,260229-412,00.shtml.

ANA will encourage CBS to do another segment with a greater focus on working conditions. Nurses are also encouraged to provide comments to CBS by clicking on the "feedback" section of its website and prompting the network to take a more extensive look at this issue." http://www.ana.org

Jacci59 · Jan 4, 2001

Cargal, Al I can do is ask you a question, following what you have said about the Healthcare in the US.................Are you in the executive offices?????? One of the CEO's who are making the big bucks that we are all complaining about?

I really can't imagine any other reason that you would say what you have in this post, and others.

Jacci59