My pt called me into his room to watch a news report on the nation-wide nursing shortage. After it was over HE said to ME: "how come they didnt mention that you girls have to work like dogs, get no help, and dont get paid half of what you should??? Dont you think THAT has something to do with people not becoming nurses anymore?????"
The report discussed the nursing shortage for a whole 5 minutes! We made it to prime time! But it was a half-baked report - incomplete & lacking in that it made not one mention of workplace conditions being a factor in the reasons why people are not coming into nursing or why so many are leaving. Not a word about what RNs are fighting for all over the country. Not a hint of any national RN leaders or organizations/associations being interviewed for their point of view on the subject. But plenty of quotes from hospital executives! Not one mention made of or by any experienced RNs!! And it explained that some hospitals are "aggresively fixing the problem" by offering thousands of dollars in sign-on bonuses. (and we all know how well those work!) As far as speaking to RNs on camera, the reporter interviewed only a new grad who was lured to her job by the high sign-on bonus and all she talked about was that money. Arrrrggghhhh!!
Nursing Shortage is in the media - and now even William F Buckley has gotten into the act..but his idea is downright scary! In the last paragraph here, he proposes to the President that we hand over our jobs to high school volunteers & the few of us that remain can just supervise..... Now whether you believe in unions or not, we all better got up & do something about our problem or people like this will be "fixing" it for us!....
"A NEW YEAR'S WISH FOR DUBYA
by William F Buckley, Jr.
The figures crawl in on us, but we aren't really listening: a nursing shortage affecting 90 percent of hospitals in California, 75 percent in the Midwest, 85 percent in the Northeast. At Johns Hopkins, the premier facility engaged in medical exploration, some beds are shut down because there are not enough nurses.
In Great Britain, the crisis is acute. Nurses are retiring and emigrating.
Now there is a market solution, or an approach to it: If you need more nurses, pay them more money, and more young people will train for that profession. It isn't as though there were a need for 100,000 more brain surgeons: The market, in some situations, has to come to terms with the latent pool of resources. Not everybody can be taught to play like Horowitz, no matter what you agree to pay them.
But in matters of health there is a distinction, an approach to the problem that hasn't been explored and that the new president could illuminate with a truly incandescent point of light. The young generation, between high school graduation and college matriculation, should be called on for a year's voluntary service.
The shortage of nurses would be relieved if many of their duties were performed by others. Highly trained nurses are required at the operating table and to provide therapy and sophisticated supervision. But much that a nurse now has to do, everything from bedpan changing to writing down routine measurements on charts, could be done by l8-year-olds after very little training.........."
-jt, I totally agree with you. Let's see how Buckley would feel if he was in a hospital bed or a family member...chances are that he wouldn't want an untrained volunteer and would demand that he be seen by a "real nurse." I say "real nurse" because how many people look down on medical students/interns requesting to see a "real doctor." The truth is that at least medical students and interns do have some training behind them.
I would have loved to see what he did when he was 18.
I do agree that students should have some more "real life" exposure between high school and college. How about hospitals that are in special need for nurses set up CNA courses. Have perspective nurses start that way and after they complete a year of CNA experience be accepted into a RN program.
I also feel that because there is such a need for nurses that the government should pay for a ADN program for any one interested with the stipulation that graduates must complete one year in one of the local hospitals. This would not only help nurses get their first job/experience and help out the hospitals.
I believe that experience is the key...and how much experience does a high school student really have in the "real world." Sure they may have part-time jobs, but unless they are supporting themselves, they are living with their parents who are taking care of all their needs and wants.
I think William F. Buckley is going to need a nurse soon, he is showing sign of dementia. One minute he is talking about market forces taking care of the shortage{pay raises} and the next he is saying end the shortage by replacing nurses with unpaid labor{high school students}. THANK YOU to the people posting the links to these stories, it makes it so easy to respond.
jt, as usual I like your post. Everything you say is true. Two years ago I was already saying that the tight staffing and manditory overtime made for a good bottom line. Anything that results in a good bottom line will be repeated. Nurses are on the side of patients, CEOs and accontants are usually on the side of profit. It is no wonder there is no common ground.
- How about hospitals that are in special need for nurses set up CNA courses. Have perspective nurses start that way and after they complete a year of CNA experience be accepted into a RN program.
I also feel that because there is such a need for nurses that the government should pay for a ADN program for any one interested with the stipulation that graduates must complete one year in one of the local hospitals. This would not only help nurses get their first job/experience and help out the hospitals.
Good suggestions. There is so much that can be done by hospitals and educators to help alleviate the nurses shortage yet they drag their feet in doing any of it. WHY? You may think I am beginning to sound paranoid but I really think its because they have no intention of alleviating the nursing shortage at all. This shortage was started 10 yrs ago by hospitals forcing us out of our jobs, replacing us & telling us we didnt need to be at the bedside. PCAs, CNAs, and techs could do our work, we just had to be responsible for supervising & documenting. We were too expensive and they could get by with less expensive laborers and just one or 2 RNs instead of 4. That was the goal all along. This is a manufactured shortage that is following the course they set for us. It is right on target. It is how it was planned. This is exactly what they wanted.... less RNs. What they didnt count on was the nursing organization's research that proved pt morbidity and mortality increases when there are less RNs caring for them. And they didnt count on the public taking notice. And they wouldnt listen 10 yrs ago when we told them all this would happen. So now this all is just a little glitch to them. They are doing the minimal that they can to appease the public but still limit RNs so they can keep overhead costs down & use less expensive workers and now they have the perfect excuse: "oh we'd love to hire more Rns but there are none so we just have to make do with PCAs, CNAs, and techs".... and whatever other assistive help the doctors at the AMA & people like William F Buckley dream up next. In fact his suggestion is no surprise. If you look at future staffing projection plans from hospitals over the last 10 yrs, you'd see that this kind of thing (used to be called candy-stripers but now would have more responsibilities) was thought of & planned long ago. Less Rns, more ancillary help. They have us right where they wanted us. We're coming up with all kinds of ways to get Nursing out of this situation when they have actually planned for the last 10 yrs to get right to this point. It would be easy to solve the nursing shortage if we both were on the same side working towards that goal but we're having a tug of war instead. If they really wanted us there, they would be making & advertizing workplace improvements in conditions, wages, benefits, etc & screaming it from the rooftops to get our attention & entice us to come back to work.
The fact that that is not happening & they are fighting so hard against our unions and associations to avoid doing that speaks volumes. Manipulating the media to get their own sorry message out to for public sympathy & barring the reports from showing the whole truth by not letting them air interviews from the nurses, telling the public they want Rns but just cant find any & then turning right around & doing everything that they can to keep us away is a..... ohh whats the word I'm looking for????
lie, hypocracy, conspiracy?
Hi -jt, I have enjoyed your posts under this topic. Your analysis of this shortage seems plausible and may be right on target. Oramar I agree with your indication that we are seeing extremes.
A little off the subject but have you notice that employers are increasingly requiring for employees to pay more out of their pockets for health and medical care? Employers are severely limiting what our health benefits will pay for. Yet, we find our wages or salaries are not even keeping up with inflation. Like you wrote, the powers to be got us where they want us. I think that those of us who feel squeezed may reach our limit, feel we have nothing to lose and begin to actively plan on ways to weed out the greed. I think, though, that one day in the near future, the market will take a major turn for the worse and will become chronic like the nursing shortage. Thankfully, I don't have far to fall.
- How about hospitals that are in special need for nurses set up CNA courses. Have perspective nurses start that way and after they complete a year of CNA experience be accepted into a RN program.
I also feel that because there is such a need for nurses that the government should pay for a ADN program for any one interested with the stipulation that graduates must complete one year in one of the local hospitals. This would not only help nurses get their first job/experience and help out the hospitals.
Good suggestions. There is so much that can be done by hospitals and educators to help alleviate the nurses shortage yet they drag their feet in doing any of it. WHY? You may think I am beginning to sound paranoid but I really think its because they have no intention of alleviating the nursing shortage at all. This shortage was started 10 yrs ago by hospitals forcing us out of our jobs, replacing us & telling us we didnt need to be at the bedside. PCAs, CNAs, and techs could do our work, we just had to be responsible for supervising & documenting. We were too expensive and they could get by with less expensive laborers and just one or 2 RNs instead of 4. That was the goal all along. This is a manufactured shortage that is following the course they set for us. It is right on target. It is how it was planned. This is exactly what they wanted.... less RNs. What they didnt count on was the nursing organization's research that proved pt morbidity and mortality increases when there are less RNs caring for them. And they didnt count on the public taking notice. And they wouldnt listen 10 yrs ago when we told them all this would happen. So now this all is just a little glitch to them. They are doing the minimal that they can to appease the public but still limit RNs so they can keep overhead costs down & use less expensive workers and now they have the perfect excuse: "oh we'd love to hire more Rns but there are none so we just have to make do with PCAs, CNAs, and techs".... and whatever other assistive help the doctors at the AMA & people like William F Buckley dream up next. In fact his suggestion is no surprise. If you look at future staffing projection plans from hospitals over the last 10 yrs, you'd see that this kind of thing (used to be called candy-stripers but now would have more responsibilities) was thought of & planned long ago. Less Rns, more ancillary help. They have us right where they wanted us. We're coming up with all kinds of ways to get Nursing out of this situation when they have actually planned for the last 10 yrs to get right to this point. It would be easy to solve the nursing shortage if we both were on the same side working towards that goal but we're having a tug of war instead. If they really wanted us there, they would be making & advertizing workplace improvements in conditions, wages, benefits, etc & screaming it from the rooftops to get our attention & entice us to come back to work.
The fact that that is not happening & they are fighting so hard against our unions and associations to avoid doing that speaks volumes. Manipulating the media to get their own sorry message out to for public sympathy & barring the reports from showing the whole truth by not letting them air interviews from the nurses, telling the public they want Rns but just cant find any & then turning right around & doing everything that they can to keep us away is a..... ohh whats the word I'm looking for????
jt, and others: I just returned from a meeting with TNA in Austin; among other things I found out that TNA has asked our legislators for $40million this session for education,including tuition with stipulation to work for at least 1 year. This includes both hospital and nursing homes. There are also negotiations underway with hospital association and Dept. of Health to make licensure/operation directly tied to staffing ratios controlled by panels with floor nurses setting ratios, and no ability to staff with mandatory overtime. This sounds like a good compromise and I am waiting for further details. Perhaps you all could suggest these types of solutions in your states as well.
-jt I've enjoyed your posts and for the most part agree with your assessments and point of view. This current shortage has as its roots the factors you mentioned but also goes back to the 1970's. The broadening of career opportunities for women, the need for two income families and the baby boom population bulge as all impact on todays situation. The obvious choice of making nursing competitive with other professions was assessed and rejected as being to expensive.I can remember discussing this issue in school in the 1970's. Instead the route was chosen was to "dummy down" the profession and replace RN's with less educated replacements and less educated nurses.(How many institutions have cut, eliminated and deemphasized continuing education for nurses?) Why is the BSN as entry so controversial, the bean counters and bottom liners don't want to see it happen.Less education less compensation, its the way of the world.
Another factor in all of this is that the economic value of nursing is not recognized in any public way. That M&M decline with a higher RN to patient ratio is ignored and the vast economic savings this results in to society is treated as if it doesn't exist... most americans don't recognize the nursing profession until they are in dire need of one. Let us hope these trends can be reversed, before we are in need of them.
-jt I've enjoyed your posts and for the most part agree with your assessments and point of view. This current shortage has as its roots the factors you mentioned but also goes back to the 1970's. The broadening of career opportunities for women, the need for two income families and the baby boom population bulge as all impact on todays situation. The obvious choice of making nursing competitive with other professions was assessed and rejected as being to expensive. Why is the BSN as entry so controversial, the bean counters and bottom liners don't want to see it happen.Less education less compensation, its the way of the world.
Another factor in all of this is that the economic value of nursing is not recognized in any public way. That M&M decline with a higher RN to patient ratio is ignored
Thank you!
Do you remember how we were courted with the last shortage at the end of the 70's & into the 80's? So many of us were in our 20's & 30's (now dragging along in our 40's) and had little children. Hospitals looked at why we werent working & made an all out effort to get us back to the bedside by offering on-site child care (does anyone still see that anymore), 12 hr shifts so we could be out of the house for less days, more part time & per diem work, higher salaries & family benefits. But they arent trying to come up with anything to catch our attention this time. Its all about the bottom dollar. At our last negotiations, our HR director sat there &, in the discussion about safe staffing and mandatory ot as they relate to pt safety, he had the audacity to tell us (and a room packed with RNs who were observing) that a tired RN is better than no RN at all.
WRONG! The room erupted & informed him that he got it backwards: No RN at all is better than a tired RN because a tired RN cannot make a fatal mistake if she isnt there. (The hospital finally agreed to our safe staffing ratios and restrictions on the use of mandatory in the end but we had to take a strike vote to get it. Didnt have to strike though, because the vote alone was enough to help them see the light about pt safety, but thats another topic)
About the BSN, I think you are right too. Dont you feel like you are pushing against a brick wall? Swimming agaisnt the tide? Many states have shut down their diploma schools but did not add seats to the ADN or BSN programs to pick up the slack, and cut funding for nursing education. Some places actually have waiting lists of people who want to be RNs but there is no space for them in the programs. And the hospitals tell us they cant find RNs?? I wonder how many of those facilities had a hand in the decisions to close down programs & not add seats to others in their states. (Most diploma programs were the hospital's nursing schools). In California, they have just eliminated a large percentage of their BSN seats too! But did they increase the number of seats in the ADN programs???? Noooooo.
So there is a nursing shortage, and instead of doing anything to stop it & turn it around, they are speeding it along & exacerbating it by making becoming an RN almost impossible because you cant get a place in a program. Makes no sense? Of course it does. Nurses are too expensive. Keep them down & out & you can redefine healthcare delivery according to your budget.... all the while with the excuse that you HAVE to do it this way because there just are no more nurses.
jt, and others: I just returned from a meeting with TNA in Austin; among other things I found out that TNA has asked our legislators for $40million this session for education,including tuition with stipulation to work for at least 1 year. This includes both hospital and nursing homes. There are also negotiations underway with hospital association and Dept. of Health to make licensure/operation directly tied to staffing ratios controlled by panels with floor nurses setting ratios, and no ability to staff with mandatory overtime. This sounds like a good compromise
After receiving an avalanche of mail from nurses about how the show looks as though nurses dont even exist in that hospital, 24/7 Johns Hopkins show will be featuring stories about nurses & the integral part they play in healthcare. Series starts Jan 28th.
Also....
In the issue of People Magazine last week, there is a letter to the editor that mentions the nursing shortage in nursing homes.
-jt
2,709 Posts
Nursing Shortage is in the media - and now even William F Buckley has gotten into the act..but his idea is downright scary! In the last paragraph here, he proposes to the President that we hand over our jobs to high school volunteers & the few of us that remain can just supervise..... Now whether you believe in unions or not, we all better got up & do something about our problem or people like this will be "fixing" it for us!....
"A NEW YEAR'S WISH FOR DUBYA
by William F Buckley, Jr.
The figures crawl in on us, but we aren't really listening: a nursing shortage affecting 90 percent of hospitals in California, 75 percent in the Midwest, 85 percent in the Northeast. At Johns Hopkins, the premier facility engaged in medical exploration, some beds are shut down because there are not enough nurses.
In Great Britain, the crisis is acute. Nurses are retiring and emigrating.
Now there is a market solution, or an approach to it: If you need more nurses, pay them more money, and more young people will train for that profession. It isn't as though there were a need for 100,000 more brain surgeons: The market, in some situations, has to come to terms with the latent pool of resources. Not everybody can be taught to play like Horowitz, no matter what you agree to pay them.
But in matters of health there is a distinction, an approach to the problem that hasn't been explored and that the new president could illuminate with a truly incandescent point of light. The young generation, between high school graduation and college matriculation, should be called on for a year's voluntary service.
The shortage of nurses would be relieved if many of their duties were performed by others. Highly trained nurses are required at the operating table and to provide therapy and sophisticated supervision. But much that a nurse now has to do, everything from bedpan changing to writing down routine measurements on charts, could be done by l8-year-olds after very little training.........."
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