Nursing Shortage

There are plenty of FORMER nurses in this country. There is only a shortage of nurses who will work under unbearable, unsafe conditions. Let's suppose one million trained nurses became available for employment tomorrow; hospitals would still maintain the minimum staffing levels to keep the bucks rolling in.

I think the nursing shortage would still continue because of the growing population of our elderly, also I know of some nurses who change their profession because of stress

I just read something the other day that was talking about the nursing shortage in Florida. They found out that there were more nurses not practicing then nurses practicing in the state. That's crazy when you have more nurses choosing not to work in nursing then the ones that are. If that isn't a sign that things need to change I don't know what is. I know that nursing has changed so much and not for the benefit of nurses or our patients that the older nurses constantly say "I can't wait till I retire" and the younger ones are constantly talking about "going into other areas of medical fields to get off the floors":nono: .

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i've been a nurse for 40 years and have seen so many negative changes in nursing that i was one of those saying "i can't wait to retire!" i was beaten down by working 12-hr shifts on a med/surg floor with 8-9 pts a day.....especially after hca bought us. they are the worst! i finally retired from hospital nursing two years ago and i started part-time home health nursing and finally feel like a real nurse. my pts get real care, which makes me feel really good and so much happier. i've had my pts for 6 months now. i do private duty 8-hr shifts 3 days a week and visits on other days. i am finally a happy camper. i'd starve before going back to the hospital.

There is NO shortage. Nursing schools are cranking out just as many grads as they always have. People are standing in line to get into school, waiting years to be accepted. The "Shortage" is nothing more than propaganda put out by hospitals and nursing homes to excuse their poor staffing practices. They'd much rather have the public think that they (hospitals and nursing homes) are doing everything they can to staff safely, but can't find any nurses to do so. When in reality, there could be thousands of nurses beating the doors down while staffing levels remain low enough for the CEOs to take home their 6 digit paycheck.

This isn't going to change until 1 of 2 things happen:

1) Nurses somehow find a way to take control of our profession (like a nurse's union, such as teachers have) with organized collective barganing.

2) The public becomes educated enough about exactly what nurses do on a daily basis, and how much their safety actually depends on nurse to patient ratio as opposed to how good their doctor is, or what kind of cool diagnostic machines their hospital has. When they realize that the hospital itself is responsible for maintaining inadequate staffing, and compromising patient safety for the almighty dollar, they have the power to change it. Insurance companies and hospital exectutives are getting richer every day at their expense, and on our licenses.

Whew, now climbing down off my box...

Stay on your soap box pricklypear.

Education of the public about what nursing is and how much better off they are with the correct patient to nurse ratios is paramount. Of course wages and benefits that appropriate for the professional responsibilities we have would also be helpful.

Seach the forums here for Silence to Voice by Suzanne Gordon. It will give you useful information on how to make educating the public about nursing part of our daily lives.

The ongoing nursing shortage in the US is made worse by the lengthy process that internationally trained nurses have to go through to be permitted to work in the US. I am both CGFNS & NCLEX certified since Aug '05. Due to the lengthy wait for I-140 Schedule A approval (California service centre) i am still waiting to move to the US. My application was transferred to the Texas service centre on Mar 22nd so who knows how much longer it will take. Immigration certainly does not do the nursing shortage any favours.

The licensing process isn't that much easier for American nurses, not for new grads waiting to get the original license, nor to transfer from state to state. I've heard the state boards are backlogged - they don't have enough help either, but maybe that is an excuse too.

I'm with the previous posters, there really isn't a nursing shortage in the U.S. Only a shortage of U.S. nurses willing to put up with unsafe working conditions.

There is NO shortage. Nursing schools are cranking out just as many grads as they always have. People are standing in line to get into school, waiting years to be accepted. The "Shortage" is nothing more than propaganda put out by hospitals and nursing homes to excuse their poor staffing practices. They'd much rather have the public think that they (hospitals and nursing homes) are doing everything they can to staff safely, but can't find any nurses to do so. When in reality, there could be thousands of nurses beating the doors down while staffing levels remain low enough for the CEOs to take home their 6 digit paycheck.

This isn't going to change until 1 of 2 things happen:

1) Nurses somehow find a way to take control of our profession (like a nurse's union, such as teachers have) with organized collective barganing.

2) The public becomes educated enough about exactly what nurses do on a daily basis, and how much their safety actually depends on nurse to patient ratio as opposed to how good their doctor is, or what kind of cool diagnostic machines their hospital has. When they realize that the hospital itself is responsible for maintaining inadequate staffing, and compromising patient safety for the almighty dollar, they have the power to change it. Insurance companies and hospital exectutives are getting richer every day at their expense, and on our licenses.

Whew, now climbing down off my box...

*whew* Boy, after reading your post, I think we should all close in prayer.

People ARE lined up to go to school. But there are only so many schools to fit nursing students. If it were more available, I doubt the nursing shortage would be as bad.

I think the nursing shortage is due to the combination of factors: A growing elderly population, baby boomer nurses entering retirement, nurses leaving the clinical areas to go to work in the private sector, high tuition costs and a

shortage of nursing faculty. I was hoping to be able to help in that aspect, as I applied and interviewed for a position as a practical nursing instructor late last week with a local technical college. But I haven't and don't expect to hear from them again, as I don't have a degree.

Pricklypear, you said it so well. I wonder if there is such a thing as a national union for nurses. And I'm talking every nurse in the good old USA being a member. There is power in numbers and until we start speaking up and quit being victimized by the system, many of us are going to feel burned out and wanting out. I say we bring some solidarity to this profession. I am a union nurse but most nurses in my community are not. These nurses are making between 10 and 15 dollars an hour. Union wages are between 22 and 36 an hour. That is a huge difference for nurses who have the same education. The nurse that makes 10 dollars an hour is working just as hard as me and he/she deserves better pay. Fast food restaurants pay better than this. Until we all take action and do something, nothing is going to change. Any comments?

The Nursing Shortage.

Are the answers to be found in studies of oppression and gender bias? Or should I look to long history of physician abuse against nurses? I have spent the last year trying to wrap my brain around that question. It eludes me. Ironically, I was pumped up by nursing itself, but so, so discouraged by the process that the old guard feels you must endure in order to get there. Healthcare is a dynamic and changing profession, why is nursing education not? Have the gatekeepers of nursing fled the halls of the hospitals to halls of academia where they can mete out the same horrific oppression they endured? There is truth to the tired cliché that the oppressed make the best oppressors.

I have another degree and have attended other schools. I was thrilled to return to school as an adult student to attend a nursing program at a large state school in Chicago. Dreams of Higher learning and Intellectual endeavor danced in my pretty if misguided head...Higher Learning? What a Joke. Nursing the profession may be noble, but nursing education is not.

The medical surgical program at the college I attended is a hotbed of racism and sexism. Should a student protest, he or she will be ignored, or better yet, ground to dust by boring administrative prose and even more boring administrators. If you can bring in research dollars- the students matter not, they are collateral damage after all.

And a Masters Degree in Nursing does not a Teacher Make. Our dean just became a Big Time FAAN. I wish I knew or cared what a FAAN was. Having the whole alphabet follow your name is a status symbol in nursing. I wish our dean knew or cared about how deeply unhappy the students in her program were. While she's away getting made up for the six o'clock news, or traversing Kenya or Belize peering at hot house flowers or mating gazelles, her students are suffering at the hands of an embattled and embittered faculty- exhausted and angry. The students benefitting from their collective unhappiness. Spreading the joy so to speak.

Nursing Education is a dark, dank, sour, wretched abyss. They are very accustomed to twenty- year old white girls. If you're not in that demographic, they have no clue what to do with you, the student body of nursing is changing. The nursing student is no longer for the most part white, female or young. Nursing instruction will have to swallow the bitter pill of accommodation.

And whatever you do. Don't have opinions or challenge them. Your doom will be sealed. You should critically think, but by god don't independently think.

It makes me laugh- these dusty, starched and linear thinking matrons telling us that nursing is a caring profession.

Ha, everyone is moaning and groaning about a nursing shortage- look no further than the institutions that allow this abuse and abusive individuals to vent their collective ill will or exorcise their own personal demons on the unsuspecting in name of education. No one will ever get me to go along with the idea that their actions are justified in the names of the patients they profess to be saving with their rigor, and vigor. I have worked in hospitals for the last six years and it was the nurses I worked with that inspired me to become a nurse. NOTHING prepared me for the surly harridans that teach nursing. Their greatest service to the profession will be retirement. Once this old guard is laid to rest- will change come about?