Nursing Shortage

EarlSamms · Apr 1, 2006

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?

delmar · Apr 1, 2006

" 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. .
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. "
Earl, As a student you have MUCHO insight! Congrats to your Dean
for joining the "FAAN" club!(The "Nobel Prize of Nursing"???) What a joke & a total waste of time &$300 bucks!
I have a friend here in San Francisco who's a member & she trashes the
"American Academy of Nursing" beyond belief! If you are ever bored,
surfing the net & have 20 mins to waste, visit their web site - there are
a whole list of "do's & dont's" for submitting your application -very amusing-
only a bunch of post-menopausal, constipated, rigid women could
have dreamt something like this up! Oh, don't get me started on the other
"prestigious honor" spawned by the ANA: MAGENT STATUS- my
hospital is going for it- another waste of time and $$$! As for Nursing Ed as a "dark, dank, sour, wrethced abyss": I could not agree more! No wonder there is a shortage of nurses & qualified faculty ---
just look at who the role models are! (clueless individuals who would not
know what a patient is even if they tripped over one in a hospital
corridor!)

Annor · Apr 1, 2006

nursing schools make it so intense to get accepted into their programs..... good students get turned away....it is crazy!!

PLUS.......

there are not enough teachers, to accept the amount of students that are trying to get into the programs....WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?? Other depts have enough proffessors to teach in their depts...but what about the NURSING DEPT???? I know about this crap....because I am looking into colleges on Long Island for my daughter....

My high school daughter wants to be a RN.....her grades in HS are average...she would be a wonderful RN....but with her average grades from HS ...it is going to be tough to get accepted into a nursing program on Long Island...

weirdRN, RN · Apr 1, 2006

Nursing Shortage, Nursing Education:

I will graduate, God willing, in May from an ADN program. I liken nursing school to being struck with a cattle prod at uncertain intervals, and Never when you are looking at the person holding the cattle prod. Nursing school is tough, and the attrition rate pretty high in a lot of programs. (Out of 58 students, we lost 15 in one semester)

I have read that people do not believe that there is a shortage because of the number of nurses not working.

The nurses who are not working are not working for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Family issues/ Motherhood being the most common reason. Off to have a baby, take care of an aging parent or stay home til the kids are old enough to be in daycare.

2. Abuse/ Burnout next. everyone needs some time to regenerate sometimes

To the people who are burned out and/or have experienced abuse, I say do not loose hope, You have given your all, take sometime for yourself and then come back stronger than ever.

3. Disability. Anyone know what the stats are on nursing injuries?

4. Then there are those who have decided that nursing is NOT their cup of tea, but hang on to their licenses "just in case". This is after a suitable recovery time from burn out or abuse or a family or life crisis has occured. These people do not usually keep up with advances in nursing, don't keep their skills up, and when they return to the workplace, they are often unsafe.

People in category four should not be considered for the purposes of numbers of nurses, because they really do not want to be nurses anymore. Their license is just a guarantee against a day when they need money.

I know that offends some, but there is no better, softer, kinder gentler way of saying it.

I know that right this minute any nurse that wanted a job could go out and get a job. The conditions would not be all that bad, ratios would be reasonable, benefits and pay would be reasonable, and the scheduling very flexible.

I believe that the nursing shortage is real and that even if all the programs in the country had a zero attrition rate, we would still be short. B/c of medical advances and the aging population, Nursing is expanding and the number of nursing positions added are exceeding the number of nurses produced.

Kristie

hospitalstaph · Apr 1, 2006

nursing schools make it so intense to get accepted into their programs..... good students get turned away....it is crazy!!
PLUS.......
there are not enough teachers, to accept the amount of students that are trying to get into the programs....WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?? Other depts have enough proffessors to teach in their depts...but what about the NURSING DEPT???? I know about this crap....because I am looking into colleges on Long Island for my daughter....
My high school daughter wants to be a RN.....her grades in HS are average...she would be a wonderful RN....but with her average grades from HS ...it is going to be tough to get accepted into a nursing program on Long Island...

I was just talking to a friend today that graduated from the policy academy last week. There were over 700 applicants and only 54 spots. The nursing program that I was just accepted into had over two hundred applicants and only 25 spots. We both wondered if those people working in fast food type jobs really want to be there.....or could they just not get in????

:idea:

Tracy

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Apr 1, 2006

...
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.
...
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.
...
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.

:lol2: A little OT, but Earl, if you get out of nursing, write Gothics. You're good.

rn_imw · May 11, 2006

Your message here is timely. PLUS, when you add in the factors of the high percentage of injuries that Nurses do sustain from unsafe working conditions.......it is AMAZING that the public simply does not understand the "shortage" as some type of "propaganda" used for the benefit of those insurance companies and Hospital Executives.....and at times, even the Government itself.....What will change? How can it change? Will Americans continue to keep their heads in the sand as Ostrichs or open their eyes wide and begin working for the betterhood of every Nurse that sacrifices so much often on a daily basis. We recognize Fireman/Police/Paramedics....as well we should.....but WHEN did you go to ANY ceremony other than graduation or Nursing Week Ceremonies (which is often a sad subject within itself) that recognizes all the sacrifices that Nurses make?????? I am joining you on the soapbox.....and even starting my own thread about Injured nurses.....because it DOES happen....and even here on this site I can find very little about this........I can always bring forth the facts if anyone is truly interested in them. Nurses need to know what they are getting themselves into and what little support will be made available to them should they become injured! The "shortage" of Nurses will continue as long as nurses continue to let themselves take this abuse even to the point of being injured themselves. It is time to make working conditions safer......and to stand up for what is right for the benefit of all nurses. Thanks for having the courage to do so here.

mtnmom · May 11, 2006

Pricklypear, no need to get down off your soapbox. I live on mine and even get my mail delivered there :chuckle

azhiker96, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2006

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?

Wow, that's a huge wage gap. What is the community or state? Those poor non-union nurses should move to Arizona. Banner's RN scale is $24-36 without union dues. Other employers are comparable and some specialties go even higher.:)

nursesarah · Jun 3, 2006

Unions have their place, but for the most part they are filled with people who still do not understand what a "real" nurse does. The so-called nursing shortage will not be properly addressed by joining a union. The way I see it, the only thing that can solve the "shortage" is for nurses to become key members of government and work from the inside changing things on a national level. And when I say nurses, I mean real nurses. I don't mean individuals that have spent a total of 3 years in their 30 yr career working on a unit, and then spent the remainder of their time in management, administration, and adding to the letters behind their names.

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Jun 4, 2006

Wow, that's a huge wage gap. What is the community or state? Those poor non-union nurses should move to Arizona. Banner's RN scale is $24-36 without union dues. Other employers are comparable and some specialties go even higher.:)

There isn't a nurse w/ a license anywhere in the states making "10.00/hr".

Where I work, that amt (10/hr) is in about the range at which we pay our CNAs.

Maybe, in a few very low cola areas, you might find LVNs/LPNs making 12.00/hr, although I would think that is rare. And I think about the minimum for an RN these days is 17-18/hr.

And, I simply don't think that unions have much to do w/ salaries. CNA just negotiated a contract, after 2.5 yrs of effort, w/ Scripps Encinita that will pay union nurses THE SAME AS their non-union nurses in the same county.

Unions have their place, but it's propaganda to suggest that that place is anywhere and everywhere.

Now, a national organization would be a wonderful thing for nurses. ANA, sadly, is not that organization. They represent less than 30% of nurses and advocate AGAINST the rest. LVNs/LPNs need not apply for ANA membership in the first place. ADN RNs can apply and ANA will gladly take your money, but they advocate for your elimination.

Combine that with the fact that most national nursing organizations embed themselves into liberal politics instead of true lobbying, and you can see why nurses don't have a strong voice.

WE DO need a national voice. But that voice must represent all nurses and represent nursing issues exclusively (and not liberal politics generally.) Only when you remove the overt biases can you have an organization that would have broad appeal.

~faith,

Timothy.

vloho · Jun 4, 2006

What's a low cola area? 18.oo/hr is my top.so far.