dareese

Sure. I believe that there are LPN to RN programs. I enjoyed working with LPNs at the beginning of my nursing career. I was the charge nurse and the LPNs worked under me. I did not have to spend time directly supervising them as they were competent and had their own duties. We each had divided tasks among us and the system worked well. Fast-forward to now and my last inpatient employer did not hire LPN's. I enjoyed taking care of my own patients but it was not in entirety as I still had CNA's working on my team. However, there were times that I felt like I was drowning in nursing responsibility with nobody to help me. Especially regarding phone triage as our phones rang continuously and the CNAs could not answer any of the calls or questions from family members, etc. Between charting and answering the phone, my time was pretty well taken up with these tasks. It was discouraging and frustrating. If I could have shared nurisng duties, it would have taken the pressure off of my shoulders somewhat.

Appreciate your weighing in from an educational perspective. Excellent points!

Wow-what a shame! Hospitals are missing out on great nurses if this is a trend nationwide. Are other hospitals across the country similar in this practice?

I just read an article called "Medicare Support for NP Training Addresses Nursing Shortage" https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/966228 where Medicare is considering support for clinical training for NPs. Although the title is deceiving (support is for NPs and not nurses), maybe they are starting to think on the right track.

I see that some nursing homes are starting to think outside of the box like the one mentioned in this article. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/01/10/nursing-home-worker-shortage-ripples-through-communities Maybe it is a start...

I agree about utilizing home care more. I still can't understand why insurance is willing to pay for hospital services but home care reimbursement is very limited. It seems to be a win-win to be in the comfort of your own home when ill especially for an elderly patient. It has to be cheaper for the insurance companies and medicare than hospitalization. We are dealing with this issue right now with 2 of our parents.

Our local hospital has a 1-year new grad intern program which seemed to be a little long in my opinion but apparently, it is necessary by the comments on this thread. These newbies are eased into nursing responsibilities very slowly and I would imagine trained well and retained longer than in other "trial by fire" hospitals (which is like the one that I started in). Perhaps hospitals need to adopt this type of model in order to safely train new nurses into the profession.

Well, that's a shame if hospitals are not hiring new grads or utilizing LPNs as they should. I am starting to see a common thread here....

Well, that's a shame!

This is a very interesting thread regarding the downfall of healthcare in the 70s which I was unaware of. Who would have ever thought that it would come to this, our current state of affairs.

I'm not sure if I was unclear. No, I am not saying that these practical nurses would get their BSN immediately. It would be more like a practical nurse program for an LPN with additional training over time to build on their education. The goal would be to get a BSN EVENTUALLY if so desired. Also to get trained practical nurses in place quickly to help fill slots in the nursing homes and inpatient area. Maybe some current RNs are too young to remember the hierarchy of nurses in these areas. BSN nurses at the top with the more complex responsibilities, then AD nurses, with LPN's under the college-educated RNs. This spread out and alleviated some of the responsibilities for the BSN nurses.

This hierarchy of nursing roles had worked for decades. Smart administration! And I bet that the RNs appreciate the help.

I am actually surprised to hear that many nurses do not feel that there is a shortage of nurses in hospitals and nursing homes. Is it just in my neck of the woods? We were always operating short prior to covid with open positions. It seems that if there was a set number of nurses for all nursing positions and some left the profession or retired early due to burn-out from the current environment, others were forced to leave due to vaccine mandates, and many shifted to become travel nurses or work in non-inpatient positions, that indeed there is a nursing shortage in our inpatient facilities? Am I wrong about this?

Great ideas! I would love to figure out a way to consolidate all of our collaboration and somehow get it to land on the desks of those who make decisions regarding our hospital systems. Are there any administrators or nurse recruiters out there who can lend their knowledge regarding actual nursing shortages and solutions (especially for long-term care facilities and inpatient hospitals systems)?

I agree that a shorter education may be a problem. But what other options are there? Maybe it can be a stepped approach like LPN where the responsibility is less. Certainly, a BSN nurse would have more responsibility. Yes, I think it will take buy-in and a concerted effort for all parties to get this idea up and running. Including incentives for nurse educators and schools. Thanks for the input. I just hope that everyone does not drag their feet which could lead to more staffing issues.