Survey: Would there be a nursing shortage if...

dspring, RN · Mar 4, 2003

I think that the nursing industry needs a total overhaul. We are constantly treated like dirt by the physicians, patients, and administration. I get tired of the same old crap. I went into nursing to make a difference in somebodies life (sometimes that somebody is me). I go out of my way to help patients, families, and even the docs on occasion. But it doesn't seem to matter. Better pay and benefits would be nice, but respect would go a long way also!!!!!!!!!

baseline · Mar 4, 2003

I agree with Brian in that better wages and benefits MAY have prevented this to begin with, but the bottom line is....... I want to go home feeling that I haven't been run over by a truck. I want to feel that I gave good care, and not afraid I forgot something. I want to spend some time teaching my patients and families. I want to go home and feel I have made a difference....howver small it may be.........

kayRN21 · Mar 4, 2003

I started out making 5.00 and hour in 1974 as an RN with an ADN. I completed my BSN in 1996. I continued to work as a bedside staff nurse. I have worked as a staff nurse for 28 years and was making 25 dollars an hour. I no longer want or can do the lifting, pulling, and running now at 49 as I was able to do at 21. I think the hospitals still need seasoned nurses. I am fried totally and due to the stress I reacted to I was fired after 13 years at a hospital. I believe there are a lot of nurses like that out there. We will be replaced by those that think 25 dollars is a lot of money and worth the stress. Well after 28 years this old body is broken down physically and mentally. I was not fired for practice skills, I was fired for poor attitude and frustration. Well so be it. I am happy, joyous, and free and unemployed. I thanked them for firing me and gave them a hug and felt a burden had lifted off my shoulders. I was a good nurse and I really did care about my patients, but I guess I am too old to cut the mustard anymore. God will find me something else to do.

sjoe · Mar 4, 2003

Read my lips: It's the intolerable working conditions, poor management (untrained and unskilled), absence of leadership, and frequent disrespectful treatment by patients, physicians, and supervisors that have led to the exodus of nurses, mistakenly and inaccurately referred to as a "nursing shortage."

IMHO.

After all those issues are suitably addressed, adequate and competitive salaries and benefits might make a difference.

plumrn, BSN, RN · Mar 4, 2003

I think more money and better benefits may bring NEW nurses into nursing, but as soon as they discover what the working conditions are like today, they most likely will leave like so many others.

eddy · Mar 4, 2003

I think there is indeed a shortage, BUT.....

It's not a shortage of nurses.

Rather, it's a shortage of nurses willing to work in these conditions and for such terrible pay.

There are a ton of nurses out there. They just don't work at the bedside or even in nursing anymore (but they are still "nurses"). They were pushed out long ago. If the "whole package" improved I am willing to bet you would see thousands return to a career most enjoyed but simply couldn't put up with any longer.

sanakruz, ADN · Mar 4, 2003

Lack of respect.

Sexism.

Lousy hours.

3 reasons nurses leave.

Benefits and pay are most likely #4+5

jemb · Mar 4, 2003

The shortage of nurses employed as such is IMO due more to the working environment than to the pay scales. Sure, everyone likes more money, but the physical and emotional demands are what create the inability to continue in the field.

ScottieRN · Mar 4, 2003

Plumrn I agree with you. I was shocked at what I found after getting out of school. I was treated badly. In essence, I was eaten up by older RNs who are tired of the present working conditions. My first year in nursing was a bust. I wish it were different but, it is not.

Brownms46 · Mar 4, 2003

At present I'm on a contract where I make more money that I have ever made before. I also have great benefits thru my agency. I have no complaints about money or benefits.

But if I wasn't in a place where I felt valued and supported...I would have NEVER extended twice!

I have been another place, where I have left early in my contract(which my agenices backing and complete support), and never looked back. The conditions were horrible, and the staff were as evil and mean as they come. After talking to my agency almost daily about the working conditions...one day they went too far...and at the end of my shift...I called my agency from my car, and told them I wouldn't be going back.

I was making great money...in fact more than others on at the same hospital, but working for another agency. My furnished two bedroom apt. was paid for...and I paid nothing for medical, dental, disablity..etc. But it wasn't enough to put up with the crap that I endured there!

There have been times when I have told a per diem agency I worked for...that I would never return to a certain hospital ever again. The staff dumped on agency something awful. And because of this treatment, many agency nurses wouldn't go back there.

And yes I beleive the only shortage there is, is the shortage of nurses these days, who will put up with crap on a daily basis....for any amount of money! :cool:

One nite the agency called, and asked me how much would it take for me to go back to this hospital. I told them...they didn't have enough money! The staffing person was taken back...as she thought surely she had heard me wrong. But she didn't ...and I was just about broke at the time! But I wasn't about to set foot back in that hospital to be used and abused ever again!!!

I love being paid well...but I will work for less...if it meant having decent working conditions, and being respected for the work I do. Thankfully as long as I travel...I will be paid what I feel I deserve. And if the working conditions stink...I can always move on. :cool:

Fran-RN · Mar 4, 2003

Why do you say there is no nursing shortage?>??????

Chiaramonte · Mar 4, 2003

It certainly would help having better benefits. We are in that service after all. I do think that better wages would help but I agree that at the real basis of this problem is better working conditions.

Respect is a big one for me also. I do think it's an unrecognized profession. After all, aren't most "service jobs "expected that you have do certain things because it's just that you are there to serve the public. Through the years I've learned that self satisfaction has to be it's own reward.