What do you think are the current major problems in nursing?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello: I am a pre-nursing student taking my nursing theory class, and I must write a paper about what nurses think the major problems are in nursing today. So feel free to be as honest, open, and detailed as possible, and help me to get valuable information to write an educated paper. Thank you.

Everyone has made some very valid and pertinent points.

I would like to add:

Lack of a cohesive nursing organization with strong leadership able to affect and speak about nursing as a whole. The media wants to quote us... but they never know where to go.

Facilities who care about nurse recruitment, but not about nurse RETENTION

Lack of funding for nursing education and the 39% of qualified BSN candidates (according to NLN) turned away last year

Dismal faculty salaries

Importing nurses from other countries instead of strengthening our nursing infrastructure

etc.

You should have more than enough paper topics by now...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Troop demoralization that begins in the school setting before getting that BSN in your hand.

It is funny to see how the nurse instructors who were complete bullies to powerless students relegated to "gossip queens" towards their RN counterparts. I guess it is hard to say stuff to your face when they no longer control your grades. I have every intention of looking up those instructors post graduation and embarassing them in front of their students; hopefully breaking them down to tears.

I've said it before. Why would I want to stay the long term in a profession where bullying, politicking, backstabbing, and blatant disregard for student emotional well being is commonplace?

C'mon, we all know how high and mighty some nursing specialties think they are over others. We hear it, we see it, we receive and or give it.

United we stand, divided we....um......well that's all we seem to do at times.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

that was so poetic and eloquently written. and it expresses the way i feel so effectively... thank you.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

A more "corporate" mentality. The days of a hospital as a local, small to medium sized business is over.

There is no "mom and pop store" mentality in the new workplace. It is rare to find high level managers who know their employees.

Nursing care is quantified and measured. Forms have to be filled out. JHACO requirements, Dept of Facility Services requirements, and hospital accountability paperwork cut into the time nurses spend on patient care.

Read the threads about Press-Gainey customer satisfaction scores and others about scripting nurses- more corporate fads that run through epidemics. The folks making these rules have moved further and further up the management chain away from the unit level managers.

When nurses cannot give the level of care the patient needs, morale drops.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D, Family Practice, HHA, IM.

Two words: Press Gainey.

:lol_hitti

Up Vote Up Vote ×

too-high patient-to-nurse ratios = burnout = nursing shortage.

contributing factors: hospitals run as businesses, advertised as hotels, and their nurses not given the professional respect they deserve.

my fear is that no matter how many new nursing grads enter the workplace, the nursing shortage will continue due to their own burnout, not to mention the burnout and retirement of more experienced nurses.

two useful links:

http://www.dpeaflcio.org/programs/factsheets/fs_aiken.pdf

[color=#346da2]http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/kkny/2006/oct/23/there_is_no_nursing_shortage

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Hello: I am a pre-nursing student taking my nursing theory class, and I must write a paper about what nurses think the major problems are in nursing today. So feel free to be as honest, open, and detailed as possible, and help me to get valuable information to write an educated paper. Thank you.

we actually just discussed that last week..

i'm just not sure if this is correct,,

demand

discrimination

victim of malpractice

incompetent teachers

ahh!!i can't remember the other things that she said,,hmmmhh..

that's all i have right now,,hope it helps..

Up Vote Up Vote ×

One of the biggest problems I see in nursing today is the Electronic Medical Record. It's fantastic to look back and be able to read lab values and H&Ps and the vitals lined up in a row....but to put all this data in on a minute by minute basis....goodbye to taking good personal care of that patient. In order to appease Outcomes and JCHACO you have to live and die by the computer. If your charting is not in the right place....you're in trouble. EVERYONE is so concerned with getting the data where it's supposed to go that we've stopped even looking at the patient. The nurses need a Nurse Advocate. Someone to tell JCHACO that they're being unrealistic with their demands. Someone to tell Outcomes that what they're asking doesn't make sense. Someone to tell management that we can't do all this extra stuff and still TALK to our patients. I don't feel like we have time to nurse anymore. We market, and input data, and worry about proper charges....when do we have time to nurse? I was so excited to get the computers because I love to use them. But now...Please give me my paper back!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg and Wound Care, PACU.
Everyone has made some very valid and pertinent points.

I would like to add:

Lack of a cohesive nursing organization with strong leadership able to affect and speak about nursing as a whole. The media wants to quote us... but they never know where to go.

Facilities who care about nurse recruitment, but not about nurse RETENTION

Lack of funding for nursing education and the 39% of qualified BSN candidates (according to NLN) turned away last year

Dismal faculty salaries

Importing nurses from other countries instead of strengthening our nursing infrastructure

etc.

You should have more than enough paper topics by now...

so basically you mean me as a german nurse?

nici:o

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I really think that the nursing profession inadvertantly promotes seperatism. There are currently three entry levels of nursing; LPN, Associate Degree and Bachelor Degree RNs. This causes a great deal of confusion because each level is constantly criticizing what the others don't or are not allowed to do.

Let me make this clear...this is NOT an LPN to RN bashing. What I notice is that the RNs have all of the responsibility but are not really autonomous, and many of them feel disrespected by management and administration. LPNs feel that they are not always respected as being nurses, but in many areas are called upon to do many of the skills that RNs do, but, are not receiving the recognition or financial respect due to them. With all of this "I am more of a nurse than you are" causes resentment, confusion and has an impact on patient care. We can "all eat at the table", but, instead of showing respect for each of the disciplines and their contribution to health care, time is spent causing chaos, and turning on each other.

At times, we can be our own worst enemies. Telling on each other, eating the young, not assisting in teaching those that have less experience and attempting to show one upmanship is detrimental to our own personal health, growth and development into this career. Administration sticks together, the doctors do, why can't we?? It is like crabs in a barrel...you pull up one, and the rest of them are trying to bring him back down to the fold. This is destructive, not constructive. We should be spending more time pulling each other up, supporting each other and helping each other grow. This is one of the ways to better help our patients.

And, of course, all that was mentioned here is also why people are running from nursing or being burned out. I often wonder when this will end.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I can agree with the fact that most times, we are so worried about covering our butts with these sorry regulatory agencies that patient care is the last thing on our minds. Computerized charting and the pyxis has become a nurse's nightmare.

Also, the schools have been bullies. I was on the top of my class, graduated valedictorian, but the program director did all that she could to humilate me and make me miserable. It was not until the end of the program that she finally came to me and said "You really hung in there, didn't you?". I could have smacked her. Many of the students that were borderline failing were needy of her attention, begging for favors and kissing her rear, but she liked them because they made her feel needed. I studied alone, did not interact with other students often, or paid attention to her stupid suggestions on how to pass that program. I was so disgusted with the whole thing that I did not come to my own graduation and still do not regret that decision.

We were not prepared for the real world, NCLEX does not assure that a competent, caring nurse has entered the fold and we are thrown to the wolves, basically. You have to be strong or evasive to make it in nursing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatric, Medical/Surgical.

One thing I am constantly reminded by my boyfriend after a bad night...

If a patient goes bad at the beginning of your night, and takes up the first few hours of your shift, the nurse is still expected to get the same amount of work done as if she hadn't had that problem patient.

Staffing is made for the "perfect" night. If all of my patients were A+Ox3, stable, friendly, etc., then our staffing ratios would be fine.

And we are overstaffed ONE night, and management throws a fit...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment