What is the true future of Nursing 2010 and Beyond?

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This has been on my mind for sometime and I wanted to seek the opinion of other "Nurses". I cant speak for previous years so maybe others can. I have been a nurse since 2000 at the beginning of my career I had no idea what the position entailed or actually required. All I knew I was a "Nurse" and when asked what I did for a living. I was given answers of praise and recognition for being one at such an early age, followed by "Wow" you make good money. As years progressed I realized no one really knew what a nurse really did including other nurses and staff members alike. I get annoyed when the term nurse is used for everyone under the sun who is in a uniform or asked if I had to go to college. I feel the role of nurse has evolved so much and has become alot more comprehensive to include many more titles then "Nurse" . We are IT , Case Mangers, Housekeeping, Administrative Assistants, File Clerks, Babysitters, Social workers, Insurance specialist these are just examples and the list can go on forever because I have been continously asked to do things or have just done them for the betterment of a pt or just because.

Which brings me to a second arguement that I have been hearing about. With the recent influx of people attempting to go to Nursing School regardless of the reasons.

Do you approve of schools making the entry requirements as well as degree requirements more difficult?

Do you feel this will make an impact of how nursing is perceived if requirements are more stringent and slows down the pace of nursing graduates?Correct me if I wrong but It seems as if compared to other healthcare degrees nursing is the easiest to obtain.

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Which brings me to a second arguement that I have been hearing about. With the recent influx of people attempting to go to Nursing School regardless of the reasons.

Do you approve of schools making the entry requirements as well as degree requirements more difficult?

Do you feel this will make an impact of how nursing is perceived if requirements are more stringent and slows down the pace of nursing graduates?Correct me if I wrong but It seems as if compared to other healthcare degrees nursing is the easiest to obtain.

1) Yes provided we are talking about relevant course work and not just fluff.

2) Not really.

3) The initial educational commitments can be less than many professions such as physiotherapy. Nursing compares to radiological technology, paramedic and AAS respiratory programmes. However, additional coursework in physics and fluid dynamics is not uncommon in AAS RT programmes.

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Nuses will be out-sourced to India. :p

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Specializes in CT stepdown, hospice, psych, ortho.

The old perception of a nurse as just a doctor's assistant is hard to overcome.

I think you're always going to get the mix of people that think you're a professional and those that think nursing is the same thing as being a sitter. Its a weird mix, if you know what I mean, I think nursing is one of the most respected jobs in the world and also one of the least respected. just kind of depends on who you are dealing with.

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

Some of my patients think I can diagnose them while others ask for their nurse so I can get them a tissue.

I get aggravated when I am very busy and am told the patient wants to see me and all they need is a tissue. This is after the aide already answered the call light. I find older patients think I am a glorified waitress while the younger ones feel I am as educated as the MD.

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I think nursing is going to be a safe and stable form of employment. The heatlhcare system will not sustain without Nurses.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

nurses have always done it all - just look at Florence Nightingale's corps.

I think entrance exams ought to be stringent. Too many new grads are disgruntled and get frustrated over not being able to cope with the duties of a nurse. In fact, I am in favor of BSN being the entry level degree.

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Too many new grads are disgruntled and get frustrated over not being able to cope with the duties of a nurse. In fact, I am in favor of BSN being the entry level degree.

I'm curious if there's any stats on new nurses who leave bedside nursing or nursing altogether based on their degree? I'd suspect that more BSNs leave the bedside sooner (within 3 years) since they may have more opportunities and various expectations due to having earned a bachelor's degree. But that may not be the case.

Why are new grads not being able to cope with the duties of a nurse? First of, what exactly do you mean by 'duties of a nurse'? I'm guessing you're referring to acute care, bedside nursing and maybe even LTC and/or home health. Is that the case? Do schools adequately prepare their students for the real-world expectations of new grads in those settings? Instructors assure students that "no one expects a new grad to be fast or know-it-all". That may be true, but the pressure is on pretty fast and hard to pull a full load *ASAP* and there's lots of eye-rolling and sighing "never done what? don't know that?!" as if the newbie *should* be further along.

When what the nursing that schools teach is nothing like what nurses face in reality, is it any wonder new grads are quickly disillusioned? Students are told X, Y, Z are critical components of good nursing care, but find that in reality they can only get X done due to time and resource contraints and prioritizing. When they can't get Y and Z done with any regularity, they conclude that maybe they just aren't cut out for nursing because a good nurse should be able to do X, Y and Z and shouldn't consider their nursing care adequate if they can't do that.

In fact, students would've been failed from nursing school if they had been practicing as if it were the real world.

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Specializes in neurology, cardiology, ED.

My personal opinion is that patient care experience, or at least a volunteer position in a hospital (or nursing home, home care, etc) should be a pre-requisite for nursing school. I can't even count the number of people who I went to nursing school with that had never set foot in any medical arena other than as a patient or visitor. Most of them failed out or quit the first semester, which is why I can't remember them...

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IMHO, if you complicate nursing edu enough to "cull the herd", there will be no real "sense" to go to nursing unless the autonomy/salary/respect factors increase exponentially. Sure you'll have your few "I am the reincarnation of Mother Theresa"-types out there, but that's about it. Most reasonable folks will dollar-cost average things.

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Well I'm still a student but there is a number of reasons why people get the degrees they get. Some people get Associates because they are cheaper and you can start work faster. Some people do get Bachelor's so they can quickly go into NP programs and some like myself, go for the program I can actually get a seat in. In my area, BSN programs have an easier admissions process because they have more seats avaliable. Most of my friends who are young like me thought that at some point you would have to get your BSN even if you had an ADN so if the had te time and money, they went straight for that program. And unfortunately there are some professors who talk this up and have that theory that a master's will eventually be the entry requirement to be an RN. Also regardless of whether a certain educational level becomes mandatory across the board, hospitals are already taking it upon themselves in my area to prefer or require BSN grads.

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Excellent reply 2ndwind. So many of my friends get paid more and they have cushy state and federal jobs. Some have retired from these jobs and their pensions are much more then I am paid as an RN. One of my friends is a secretary for the Federal governent and gets paid $33 an hour. No need to have entry level raised higher, what needs to be done is raise the salary to match the responsibilty expected of us. If it becomes harder to get in many will find a better way to make more money and the rest of us will be working short. After one year of school and some years of practice I know some very bright and accurate LPNs. Much of everything we do is all about on the job training. I guess with a BSN you would have more classes in Therapeutic Communication, Statistics or something useful like that.

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