Published
Hello all. Newbie here. :-) I've got a question for those of you who have been in the profession for a while.
Question: If nursing is such a good profession to be in, why is there a shortage?
Originally posted by hbscottThis link spells it out pretty good:
http://www.afscme.org/una/sns06.htm
-HBS
Thanks. I wasn't aware of this other report.
Helllllo nurse,
I have read almost all of your posts, and your responses are all based on facts.
I have subsribed to this thead so that I can refer to the valid references you have given on this one.
Any nurse who questions the lack of sincerity on the part of any outsider to really look at the "shortage" must read the thread "Retaining workers key to solving nursing crisis." It was published in the Desert Sun of Palm Springs, California, by a doctor. Read the the editorial written by a nurse. She tells us that the doctor did not bother to even talk to a single bed side nurse.
I have thought Dean would be the answer. After all even if working for a little while in any ER, no candidate could see the problem any better. I was inclined to agree that Dean was our only hope. But then someone else on another string pointed related her experience of the physicians' proposed solution to the health care crisis. This nurse pointed out that they had a doctor who told how they are going to do it. They intend to make all hospitals HMOs through government funding. After they physicians have a virtual monolpoly on the entire industry, they will control costs by limiting nurses to $12.00/hr. Are you ready to work all that overtime to feed your family for straight pay?
I continue to listen to every politician and have yet to hear a single mention of bedside nurses input into solving it.
Why doesn't the ANA tell them to do this? The ANA, like any other big business could not care less about bedside nurses. The president of my hospital union helped administration kick me out of a major medical center X2. That is why I am so happy that CNA seceded from the ANA, and all of the CNA union reps are bedside nurses. This becomes evident by looking at their first mission as improving working conditions for nurses. In CNA hospital after a few years' service, a nurse is granted "career status' and no longer has to work off-shifts and weekends. The CNA has MADE hospitals treat loyal committed nurses as vital assets rather than as useless expenses. New grads, in spite of the bonus gimmicks, are cheaper. More importantly they do not make as much noise as experienced professionals when try to give better care.
No folks, if we don't do it it won't get done. I have followed the CNAs effort at providing sufficient staffing through legislation. Having two years to implement the RETENTION of nuses by giving them decent working conditions The good hospitals have gotten bedside nurse's task forces to do exactly that.
Whether the California staffing level mandates can or will work remains to be seen, since we have only had ten days trial. If it does work, we, as a profession should not all relocate to California, but do the same thing that CNA has done in EVERY state, or better still, adopt it as federal legislation.
There is federal legislation to educate more nurses. Do you really think your own nursing education prepared for how much your job sucks? Do you really want your floor flooded with new grads who are not going to stick around long enough to be of any value to you, before they go as far as they can from hospitals, if not nursing? The more you care about giving decent care to your patients the more it hurts you when you find out the virtual impossibility of doing it!
Most nurses expect to have decent pay, but every poll I have heard of does NOT list it as the first reason they continue to work as nurses. If you want to make better money, work your way "up" to being on profit-sharing so that you can do what every nurse does when she trades her lab coat for a business suit and gets put on profit sharing. Then the shorter she works her staff, the more money she earns.
:roll
If the AMA intends to nationalize health care. If you doubt this, read the report in the May 2003 New England Journal of Medicine where they recommended exactly that. 7000 physicians signed a petition to that effect. They want to make all hospitals HMOs which the physicians wil take care of themselves, but don't you think their only solution is to limit nurse salaries, since nursing care is at least 50% of every hospital bill? If they have the only game in town, how will you work in any hospital that pays more?
:roll
Originally posted by K O'MalleyBWHAHAHAHAHA!
Do these docs really think they are going to get any nurses to work for $12.00?hr, with the huge amount of responsibility we have to shoulder, the rotten hours and the hard work?
If nurses must work for measly pay, then so should the doctors they work with. If cutting the budget that much is what they are wanting to do to save money, then let it start with them FIRST.
"If they have the only game in town, how will you work in a hospital that pays more."
I won't work in a hospital or anywhere else as a nurse for those wages. My daughter worked as a receptionist making $11.00/hr and every Friday afternoon the company had a happy hour for its employees. I will say "bye bye nursing."
i agree w/ the strict admission policies....just letting anyone in to boost numbers will only lead to major headaches down the road...
the problem is...lack of educators, growing numbers of closing facilities, lack of incentives, lack of respect.....
nursing is a great field... you can basically go whereever, do whatever, and get paid whatever....
retention of good nurses is an issue.... instead of sign on bonuses - why not raise the pay of those employees who have shown loyalty to your facility??
a facility i used to work at - said, it shouldn't be about the money....well wise up - IT IS ABOUT THE MONEY...nurses will go where they are paid highest....silly not to...
when supply=demand then hospitals will have some bargaining power - until then - face it...you are gonna have to dole out some big bucks if you want to keep your nurses!!
as for being "only one game in town" -- move, or drive....it is your life - take control....
Originally posted by sagarcia210
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There are many people that hold a nursing license that do not work in the field of nursing. I wonder, if they came back to the field, would there be such a shortage? I read somewhere-- I can't remember where-- that there are approximately 75,000 nurses who do not practice in their field.
No, there are half a million licensed nurses who are not practicing. About 130,000 are working full time in other professions, and another 200,000 are entrepreneurs, working part time, or unemployed (these are not stay at home moms in this group).
I think surveys show that at least 100,000 or somewhere around there, would come back to nursing if conditions improved. Voila, the shortage is over.
We don't need more nursing schools, we need better working conditions.
hbscott
416 Posts
This link spells it out pretty good:
http://www.afscme.org/una/sns06.htm
-HBS