The one thing that most people count on when entering a hospital is that there are going to be nurses to take care of them. Yes, we do see a doctor when we are there, but doctors come and go intermittently. Nurses are the people we rely on. They check us into the hospital, take our vitals, and ensure we are comfortable while we are there. Imagine walking into a hospital and discovering that there are only 2 nurses for an entire floor. This is a reality that the nursing community is preparing for, as the predicted nursing shortage is looming whether the USA is prepared or not.

There are many factors that have caused alarm within the nursing profession and have resulted in the prediction of a massive shortage of nurses by the year 2020. Nursing enrollment in Universities is not growing fast enough, and there is a severe shortage of faculty to teach those already enrolled. As learning institutions require an adequate nursing degree teaching staff to be in place prior to accepting students for enrollment, there has been a lower acceptance rate for those applying.

Nursing has maintained it's popularity as a career since the 1950's, but there has a been a decline over the years from the height of the baby boomers entrance into the profession. As these individuals grow older and move into retirement, there are fewer younger nurses to fill their shoes. Without a steady influx of students into the schools, the numbers of nurses leaving the profession cannot balance out with the number of students entering. As well, the nurses who are currently working in the profession have a high rate of burnout, which results in them leaving earlier than retirement ages.

The bottom line is that a lower nurse to patient ratio means that more people will be inadequately cared for and perhaps even die in emergency situations. The main strategies that are being put into place focus on education. The recently introduced NEED Act for example, will access Capital Grants to expand nursing school faulty and enrollment. Nursing schools are seeking partnerships with private sector companies in order to boost funds to create enrollment and offset the costs of running the programs. On a statewide level, Governments are looking for private sector funds to match the amount that the state can invest in nursing programs. A Nursing Education Capacity Summit took place in February of 2009, and health leaders from 47 states came together to rewrite policy on nursing education, retaining faculty, and curriculum.

It is truly frightening to think of what could possibly happen within our health care system if the current policy makers and educational institutions cannot come up with ways to combat the rising nursing shortage. Nurses are the backbone of our health care system, and without an adequate number of them in hospitals, care homes, and public health units, our growing population will suffer.

Labels: Healthcare, Nurse Educator, Nursing Career, Nursing Jobs, Nursing Shortage, Recruit Nurses

Nursing school graduates face a sparse job market in California despite projections for a massive nursing shortage in the state.

Before the recession brand new nurses could find jobs wherever they wanted in California even in tough job markets like the Bay area.

Back in 2004 state labor affairs officials estimated that California would need at least 9,000 new nurses a year.

But over the past 18 months thousands of graduating nurses have found it almost impossible to land a job.

Many hospitals have set hiring freezes and closed down clinical services. In addition, a lot of nurses that were expected to retire have not chosen to do so. Many have decided that because of the recession they were no longer in a financial position to retire, or perhaps their spouse lost a job and they needed to remain employed.

So a lot of reasons are related to the economy is why we have this temporary lift is what we still believe is a long term shortage of nurses.

Most economists agree that as soon as the economy turns around nurses will again begin retiring and there will be jobs for all of this year's 10,000+ graduates and many more.

In the meantime though, professionals in the healthcare field are taking action to keep trained nurses in California by either encouraging continuing education with an RN to MSN degree or by offering hands-on clinical training so they can compete with experienced nurses for roles that do open up.

Deloras Jones, president and executive director of the California Institute for Nursing & Health Care worries that this economic blip could threaten statewide efforts to build a stable long term nursing workforce. "We're concerned about nurses leaving, going to other states definitely or worse, leaving nursing altogether and going into some other field. The longer they're away from school they are at greater risk of losing what they have learned and that's why it would make it more difficult for them to be employed."

Relief for New RN's looking for work
Even where there are jobs available, hospitals would rather hire an experienced nurse over a new graduate.

New RN's can't expect to immediately graduate and go onto the floor and handle very complex medical patients. There needs to be an opportunity for those nurses to be mentored by experienced nurses and give them time to really get their clinical expertise up to a level that many hospitals need.

Graduates must also learn to be open to job opportunities outside of their first choice markets and might consider getting jobs out of state.

To help nurses wade through the recession, the California Institute for Nursing & Health Care is sponsoring community based programs that give new grads an opportunity to work in the field and pick up some of the skills they would normally get in an entry level nursing job. One of those new programs is a partnership between Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and Samuel Merritt University in Oakland.

Graduating students who pass their RN exams are placed with nurse precepts and Kaiser hospitals. This program is offering them a structured clinical practice environment which includes classes and also time in a clinical setting so they can gain a deeper understanding of the healthcare environment in which nurses work.
The free 15 week program is the first of its kind in the nation. It expects to turn out 250 trainees this year and the CINH hopes to get funding to train another 1300 nurses.

Now is the time for continuing education
Some nursing schools are encouraging graduates to ride out the recession by continuing their education. UC-San Francisco School of Nursing as a 1-year RN program, but many students are opting to stay on.

Said Dean Kathleen Dracup, "About half our graduates used to leave an work for a couple of years as a nurse just to get that experience and then come back for their masters, and now they’re all just going straight through. With the idea that by the time they get their masters which is a two to three year program, then they will be ready."

Labels: Nursing Career, Nursing Jobs, Nursing Scholarships, Nursing School, Nursing Shortage, Recruit Nurses

There are many, many people with stressful jobs, but it is difficult to compare a Corporate CEO's stress with that of a Registered Nurse. Yes, the stress is different, as one deals with money and the other deals with life and death. The real contrast? That CEO may need the assistance of the nurse to save his life at some point in the future, whereas the nurse will never have the same sort of need for the CEO. Yes, our nurses are vital to our well being. They hold our hands through procedures, they assist in the delivering of our babies, and they take over completely in lieu of a doctor's presence. Unfortunately for the CEO, and for many patients in hospitals right now, nurses are pulled in so many different directions that it has become impossible for them to keep up. Job stress, long hours, and unmanageable constraints on their time have resulted in a major nursing shortage and a high turnover rate. A complete restructuring of the nursing profession is long overdue. It is obvious that the RN career path must change, and Transforming Care at the Bedside is the solution.

Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) is attempting to change the current state of nursing today. TCAB is a three-year training program that will be undertaken by nurses around the country. Through training and support, RNs will focus more time on their patients and work to maintain job satisfaction over a long period of time.

The nursing shortage has reached critical levels due to many factors. The aging population of nurses is larger than the influx of new recruits, as the inhibiting costs and high enrollment rates in schools outweighs the ability to take in students interested in earning their nursing degree. Once on the job, long hours and an overwhelming work load can take its toll. TCAB began as an initial brainstorming project in a medical-surgical unit. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the goal was to find and implement different ways for nurses to do their jobs. The eventual hope was that the unit could increase job satisfaction to the point that there would not be such a high turn over rate. What began in 2003 as an initial one-unit project has expanded to over 200 units across the USA.

TCAB uses a multi-tiered approach to finding new and innovative solutions in health care. Taking ideas from nurses, educators, and administrators, TCAB's focus is on change. Rapid test cycles, discussions as to what works and what doesn't, and involving the entire staff is what creates a new work environment.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant of $732,000 funds the initial changes, and allows for the freedom of implementing new policies and procedures in hospitals. A massive retraining and overhaul would cost a great deal of money to each individual hospital, and the grant puts much-needed funds to good work. Nurses that are currently in residence are retrained and encouraged to voice their opinions. New recruits are then given tools and information to begin their career as a nurse, learning to do things the new way and not fall into old traps.

TCAB may be the key to turning the current nursing shortage around and providing all RNs with a better work environment. It is the hope that a patient focused approach will increase the satisfaction of both the nurse and the patient.

Labels: In the Hospital, Nursing Career, Nursing Jobs, Patient Advocate, Recruit Nurses

The Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida is a non-profit organization devoted to the recognition of excellent nursing in the area. The group achieves this goal through the organization of scholarships, the honoring of local nurses, and the recruitment and support of Floridian nurses.

The Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida got its start in 2000 due to actions by a coalition of nursing organizations led by District 2 of the Florida Nurses Association. They created the first gala event, raising more than $30,000 with the help of community sponsors.

Since 2000, the Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida have put on 5 gala events in celebration of fabulous nurses. Nominations are taken from professional health care workers, patients and their families and community members in order to decide who exceeds expectations through their dedication to excellence at work and desire for further knowledge outside of work via online nursing programs or traditional college. These winners are selected by a panel of nursing peers. The gala events, which are sponsored by businesses and private donors from the community, reward these nurses for their honorable service with good food, awesome entertainment and lots of fun.

In response to the growing health care debt, the Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida uses these gala events to additionally find support from the community for a number of nursing scholarships. A 501(c)(3) organization, the Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida awards scholarships and grants to health care research projects.

The Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida is an awesome resource for health care professionals in the Northeastern Floridian area because they keep a Speakers Bureau of Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Administrators on hand, available to speak to groups in the area.

The concept of Northeast Florida's Great 100 Nurses is nothing new. In 1998, a registered nurse in North Carolina named Heather Thorne began devising plans for a group that would recognize nursing excellence while bringing more nurses into the fold through scholarships. Since the North Carolinian chapter was founded the group has raised over $140,000 in scholarships.

The Louisiana Great 100 Nurses is also one of the older Great 100 programs. Currently celebrating their twentieth anniversary, health care professionals, patients, families and community members make their nominations with essays applauding the nurses' accomplishments. Similar to the other Great 100 programs, the money from this incredible anniversary celebration will go towards promoting nursing and increasing the amount of money awarded to scholarship recipients.

Iowa's program is among the newer of the Great 100 programs. Founded in 2005 by the Iowa Nurses Foundation, all 99 Iowa counties participate in nominating and awarding nurses with this honor. The 100 Great Iowa Nurses and Iowa Nurses Foundation also support nurses by awarding scholarships that range between $500 and $1500. This is paying off in the University of Iowa Hospitals, as those awarded this honor represented 18 University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics at the five year anniversary of the program, that was held in Des Moines in May.

Labels: Nursing Career, Nursing Scholarships, Nursing School, Online Nursing Degree, Recruit Nurses, Stimulus

America's health care shortage extends into every level of its hospitals, from nurses to gift shop volunteers. This shortage can cause huge problems in effective coverage for United States citizens. However, statisticians believe that increasing the number of nurses per hospital will improve health care quality for everyone.

The highest level of the health care shortage is in primary care doctors. Though the federal government has been pushing for increased primary care physician presence, their efforts have failed. Primary care physicians have been decreasing faster and faster every year since the 1970s.

Many hospitals have found the solution for the lack of primary care physicians: nurses. Nurses, and especially those with advanced training like nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, provide much of the same care as doctors, at lower price and with less education, as reported by the Yale Journal on Regulation.

Both the lay community and members of the health care sector are attributing major hospital mortality problems to the nursing shortage. In a 2005 edition of Nursing Economic$, researchers found that more than half of registered nurses and CNOs (Chief Nursing Officers) think that reduced staffing is causing a decrease in the quality of care in hospitals and other health care centers. Over 90% of registered nurses complained about overstaffing causing poor patient care. On the other hand, 40% of American citizens have criticized the health care sector, claiming that between 1999 and 2004, quality of hospital care has sunk, citing stress, understaffing and lessened individual care as major factors in the condition of health care.

A study by The New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 tested the hypothesis that low nurse staffing levels will increase the number of deaths and complications in patients. After examining almost 800 hospitals in eleven states, the research team concluded that higher numbers of nursing care hours shortened the day, reduced risk of infection, pneumonia, heart attack and 'failure to rescue.' Additionally, surgical patients who saw their nurses more regularly had decreased urinary tract infections and increased rates of success after surgery. Overall, the study proved that increasing coverage of patients by upping the number of nurses on staff will lead to better health care in hospital patients.

A further study in Health Services Research and the Journal of Nursing Administration went on to study the effects of education on mortality rates. The research teams found that hospitals that staff nurses who graduated from baccalaureate programs had lower rates of mortality and 'failure to rescue' than did hospitals who staffed nurses with a lower level of education.

The study of mortalities as a consequence of the nursing shortage has been the most frightening of all. In 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association came forward with research on the benefits of increasing nursing staff. Thousands of lives would be saved a year by simple changes in hiring. At the University of Pennsylvania, where the research was conducted, the team found that a hospital with a low ratio of nurses to patients, patients are almost a third more likely to die than in hospitals that are adequately staffed. Every patient added to a nurse's daily workload in the surgery ward increases the chance of death by 7%.

Labels: Career Profiles, Healthcare, Nursing Career, Nursing Jobs, Nursing School, Recruit Nurses

Despite concerns about employment as a consequence of the recession, nursing vacancies grow steadily everyday. Over the course of the last ten years, Americans have experienced a nursing shortage the likes of which had not been seen since the 1960s. Despite attempts at righting the shortage, America is still looking at a gap of over 100,000 nursing positions nationwide.

It is almost impossible for the need for nurses created by aging baby boomers to be satisfied with current resources. Without major changes made soon by legislators, the vacancy rate could as much as quadruple. Obama's healthcare reforms could only exacerbate the problem by increasing the number of insured Americans by millions, without a healthcare infrastructure in place to take on the burden. There simply aren't enough nurses who to fill the demands.

Floridian Representative Robert Wexler has proposed a bill to help fill in the short term nursing crisis. The Democrat announced in May of 2009 that his bill would allow for the extension of 20,000 visas to foreign nurses every year for the next three years, bringing in 60,000 nurses total, and providing for 60% of today's shortage. Should the bill in its current form not pass through the Senate, legislators plan to add an immigration reform package to the bill. Obama spoke to the legislators about the bill this summer in order to discuss even further immigration reform.

Many proponents of the bill to allow immigrants to fill positions in American hospitals are looking for temporary relief. Unpopular areas have a difficult time attracting qualified nurses, and the bill would help to assuage this problem. Dozens of nurses from Canada, the Philippines and Mexico would be eager to take any position, regardless of the area. Though these visas would eventually expire, sending the nurses back to their nations of origin, hospitals currently undergoing shortages of registered nurses would be helped quickly.

Labor unions disagree. Unions are arguing that providing a foreign labor source would limit the incentive of hospital administrators to create more pleasant working environments because they know that their positions will be filled no matter how they treat their employees. Labor unions are afraid that removing such a significant number of nurses from other countries could cause nursing shortages overseas. Bringing in already accredited registered nurses who have been driven from the field by stagnant pay and poor work conditions is the favored plan, as it brings experience back to the field.

Supporters of Obama's healthcare reforms also reject Representative Wexler's Bill, hoping that Obama's economic stimulus does enough to promote a long term solution to the nursing shortage. Obama included $500 million to benefit healthcare workers, by increasing education and encouraging students to pursue the field either at traditional universities or via distance learning with an online nursing degree. Additionally, Obama hopes to cut down on the effects of the recession by increasing the capacity at nursing schools, allowing workers from other industries to gain the education they need to become nurses. This would cut down on unemployment while closing the nursing gap, simultaneously.

Labels: Government, Immigration, Nursing Shortage, Obama, Recruit Nurses