Why does the nursing shortage matter? ABCNews.com: “Tens of thousands of hospital deaths every year can be blamed on a nationwide nursing shortage, according to a report released today by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations,” Read more CBSNews.com: “University of Pennsylvania researchers found that each additional patient in a nurse's workload translated to about a 7 percent increase in the likelihood the patient would die within 30 days of admission.” Read More What do nurses complain about? Nurse burnout – CBSNews.com: "A lot of people were saying to us that the equivalent of 'ward rage' was occurring in hospitals," said Linda Aiken, director of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. Read more Physician abuse – NurseWeek Magazine, November 4, 2002, “Some of the worst attacks nurses undergo come from within. The nasty words, vicious threats and even physical assaults occasionally arise not from angry or confused patients, but from the physicians with whom nurses work.” Read more Joint Commission Report: “The impact of abusive incidents can have grave consequences for patients… The abuse breeds intimidation, and may consequently inhibit nurses from communicating with physicians even when communication may be vital to the quality and safety of care. One such case…resulted in a fatal medication error when a nurse was rebuffed when she called a physician to clarify an order.” Read more Patient assaults – According to Kay McVay, RN, President, California Nurses Association, “Direct care nurses face daily threats from deranged patients (whether by mental illness or disorientation from drugs, AIDS delirium or Alzheimer's) and even crazed family members, some driven over the brink by long waits and insufficient care of their loved ones.” Read more Why are there so few male nurses? “It’s hard to describe. At the time, I didn’t know if it was just in my own mind. When the process got down to the last two applicants—me and a female—and they would ask something like ‘Why, as a man, did you want to go into nursing?’ [I would] begin to think things didn’t go well. Then I would not get the job,” American Journal of Nursing Read more American Nurses Association (ANA) Responds to TV Show's Portrayal of Male Nurses… Read more CBSNews.com, 9/6/02: (AP) “Recent graduates of the nation's nursing schools are leaving the profession more quickly than their predecessors, with male nurses bolting at almost twice the rate of their female counterparts, according to a new study.” Read more Is there REALLY a nursing shortage? Or simply a shortage of nurses willing to work under the conditions provided by the hospital industry? Read More Does the number of minority nurses matter? |
