|
|
Who will take care of us? Ok, raise your hand, how many of you have thought about a career in the healthcare industry? This could include anything from being a doctor to a sales representative for a major pharmaceutical company. Ok, that’s what I expected from a class of this size. Now, how many of you already have or think you will visit the hospital in the next five years. Now, I know this question may seem out of the blue, but here’s why I’m asking. Currently, the international nursing shortage is the worst it’s been in the history of nursing. You might ask, ok what does this have to do with me if I don’t EVER want to be a nurse. Well that’s the thing. Everything. You’ll realize there’s a nursing shortage when you’re sitting in the ER for four hours, or you’re waiting in a doctor’s office for your seasonal flu shot, but now you’re running late for work, just because there are simply not enough nurses to go around. The AACN President Connie Barden, estimates a 400,000-nurse deficit in the U.S. by the year 2020. On another note, the general public should be aware of the shortage because of the dangers it puts patients in everyday. In 2001 Linda Ciampi of the Chicago Tribune conducted an investigation that revealed since 1995, more than 1,700 patients deaths could be attributed to mistakes made by nurses (cnn.com). Recently, J.D. Bullington took it a step further and said that the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations reported that 24 percent of patient errors resulting in critical injuries and death were related to inadequate staffing of nurses. The international nursing shortage is very real and not only to the hospitals that need to fill these positions but obviously, also to the public. Older registered nurses are leaving and retiring and the remaining nurses who are much fewer have to devise the same amount of tasks among themselves causing them to be overworked to the point of unsafe measures.
|
