- Email: [email protected]
Tell Us How You're Beating the Nursing Shortage
Tell Us
How You’re Beating the
Nursing Shortage
I
have been a labor and delivery nurse for 32 years and a nurse manager for 14 years. During this time I have seen the shortage of nurses come and go; but the
problem has escalated in the last few years. I understand that the enrollments in nursing schools have been on the decline and predictions are being made that by 2010 we will lose 40 percent of the nursing force to retirement. The shortage is such a drastic problem right now—in bigger city hospitals, 100 bed units are closing their services and sending patients to other hospitals in other cities or states for these services due to the lack of nurses to man these units. These big city hospitals are trying very desperate incentives to attract nurses. They will pay large salaries with large sign-on bonuses, give lodging, use busing for transporting, and offer many other perks. This has caused the smaller rural hospitals to lose a large amount of their very best experienced nurses. Losing one nurse in a small specialty unit such as labor and delivery, ER, or intensive care, can be devastating to the continuance of a high standard of care. I have seen shows on Oprah and commercials on TV promoting the teaching career. These are very well done and may influence career choices made by young people. My question is, What is being done to promote nursing as a career? Is anyone looking into what it will take to make the nursing profession more attractive as a lifelong career? Are there any plans of doing commercials on TV to promote the rewarding and challenging job of bringing a baby into the world, or caring for a patient after a traumatic accident or heart attack? Frances O’Brien, RN Alderson, WV
February/March 2002
Nurses Speak Out! Editor’s Note: Lifelines has been running articles during the past year about what nursing organizations at large, and individual groups, are doing to combat the nursing shortage. Legislative and policy updates are always available at www.awhonn.org. We’d like to hear what’s happening in your community. Drop us an email at [email protected] and let us know what you, or others in your community, are doing in light of the impending shortage. We’ll publish a summary of all comments submitted in an upcoming issue. EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA QUERY ’m writing because I’d like to know what’s happening among other nurses and at other institutions regarding childbirth educators’ responsibilities for prenatal education of advantages and disadvantages of epidural anesthesia. One hospital in our community has eliminated several childbirth educators and stated that they will no longer employ ICEA or Lamaze International Certified Childbirth Educators. The reason for the firing of the one remaining ICCE was that “she gave too much information on hospital procedures.” Her class outline followed the ICEA motto of “freedom of choice based on knowledge of alter-
I
natives” and the CIMS Guidelines for Childbirth Education. In the future, only staff nurses, including LPN’s, will teach the hospital’s “prepared” childbirth classes, presenting information acceptable to one physician group practice and hospital administration. The video I used in class, Epidural Anesthesia produced by InJoy videos, is banned. My preview copy of Induction and Augmentation of Labor, also in InJoy’s Choices In Childbirth series, mysteriously disappeared and has never been found. I find this a very troubling situation, denying expectant parents access to essential information needed to make informed choices in health care for mother and baby. I am interested in hearing from other LDRP nurses and certified childbirth educators. Is this control of information presented in childbirth classes common? Is it new? In my 31 years as a registered nurse and 29 years as a Lamaze certified childbirth educator, this is an unacceptable and shocking restriction to me. Judy O’Connor, RNC, BS, LCCE, FACCE Childbirth Education Consultant Decatur, IL
Nurses Speak Out! Editor’s Note: In this issue, Lifelines is tackling two requests for information regarding epidural anesthesia. See the feature, “Maternal Positioning in Labor with Epidural Analgesia,” which presents results of a multisite survey on epidural practices, and take the opportunity to respond as to what is going on at your institution. Additionally, please respond to Judy O’Connor’s request regarding information and education about epidural anesthesia in perinatal education by emailing us at [email protected]. We’ll provide a summary of all of the comments returned for your information in an upcoming edition. Write today! ♦
A W H O N N Lifelines
9
How You’re Beating the
Nursing Shortage
I
have been a labor and delivery nurse for 32 years and a nurse manager for 14 years. During this time I have seen the shortage of nurses come and go; but the
problem has escalated in the last few years. I understand that the enrollments in nursing schools have been on the decline and predictions are being made that by 2010 we will lose 40 percent of the nursing force to retirement. The shortage is such a drastic problem right now—in bigger city hospitals, 100 bed units are closing their services and sending patients to other hospitals in other cities or states for these services due to the lack of nurses to man these units. These big city hospitals are trying very desperate incentives to attract nurses. They will pay large salaries with large sign-on bonuses, give lodging, use busing for transporting, and offer many other perks. This has caused the smaller rural hospitals to lose a large amount of their very best experienced nurses. Losing one nurse in a small specialty unit such as labor and delivery, ER, or intensive care, can be devastating to the continuance of a high standard of care. I have seen shows on Oprah and commercials on TV promoting the teaching career. These are very well done and may influence career choices made by young people. My question is, What is being done to promote nursing as a career? Is anyone looking into what it will take to make the nursing profession more attractive as a lifelong career? Are there any plans of doing commercials on TV to promote the rewarding and challenging job of bringing a baby into the world, or caring for a patient after a traumatic accident or heart attack? Frances O’Brien, RN Alderson, WV
February/March 2002
Nurses Speak Out! Editor’s Note: Lifelines has been running articles during the past year about what nursing organizations at large, and individual groups, are doing to combat the nursing shortage. Legislative and policy updates are always available at www.awhonn.org. We’d like to hear what’s happening in your community. Drop us an email at [email protected] and let us know what you, or others in your community, are doing in light of the impending shortage. We’ll publish a summary of all comments submitted in an upcoming issue. EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA QUERY ’m writing because I’d like to know what’s happening among other nurses and at other institutions regarding childbirth educators’ responsibilities for prenatal education of advantages and disadvantages of epidural anesthesia. One hospital in our community has eliminated several childbirth educators and stated that they will no longer employ ICEA or Lamaze International Certified Childbirth Educators. The reason for the firing of the one remaining ICCE was that “she gave too much information on hospital procedures.” Her class outline followed the ICEA motto of “freedom of choice based on knowledge of alter-
I
natives” and the CIMS Guidelines for Childbirth Education. In the future, only staff nurses, including LPN’s, will teach the hospital’s “prepared” childbirth classes, presenting information acceptable to one physician group practice and hospital administration. The video I used in class, Epidural Anesthesia produced by InJoy videos, is banned. My preview copy of Induction and Augmentation of Labor, also in InJoy’s Choices In Childbirth series, mysteriously disappeared and has never been found. I find this a very troubling situation, denying expectant parents access to essential information needed to make informed choices in health care for mother and baby. I am interested in hearing from other LDRP nurses and certified childbirth educators. Is this control of information presented in childbirth classes common? Is it new? In my 31 years as a registered nurse and 29 years as a Lamaze certified childbirth educator, this is an unacceptable and shocking restriction to me. Judy O’Connor, RNC, BS, LCCE, FACCE Childbirth Education Consultant Decatur, IL
Nurses Speak Out! Editor’s Note: In this issue, Lifelines is tackling two requests for information regarding epidural anesthesia. See the feature, “Maternal Positioning in Labor with Epidural Analgesia,” which presents results of a multisite survey on epidural practices, and take the opportunity to respond as to what is going on at your institution. Additionally, please respond to Judy O’Connor’s request regarding information and education about epidural anesthesia in perinatal education by emailing us at [email protected]. We’ll provide a summary of all of the comments returned for your information in an upcoming edition. Write today! ♦
A W H O N N Lifelines
9