Welcome to our world

Welcome to our world

EDITORIAL Welcome to Our World The nursing shortage is on everyone's mind, and national as well as local measures are being proposed to alleviate it...

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EDITORIAL

Welcome to Our World The nursing shortage is on everyone's mind, and national as well as local measures are being proposed to alleviate it. More money and an increased voice in policy-making decisions are offered most frequently as solutions. Both these efforts will no doubt attract a certain number of new recruits into the profession and will defer the withdrawal of many who are already in practice. But the question is whether this alone will solve the acute shortage that now exists and promises to continue for some time to come. My considered opinion is that it will not. We all know that attracting people into the profession is only the first step in relieving the shortage. The second step is keeping them involved and caring once they begin to practice. This responsibility has usually been assigned to administrators and heads of service agencies. However, the work environment is certainly affected by those who work in it. If we want to attract and keep nurses, then it would seem to me that we have to look at how we--not they--behavetoward recruits and students when they arrive on nursing units. Too often, new employees get dumped on instead of being helped by the incumbent staff. The newest staff nurse is assigned the most difficult patients. Students are greeted with eyes rolled heavenward, or with moans and deep sighs, or they may be ignored completely. "Let their instructor take care of them. She gets paid for it." When staff does become involved with the new staffmember or student, they often tell them war stories or horror stories. "Sure you can take all the time you want with patients now, but just wait until you get out here in the real world . . . . I used to talk like that when I was a student, but I know better now." "Don't spoil the patients, they'll expect the same treatment from the rest of us, and we haven't got time for that fancy stuffand you won't either once you've been here a while." We threaten them and almost dare them to continue in the program or on the job, implying that only a fool would want to be a nurse, which poses some interesting questions about what we're saying about ourselves. Everyone has to let off steam, and we all have to find ways of expressing our frustration and disappointment. But isn't it to our own detriment to discourage the very people who are potentially the solution to the problem? Why is it necessary to repeatedly identify the negatives or drawbacks to this profession without at least giving the rewards and satisfactions equal time? Perhaps more money and more power may help nurses feel less oppressed, stressed, and angry. This in turn may result in students and new staffbeing greeted with warmth and patience rather than with distance and annoyance. Students must have an opportunity to observe nurses who enjoy what they do. New staff must have the opportunity to absorb the culture and pace of the unit.Allstaffmembers must become their teachers, mentors, role models, and welcomers. All must become involved in helping the new recruits feel comfortable and gain confidence in their abilities to attain a smooth and safe level of practice. Don't sit in judgment of your colleagues. Help them if you can. It is not just the responsibility of the charge nurse or the in-service instructor. Recruiting people into nursing is going to be difficult enough with a dwindling supply of human resources, but it will be a wasted effort unless present staffget their act together and start welcoming new staffinstead of shutting them out. We must understand that what keeps most people in a setting over and above money and power is the bonding with one's coworkers.

Geriatric Nursing January/February 1988 29