It's easy to say "hire more nurses" but the reality is that most businesses won't do it when nurses can be forced to work extra shifts and mandated to do overtime. They are caught between a rock and a hard place because every "rescue" makes the corporations that hire them think the situation is under control. There are would-be nurses turned away from schools because there is a shortage of clinical instructors and other educators as well.
Factor in the underpayment of insurances and Medicare for patient care and an extremely hard work environment for many nurses to work in and it is not surprising that many nurses leave the profession or cut back their work hours.
The average nurse is in her early forties and the work isn't getting any easier.
Why should this matter to you?
If you are a patient do you want your nurse to have six or seven other patients as sick as you to care for? Do you want your nurse to be there on a double, tired and unfed, running from room to room??
What do you come to the hospital for?
Many patients come for nursing care. They barely see the doctor the entire admission and others come after spending hours in surgery. The nurse is responsible for caring for you and teaching you and family or friends how to care for you when you get home.
Certain aspects of nursing have an intensive quality about them and may have time restrictions or requirements. There are many patients that are confused or disoriented or otherwise in need of some TIME and reassurance and who will do their best to fall out of bed or pull out lines because they are weirding them out.
In a poorly staffed environment patients need to be fed, bathed and toileted by nurses because support staff is not available to help do these things.
The biggest value that is underrated that is part and parcel of what a nurse does is Critical Thinking. It is an invaluable skill that nurses develop over time. It is the gut or intuition that leads a nurse to conclusions about how a patient is progressing and should not be ignored. It has saved many lives.
Did you know that nurses take many science courses? The idea of the "handmaiden" at the beck and call of the physician is not reality. The nurse is the last layer of protection against an untoward event in your stay at a hospital. She is the last to check a med the pharmacy has provided and the last to have an opportunity to question a physician order that doesn't seem right.
Do you want her mind so crowded and her body so tired that she can't optimally function? What if you are the patient? What if your mom is the patient? What is your child is the patient?
Think about it!
