Actually it is. There’s not actually a nursing shortage if you look into the numbers, there’s just a shortage of nurses willing to get screamed at by delirious people while doing backbreaking work without backup or enough people to distribute that work among while getting paid pennies. If so many people weren’t leaving the field entirely due this issue (the chief complaint ALWAYS being under-staffing / low nurse-to-patient ratios, THEN pay), there would be plenty of nurses to go around. It always comes down to pay and ratios (which are inextricably intertwined) and everything else is fractions of percentages of the problem that get overemphasized so that the people siphoning money out of this system never have to address the elephant in the room. Don’t let them deflect you away from focusing on their greed. A bunch of nurses are also out there pushing themselves through degree mill nurse-practitioner schools to become wildly unsafe prescribers for the same reasons as those leaving entirely, which also reduces the bedside workforce.
If so many people weren’t leaving the field entirely due this issue (the chief complaint ALWAYS being under-staffing / low nurse-to-patient ratios, THEN pay), there would be plenty of nurses to go around
I think both can be true.
From expenses point of view, Isn’t under-staffing almost the same thing as low pay? What’s preventing hospital administrators from hiring more nurses? If it’s just money, then I don’t think the complaint of under-staffing all that different from the complaint of low pay; I suspect it’s even affected by sort of preference (some nurses would prefer working more for better pay, others would prefer sharing the workload.)
Of course from administration / governance point of view it boils down to money, what I’m saying is that I find it unlikely is that it’s “just hire more nurses”. It’s also doctors, other staff, etc. It’s more likely the whole system.
Look, I get your point, but it’s not like nurses grow on trees. (Especially good nurses.)
Things need fixing, but they need fixing far earlier than that.
Actually it is. There’s not actually a nursing shortage if you look into the numbers, there’s just a shortage of nurses willing to get screamed at by delirious people while doing backbreaking work without backup or enough people to distribute that work among while getting paid pennies. If so many people weren’t leaving the field entirely due this issue (the chief complaint ALWAYS being under-staffing / low nurse-to-patient ratios, THEN pay), there would be plenty of nurses to go around. It always comes down to pay and ratios (which are inextricably intertwined) and everything else is fractions of percentages of the problem that get overemphasized so that the people siphoning money out of this system never have to address the elephant in the room. Don’t let them deflect you away from focusing on their greed. A bunch of nurses are also out there pushing themselves through degree mill nurse-practitioner schools to become wildly unsafe prescribers for the same reasons as those leaving entirely, which also reduces the bedside workforce.
I think both can be true.
From expenses point of view, Isn’t under-staffing almost the same thing as low pay? What’s preventing hospital administrators from hiring more nurses? If it’s just money, then I don’t think the complaint of under-staffing all that different from the complaint of low pay; I suspect it’s even affected by sort of preference (some nurses would prefer working more for better pay, others would prefer sharing the workload.)
Of course from administration / governance point of view it boils down to money, what I’m saying is that I find it unlikely is that it’s “just hire more nurses”. It’s also doctors, other staff, etc. It’s more likely the whole system.