A crisis in the health care industry is brewing, and it is called the nursing shortage. But when you hear that over 42,000 nurses were turned away from nursing school last year, you have to wonder why there is still a nursing shortage. The nursing shortage is all about the education bottle neck that keeps nursing out of training.
Here are the top ten ways to get nurses trained and into the work force:
Teach More Nurses Online
In a regulated profession like nursing, starting a new nursing school is not easy. But a dozen fully accredited, highly regarded nursing schools already offer their programs online. The academic portion of the program is completed online while the clinical portion is completed locally. A greater capacity to teach nurses today, would significantly ease the nursing crisis facing us in the coming years. Opening more online nursing schools would help resolve the nursing crisis at its core.
Schools like Indiana State, which was named by Princeton review as one of the best schools in the Mid-West. Jacksonville University for the third year in a row was named by US News and World Report as one of America's best colleges. The National League of Nurses and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) have accredited each of these schools respectively. There are many more fully accredited nursing schools offering their programs online.
Not only is the capacity for teaching nurses online higher than that of teaching them on-campus, nurse educators can leverage their time better, the programs are less expensive, and most of these programs have no waiting list.
Not only is the the capacity for teaching nurses online higher than that of teaching them on-campus, nurse educators can leverage their time better, the programs are less expensive, and most of these programs have no waiting list.
What you can do: Tell your friends and colleagues who aspire to become a nurse about the great online programs available.
Teach More Nurse Educators
In January of 2007, Tennessee Governor Philip Bredesen launched a $1.4 million campaign to fund a scholarship program to help registered nurses earn degrees needed to teach nursing. A few months earlier, Illinois did the same to ensure that the state could educate, recruit and retain nurses.
The capacity for most nursing programs to expand is limited by the ability of qualified nurse educators. However the number of programs teaching current nurses the skills to teach aspiring nurses is not enough. Through a combinations of pubic and private incentives and partnerships, schools need to increase their capacity to teach more nurse educators.
By raising the effectiveness of the Tennessee and Illinois programs to other states and the Federal government, more nurse educators would have the opportunity to teach.
What you can do: Write your state and congressional representative about the successes of the Tennessee and Illinois programs and get one funded for your state.
Educational Strategies
In a study that appeared in Health Affairs, the study authors found that 97 percent of hospitals were using education strategies to address the shortages of nurses at the hospitals. These strategies included partnering with nursing schools, subsidizing salaries, reimbursing the nurses for advancing their education and providing flexibility to allow staff to attend classes that can further their career. Already the private sector is doing what it does best, squeezing the most productivity out of a situation that needs it. Best practices can be shared among the different organizations.
What you can do: Work with your current hospital to make them aware of the options available to them. Increases in productivity will justify the capital outlays to get the programs started.
Capital Grants to Schools
In an effort to increase the number of students and nursing faculty, many states are beginning to offer capital grants to hire and retain nursing staff, purchase new equipment, enhance audiovisual ability, and recruit students.
What you can do: Write your state and congressional representative about the successes of other state programs for the hiring and retention of nursing and help to get similar programs in place.
Change Nursing Laws
In 2002, the Nurse Reinvestment Act was passed that allowed new and expanded programs that target the nursing shortage in an effort to reduce it. It is important that the government must fund these programs and expand the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, Nurse Scholarship Program and others. Increase the the percentage and number of foreign trained nurses to enter the United States.
The percentage of foreign trained nurses in the US is far less than most of us think it is. The fact is that there are many very well trained nurses who wish to work in the United States. The process for screening well qualified candidates is already in place. The biggest barrier is the limitations on the number of nurses allowed into the United States.
What you can do: Encourage your employers to sponsor more foreign trained nurses. Let your congressional representative that you no longer want unreasonable caps placed on working visas for nurses.
Create Healthy Work Environments
The current working environment for many nurses is a stressful one. A nursing shortage only makes this worse. The mental and emotional state of individuals who have to work in a stressful environment causes a drop in the quality of medial care. Management needs the freedom to create dynamic working environments, and come up with creative solutions so that the current nursing work force can perform in a healthly environment.
What you can do: Stop complaining. Management may seem to always be about the bottom line, but when shown the productivity gains, the slower attrition rate associated with a healthier working environment, change is much more possible.
Develop More Public-Private Partnerships
The public may not know this, but they are deeply vested in solving the nursing shortage. As critical as the shortage is now, if it gets much worse, the quality of medical care will fall. Not only is the shortage a contributing factor in rising health care costs, the public at large will be the ones most severely affected if the shortage gets any worse. A heightened awareness about the rise health care costs along with a potential drop is quality of medical care, the entrepreneur spirit that drives the private sector can be used to help find solutions to this crisis.
Develop Strategic Partnerships
Nursing colleges and universities need to begin developing strategic partnerships to help expand student capacity and bulk up the nursing workforce. In one example, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida gave $600,000 in funding to the University of North Florida to fund their nursing education. Ramping up online degree programs at already accredited institutions would go a long way toward getting the current nursing population better educated.
Getting more of the 42,000 nurses who were turned away from nursing school last year into online nursing school is the core of solving the nursing crisis. Nursing schools are not accredited overnight. Nurse educators are in short supply. But given the clear need to resolve the nursing crisis, coordinating public and private resources will go a long way toward resolving the nursing crisis.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Nurses Launch National 'CheneyCare' Campaign
New Print, Online Ads Jumpstart Petition Drive for Guaranteed Health Care
The California Nurses Association
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 — The California Nurses Association (CNA)/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) launched a national campaign today in favor of what the group has dubbed "CheneyCare" -- guaranteed, publicly-funded health care for all Americans.
The campaign was inspired by the success of the group's Iowa ads declaring that Vice President Dick Cheney "would be dead" if he did not have publicly-funded health care. A new version of the Iowa ad asking Americans to sign a petition for "CheneyCare" will run today in eight New Hampshire papers before going national in the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today, as well as leading political blogs, on Monday.
"All Americans have the right to the quality of care that our Vice-President, President, and Congress already have," said Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of CNA/NNOC and a vice-president of the AFL-CIO. "All the leading Democratic proposals fall well short of "CheneyCare," keeping insurance companies at the apex of power and allowing them to deny care that can save lives. The Republican proposals are even worse."
The ad uses recent headlines about Vice-President Dick Cheney's latest heart procedure to point out the difference between the government-funded health care that the nation's leading politicians enjoy and the precarious health care situation in which most Americans find themselves.
A news article about Cheney's recent treatment for heartbeat irregularities provides the context with the headline: "If he were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now." The text highlights that factors such as the patient's history and prognosis would likely lead to a denial of private insurance claims for most Americans, assuming that they had coverage in the first place.
The ad asks readers to go to http://www.CheneyCare.org and sign a petition in support of CheneyCare for all Americans. The blog ads cut to the chase, with the tagline "CheneyCare for all."
The campaign plans to continue running ads in all the early primary states. Once the presidential candidates are chosen, the petition will be delivered to the both the Democratic and Republican nominees' state campaign offices around the country.
CNA/NNOC has been critical of "universal health care" proposals by top Democratic presidential hopefuls Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards, which continue to rely upon the wasteful inclusion of private insurance companies.
Earlier in the campaign season, CNA/NNOC teamed up with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) to air television ads during Democratic presidential debates in Iowa and New Hampshire. The three "Speechless" ads featured regular Americans describing the costs, burdens and financial pressures that the current health care system is putting on them to one of the leading democratic candidates. They then ask the candidate what she or he is doing about it. The camera then cut to a cardboard cut-out of candidates Clinton, Obama or Edwards, with a voice-over that says, "The longer nobody
talks about single payer, guaranteed health care for everyone, the longer we are going to wait to get it."
CNA/NNOC is part of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, a new umbrella group for labor, advocacy and health care professionals committed to working to pass legislation that will guarantee access to health care for all Americans.
About California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee: Founded in 1903, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today represents over 75,000 members nationwide. It is the largest and fastest-growing organization of direct care Registered Nurses in the country and is dedicated to providing a voice for nurses and a vision for healthcare.
SOURCE The California Nurses Association
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Become a Nurse
Registered Nurse (RN) Degrees Career Profile, Salary, & Education
Nursing in general is an applied science that combines aspects of medicine, biology, pharmacology and even psychology in the delivery of health care to individuals in physical distress. Nurses assist and complement physicians, and work in all the same areas and specialties as doctors, while retaining a professional identity separate from doctors and unique to their own occupation.
Of the several types of nurse, by far the most predominant is the Registered Nurse (RN), a highly trained health care professional who possesses the education, skills and competency to practice all aspects of the care and recovery of the sick and the maintenance of well-being in the healthy. RNs ensure that patients receive care that is appropriate, timely, and professional, in a variety of settings.
Registered nurses perform a number of essential and basic functions, including treating and educating patients, recording symptoms and medical histories, performing diagnostic tests and analyzing the results, and administering treatment and medications under the supervision of a physician.
RNs are not limited to employment as bedside nurses in hospitals. Registered nurses are employed by physicians, attorneys, insurance companies, private industry, school districts, ambulatory surgery centers and fire departments, among others. Some registered nurses are independent consultants who work for themselves, while others work for large manufacturers or chemical companies. Research Nurses conduct or assist in the conduct of research or evaluation (outcome and process) in many areas such as biology, psychology, human development, and health care systems.
Find the right accredited registered nursing degree, rn to bsn, or rn to msn degree for your career goals.
Registered Nurse Degrees, Education and Training
There are three major educational pathways that lead to a Registered Nurse certification. These paths begin with an associate degree in nursing (ADN), a bachelor's of science degree in nursing (BSN), or an RN diploma.
Associate of Science Degree in Nursing (ADN)
The quickest and most frequent educational path to an RN degree begins with a two-year Associate of Science in Nursing. About 846 community and junior colleges currently offer ADN programs.
Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN)
There are currently more than 674 accredited nursing programs that offer a four-year course of study culminating in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.
RN Diploma Program
Also referred to as a "hospital diploma," these specialized programs last about three years, with a strong focus on core studies, intensive nursing classes, and clinical training and internships. Until about a decade ago, most RNs in the U.S. were initially educated in one of these diploma programs.
Although requirements vary from state to state, licensed graduates of any of these three programs qualify, generally speaking, for entry-level positions as staff nurses. In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, once the student has graduated from an approved nursing program, he or she must then pass the NCLEX-RN, a national licensing examination, in order to obtain a nursing license. Most states also have their own additional qualifying requirements beyond these national requirements. There are also numerous opportunities to move beyond these basic degree programs, as about 417 nursing schools currently offer master's degrees, and 93 offer doctoral degrees in nursing.
To find out more available certificates and degrees that can lead to a RN degree, visit the Nursing Degrees and certifications page.
Explore Career Opportunities in Registered Nursing
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2004, about 2.4 million people were employed as registered nurses, making this the single largest occupation in the healthcare field. Nearly 60 percent of RNs were employed in hospitals.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, employment of registered nurses is expected to grow "much faster than average for all occupations" during the upcoming decade. Due to the large number of nursing jobs that will be created, registered nurses are predicted to create the second largest number of new jobs among all occupations in the U.S. Job opportunities for registered nurses will be excellent, to the point that the industry is even now experiencing difficulty attracting and retaining an adequate number of RNs.
U.S. Department of Labor figures indicate that the median annual salary of registered nurses in 2004 was $52,330, with a range running from less than $37,300 to a high of more than $74,760. The highest median wages were paid by employment services ($63,170) and hospitals ($53,450).
Numerous specializations lie within the scope of the RN, including:
Other popular specializations for Registered Nurses include:
Emergency Room Nurse
Medical emergencies requiring immediate treatment can occur at any time. Emergency room nurses work with emergency room physicians and with paramedics to ensure timely care in crisis situations.
Hospice Nurse
Hospice nurses work for hospitals or services evaluating and providing care and emotional support to the terminally ill. They also provide grief counseling to critically ill patients and their families.
Rehabilitation Nurse
These registered nurses specialize in restoring physical functionality to patients who have suffered from some form of physical disability, due to illness, stroke, or accident.
School Nurse
Many elementary and secondary schools, and most colleges and universities, are required to have a registered nurse on site to provide immediate care to students suffering from illness or a medical emergency.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
