Nursing Shortages Hits North Shore Hospitals
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2002–With the baby boomer generation coming of age and fewer younger people choosing careers in nursing, the nation faces a shortage in the industry that could spell trouble for patients seeking hospital care.
“The nation is facing an unprecedented shortage,” and it’s having a direct impact on patients’ care, said Barbara Blakeney, president of the American Nurses Association.
Blakeney was one of four panelists who spoke at a briefing Thursday by the Alliance for Health Reform. The briefing addressed the nation’s nursing shortage problem, the seriousness of the situation and some possible solutions.
According to the 1990 census, there were 77 million American boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, compared with the 11-year bust of 44 million Generation Xers who followed, meaning that a significant decrease will occur in entry-level workers.
In the nursing industry, this means an aging workforce with more demands and fewer workers, said Edward O’Neil, professor of family and community medicine and dental public health at the University of California, San Francisco. “There will never be enough nurses to take care of the baby boomer generation as it ages.”
Shortages cause ambulance diversions, canceled elective surgeries and overworked nurses, Blakeney said. “There is an increase in stress for nurses and there’s low job satisfaction.”
“You need to know that when nurses are overworked, when there are not enough nurses on the floor, bad things happen,” she said. “An exhausted, tired nurse will miss subtle symptoms.”
Nursing shortages cause 25 percent of all hospital deaths and other serious conditions, she said. If the patient is on a ventilator, that number spikes to 50 percent.
Declining enrollments in nursing programs that lead to baccalaureate degrees, which are needed to work at a hospital, are also a factor in the shortage.
Because women have to overcome fewer barriers in other professions, they are opting for higher paying, more satisfying jobs than those y the nursing industry offers, O’Neil said.
Many hospitals are working to combat this problem.
“The new generation is looking for a more balanced workplace,” said Janice Bishop, vice president of patient services at Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester. The hospital focuses on “turning the environment around. Our philosophy is of being very nurturing to our young.”
The hospital offers mentoring programs, continuing education and internships with area colleges and universities.
“We try to encourage nurses within our system to stay within our system,” Bishop said.
The hospital’s “proactive” attitude has helped it maintain a stable workforce, she said, noting that every floor, except for critical care, is staffed to full capacity. “Critical nurses are difficult to recruit,” she said. It’s a “high-intensity level of work,” the stress level is high and it’s a specialty field, she said. She added that nurses are retiring, which also makes it more difficult to fill the spots.
But the hospital is currently recruiting for critical care, Bishop said. It offers a critical training program for Addison nurses at Beverly Hospital.
Saints Memorial Medical Center in Lowell offers four scholarships for students but says that it’s feeling the crunch, said Thom Clark, the hospital’s president.
Three months ago the hospital employed 10 to 12 travel or agency nurses, or nurses not permanently hired by the hospital, and now it’s seven, he said.
“We admit the number of patients that our staff can take care of,” he said. The hospital determines that number during every shift change, which happens three times a day.
Nurses in the North Shore area make about $21 to $33 an hour, Clark said. “The salary structure and cost of living is just not up to par.”
The economics and the working conditions need to change, he said. Nurses are under a lot of stress, such as possible medication errors and documentation. “Nurses step onto the floor and work very, very hard for eight hours.”
Published in The Salem News, in Massachusetts.
