Another Reason Not To Get Sick

Teri Mills is a longtime Democracy For America community member. Her guest column on health care appears on Blog for America on Fridays and she blogs at nationalnurse.blogspot.com.

Besides feeling lousy, and not being able to afford a visit to your health care provider or pay for the drugs they prescribe, here is one more reason not to get sick. America is facing a severe shortage of nurses that is only going to get worse. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics found more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2012. There is already a shortage of registered nurses in 30 states, including California. Another statistic to pay attention to is the number of first-time, U.S. educated nursing school graduates who sat for their licensing exam decreased by 10% from 1995-2004. Doctors and nurses are feeling the effects of the shortage, and if you have been recently hospitalized, you may have noticed the only time you saw a nurse was when you needed a medication or a treatment.

Members of Congress are looking at solutions and have recently introduced the Nurse Education, Expansion and Development Act Nurse Education, Expansion and Development (NEED) Act (H.R. 3569) to hire new or retain existing faculty, purchase educational resources, recruit students, and support transition into the faculty role. In August 2002, the President also signed the Nurse Reinvestment Act, a law that includes scholarship money for new students, a faculty loan cancellation provision, and funds for public service announcements to attract others into nursing careers. Johnson and Johnson's Campaign for Nursing's Future, launched a multimedia initiative to promote careers in nursing that includes paid television commercials, a recruitment video, a Web site, brochures, and other visuals. Top leaders from nineteen national nursing organizations also addressed the nursing shortage in an action plan called Nursing's Agenda for the Future Nursing's Agenda for the Future in April 2002.

Registered nurses have also been asked what solutions they have for the shortage. The majority of those surveyed say that the image of nursing as well as the working environment needs to be improved. This includes the number of patients assigned to each nurse. A 2005 study concurs with the nurses and even finds that improving nurse-to-patient staffing rations to 1:4 in general medical and surgical settings provide the best cost-effective patient safety intervention.

We can do our part too in helping to ebb the shortage by encouraging our children to choose nursing as their career. After all, nursing is the most trusted, respected and honored profession in America. Standing together in support for a National Nurse would also do wonders in putting the nursing profession front and center to educate the nation about ways to stay healthy and at the same time improve the image of nursing.

—Teri Mills, RN, MS, ANP
Democracy for Oregon

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