Last week, The Courant stated that by the year 2010, Connecticut will have 11,000 too few nurses. I assume that means 11,000 too few nurses who would be giving direct patient care.
UConn's board of trustees approved a proposal to help alleviate this nursing shortage ("hemorrhage" is more like it) by adding a master's entry-level program for nursing at two of its branches, graduating 64 new master's prepared nurses each year. Candidates need only a bachelor's degree in any major to be considered. There are two major flaws to this proposal. First, the obvious: 64 vs. 11,000 ... still hemorrhaging! Second, master's prepared nurses typically do not provide direct patient care.
During the last couple of decades, nursing became more focused on credentials and less focused on the patient. Nursing education itself became more academic oriented and less clinical or patient oriented.
All hospital-based schools of nursing closed; LPN's and nurse's aides lost their hospital jobs. We threw away our caps and white uniforms (except on TV), leaving a guessing game of who's who in the scrubs.
Hospitals initiated programs called "nursing ladders" where nurses could distinguish themselves. Individual portfolios were created to document meetings attended, committees joined and classes taken. The more non-nursing tasks documented, the further up the ladder you "climbed." Accordingly, your wages increased. Ironically, the further up the ladder you went, the further from direct patient care you were. There is no denying the benefits of continuing education. However, in our quest to be treated as professionals, we created an environment where a new generation of nurses run as fast as they can from direct patient care.
Now, they say the bigger problem is not enough teachers to teach nursing. My guess is the 64 who received their master's in nursing will teach. They have the right credentials. My question is, how will they teach without any experience? Here is my solution. Let nurses teach based on their years of experience, not just credentials. The nurses with 15- to 20-plus years of bedside experience, whose backs are killing them, may not want to write for nursing journals, but they do know how to take care of patients. So, who better to teach? Second, increase compensation to nurses who give direct patient care, twofold. Make good old-fashioned bedside nursing desirable to the next generation of nurses. Perhaps then, even more men will join us. Last, for the nurses calling the shots, but not giving the shots, build in a few clinical hours into their schedules. (Doctors do!) We must remove the focus of this hemorrhaging profession away from the credentialing scorecard that it's become, and return it back to the patient, where it belongs.
Kate Dunn Scott, RN, Portland
Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant
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