Corrections or additions?
This article by Michele Alperin was prepared for the October 25,
2000
edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Hiring Nurses In a Tight Market
New Jersey is facing a shortage of 14,000 registered
nurses by the year 2006, according to a forecasting model developed by
New Jersey Colleagues in Caring. “This shortage is a little different
than in the past, because it is related to the demographics of the
nurses themselves,” says Catherine Cardea, director of
professional practice and quality initiatives for the New Jersey
Hospital Association. “The average age of nurses is increasing, and
they are not being replaced with younger nurses coming out of nursing
schools.” Shortages are particularly evident in certain specialty
areas, like operating rooms and critical care.
Both outside economic forces and factors within the nursing
environment itself have come together to create this nursing shortage.
“The change in Medicare funding within the state has put many of the
health care agencies-both home health and hospitals-in dire straits,”
says Geri Dickson, project director of New Jersey Colleagues in
Caring. As a result, hospitals are unable to pay nurses adequately for
their services. To make things worse, the working environment of
nurses has deteriorated.
As the financial incentives in nursing have declined and the emotional
stresses have increased, women also have far wider opportunities for
employment, both within healthcare and outside. Cardea says, “In the
old days, women went into teaching or nursing. Now the sky is the
limit in terms of what women can go do.”
To provide data on supply and demand forces in this nursing shortage
as well as potential solutions, the New Jersey Hospital Association
and the New Jersey Colleagues in Caring are cosponsoring a conference
entitled, “Nursing Workforce Issues: Acting Now to Shape the Future,”
on Tuesday, October 31, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Both Cardea and Dickson
will be speaking at the conference, which takes place at the New
Jersey Hospital Association, 760 Alexander Road. The cost is $85. Call
609-275-4113 for information.
Because the economic factors affecting nursing are not likely to
change in the short run, many of the proposed solutions to the
shortage focus on improving working conditions in order to retain
current nurses, particularly in hospitals:
Create a more receptive work environment. Cardea explains,”You can’t necessarily afford to pay the most money, but you canafford to create an environment that people want to work in.” Forexample, the opportunity for regular staff meetings, where nurses canexpress their ideas on patient care, makes them feel like their ideasare important and valuable. To promote a range of improvements innurses’ working environment, the American Nurses Association hasestablished the magnet hospital program, which grants special statusto hospitals whose nursing departments promote the growth anddevelopment of nurses.Increase administrative and clinical support for nurses.Due to mergers and downsizing, support for floor nurses hasdiminished, both in terms of clinical nurse specialists and staffdevelopment nurses.Develop leadership programs for unit and middle managers.”Often a nurse is promoted,” says Dickson, “but does not have thenecessary leadership skills. Leadership training is important inretaining nurses. “Provide more flexible work schedules, moving beyondtraditional eight-hour shifts. Possibilities include creating six-hourshifts for nurses who want to be home for their children by 3 p.m. andpaying more to nurses who prefer to work nights and weekends.Create flexible staffing plans where health aides,L.P.N.’s, and R.N.’s work together to deliver patient care.Institute plans and provide resources to handle theincreasing violence seen in emergency rooms and hospitals.Reduce the impact of contagious diseases such as AIDSandhepatitis. Recent legislation requires hospitals to installneedle-lesssystems, so that nurses will not risk pricking their fingers with aneedle or IV containing contaminated blood.Reduce the chance for medical errors by institutingsystems to ensure that technology, like IV pumps, is workingcorrectly. “Increased technology that is not working increasesstress,” says Dickson.Environmental changes are likely to have the most immediateeffect on retention of current nurses. Another contributing factor tothe current shortage, however, is the decreasing enrollment in nursingschools.Dickson elaborates, “Nursing schools in New Jersey have reporteddeclines in entry-level graduates of 12 per cent from ’97 to ’98 and’98 to ’99.” Both to recruit new nurses and to retain existing ones,the industry is working on a marketing plan to improve the image ofnursing and to advertise changes in the working environment. For menand women considering the nursing profession, what matters, saysCardea, is “where the job is going to take you in terms of personaland financial growth.”Cardea earned her R.N. degree at the Thomas Jefferson UniversityHospital School of Nursing in 1970, her BSN. from Stockton StateCollege, and her master’s from LaSalle University. Dickson, currentlyan assistant professor at the Rutgers College of Nursing, earned herBSN (Bachelor of Science in nursing) at Alverno College in 1974, hermaster’s from Marquette University, and her PhD from the University ofWisconsin.Dickson suggests that changes in health policy also revolve aroundfinancial allocations that would support collaborative planning. Shewould like to see legislation to establish a collaborating center fornursing in New Jersey that will continue the work of Colleagues inCaring. “The center would help stop the cycle of too many and too fewnurses,” claims Dickson. It would monitor supply and demand to supportmaster planning in the state and would ensure sufficient nurses aswell as the “right type of nurse, with the right education,competency, and specialty.”Resolving the nursing shortage will require a multi-pronged attack atthe local, state, and national levels. Planners, administrators, andpolicy makers must resolve the inconsistencies between supply anddemand and improve the working environment of nurses as well as theirfinancial remuneration.— Michele AlperinPrevious StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
