Nursing Shortage

I just finished another weekend of work at the hospital, and I am SO exhausted. The nurse in the picture above looks like me, and all the other nurse on our floor. We are always short staffed, and always overworked. It is not an uncommon occurrence to come across a co-worker who is crying, or who is very upset, or who just looks plain tired.

We obviously love our job, otherwise, why would we still be there? However, my fear is the safety of our patients. In a few hours time we may have discharged 2 patients, admitted one patient, administered 60 medications to 4 different people, done 5 physical assessments, taken orders from 3 different physicians, taken report on 1 patient getting back from a procedure, answered 4 call lights, ordered meals for 3 people, helped 2 people to the bathroom (or cleaned them up because we were too late), given 2 baths, changed 1 wound dressing, checked 3 IV pumps that were alarming, talked with 2 families, reviewed everyones morning lab and test results, and probably have charted nothing...whew! This is probably not even everything!

Here is the latest statistic on the nursing shortage from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing website:

"The shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the U.S. could reach as high as 500,000 by 2025 according to a report released by Dr. Peter Buerhaus and colleagues in March 2008. The report, titled The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends and Implications, found that the demand for RNs is expected to grow by 2% to 3% each year."

To see the entire nursing shortage fact sheet, go to :
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media/FactSheets/
NursingShortage.htm

At times like this where unemployment is high, and there are many getting laid off, I feel bad that I complain about my job. I should be thanking God for my job and its security.

I also think I should go recruit all of these unemployed people to nursing!