ONE MILLION NURSES?

Who’ll Take Care of Me?

Recently in the news it was stated that the US will need one million additional nurses to meet the demands of the future. The immediate discussions that followed stated that university and college based nursing education programs were understaffed due to “low wages.” In other words, higher education was not prepared to respond to the vacancy demands.
A second idea was that America will “import” nurses from foreign countries, especially the Philippines, to offset the need. Foreign trained nurses would need to pass a standardized RN test and speak English to qualify. Unfortunately, this solution will create shortages in those countries when nurses leave for the US. A nurse may be the only healthcare available to a large number of people in poor, rural areas.
Looking at the university training issue, nursing students are much like the general population of college students meaning that less than 50 percent will graduate. Given the challenge of a nursing curriculum, many more students probably transfer to another discipline in order to stay in school.
Second, students that can muster through a tough nursing curriculum may go on for master’s degrees or move to other options that have higher wages, such as nurse practitioners or nurse anesthetists. Others go into business, schools or take faculty jobs.
The other variable that will be a factor is funding to pay for one million nurses. In a recent USA Today headline, Medicare debt accounts for every American household “contributing” nearly $250 thousand. That amount funds today’s medical needs not the future. Currently the national Medicare costs are $4.5 trillion and future costs are set to “soar.” It will be difficult for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to afford to fill all their vacancies.
Beyond the potential funding issues, the problem is the control of nursing education by universities and colleges. Needed are nurse assistants, licensed practical nurses and non-degree nurses to fill the vacancies. These are 1-2 year programs and accessible to a larger number of students. Universities are offering too much training for the everyday needs in a hospital. A person doesn’t need 5 years of higher education to perform daily living activities required by hospital patients.
For over 100 years, most large hospitals funded their own nurse training programs. Graduates who passed the license exam were hired by the hospital to fill vacancies; others went to other facilities. Today, these schools have been closed and students must now attend a college, university or career school. This limits the number of students that can attend due to class size, tuition and proximity to the school.
There is no simple answer and more money won’t solve the problem. Colleges and universities may have created the shortage but they won’t be the answer. Further, hospitals don’t have the human or financial resources to operate schools and create graduates to fill their vacancies.
Maybe communities need to train family members to take care of their older relatives. Helping people with everyday living activities won’t take much training. It may be an unpleasant thought that a person would take care of mom or dad, but it may be the practical answer.
Like so many of America’s social concerns and issues, communities are the answer. Expecting someone else to address the needs of our families just isn’t practical. We need to take responsibility.

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE