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Nurses and Case Managers Need to Mobilize

CathyCathyIn 2007, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that more than 42,000 qualified nursing school applicants were turned away at nursing schools in 2006, compared with less than 5,000 in 2002. The reason cited was that nursing schools have a shortage of faculty.

In its June 2009 Fact Sheet, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported that by 2025, the shortage for registered nurses was expected to grow to 260,000.  This shortage is expected to continue even though the Department of Labor statistics noted that in February of 2009, the healthcare sector (including nurses) added 27,000 jobs while other industries had cut over 680,000 jobs.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Once again, we see the nation not taking the role of  nurses, and I include case managers in this category, seriously enough. Even the schools of nursing have failed to recognize the greater, not lesser, need for nurses and managers, as evidenced in their failure to cultivate faculty for nursing curriculum. Do you think that a contributing factor might be that the salaries for these faculty members, when compared to the required educational credentials, are far less than they would receive in non-academic settings?

The so-called shortage also doesn’t match another reality which is that younger nursing grads are unable to find jobs largely because more senior nurses are going from part-time to full-time and/or delaying their retirement because of the current economy. We are also hearing that experienced nurses, including case managers, are finding it difficult to get a position as well. 

I think nurses, case managers and nurse educators need to strengthen their voice, mobilize and become more active in advocating for their profession. 

 

What say you?

 

 

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Mary Ann Purnell
Posts: 2
Comment
nursing shortage
Reply #2 on : Tue August 30, 2011, 09:10:20
I agree with your comments that academia is short sighted with salaries. A minimum of a Masters degree is required and the cost of obtaining the degree far exceeds what academia is prepared to pay for qualified nursing instructors. I asked a nursing instuctor once how much they got paid and it was $30,000!! Most grads get much more than that. A good waitress can make more $$ than that. My comment about new nurses not being able to get work I feel is due to the fact that many nursing schools are not graduating clincially sound nurses. (Yes older nurses are staying but the other side is the fact that new grads take much more time to mentor clincially and with our cutlure so litigious..) Less and less time is spent in clincial practice and more with "academia" the new grads want to be in charge and not work and the hospitals do not want to "nurse" them along. Women unfortunately eat their young. WHen I did practice in a hospital I loved the students but I do remember when I was back in school most of the RNs were extremely unkind to students. The lack of clincial experience is harming our profession. I am showing my age but the best nurses (in my opinion) are the 3 year diploma nurses because they lived and breathed and staffed the hospitals.(no I am not a diploma RN) Then lawyers came on the scene and everything changed. With more options open to women and careers that offer much more $$ and flexibility attracting nurses is going to become more difficult. I would love to go back to school to obtain my advanced degree and teach clincial nursing but the numbers just do not add up especially now in this economy.
Jackie Perkins
Posts: 2
Comment
Nursing shortage & Case management
Reply #1 on : Wed February 02, 2011, 12:20:38
Returning to school at age 55 is going to be a struggle for me, but I find it is absolutely necessary. After putting my field case management firm on hold due to family constraints, I entered the insurance industry of CM. As senior CM we are going to have to train our own, because the current hospital and insurance industry is making them accountable to computers, not to the patients. Senior CM need to get together to train these nurses for the field, which is where we need to be, in the trenches working directly with out patients not on phones, coordinating insurance coverage. Nursing has been very rewarding for me and CM has allowed me to develop as a person, business owner and allowed me the ability to provide my patients/members/clients with a high level of quality and coordination, while remaining their advocate. I feel I owe it to educate the next generation to prepare them for the future. Let's work together as a cohesive group to prepare the next generation.