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Nursing
Shortage Reaching Crisis Proportions
In mid-May, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
heard testimony from a variety of witnesses attesting to the fact that
the shortage of nurses and home health aides is rapidly reaching the crisis
level and threatening the quality of patient care. According to Bill Scanlon
of the Government Accounting Office, the primary factors contributing
to the shortage are: the aging of the current nurse workforce; fewer nurses
and aides in the training "pipeline" due to the availability of better
paying, less stressful jobs; and job dissatisfaction that is prompting
nurses to leave the profession and discourage others from joining.
Here are excerpts from some of the testimony presented.
"The
public's demand for the highest quality patient care at the lowest
possible cost has come face-to-face with the tightest labor market
in the past 30 years. For example, government predictions state
that the nation will need 1.7 million nurses by 2020. But just
more than 600,000 will be available, making up 35% of the nurses
that will be needed to care for the people of this nation."
-
Sister Mary Roch Rocklage, American Hospital Association
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"There
will be no solving today's nursing shortage without improving
the overall working conditions of nurses. We must challenge the
notion that the principal problem is an inadequate supply of nurses
and make sure we pay sufficient attention to the poor working
conditions that drive nurses out of the hospital setting."
-
Gerald Shea ALF-CIO
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"Direct-care
jobs [for example, home health aides] have always been of such
poor quality that many paraprofessional workers have long endured
poverty-level wages, part-time hours, and no benefits-relegated
to the bottom rung of respect within the health-care workforce
hierarchy. Now, however, the shortages and high turnover are forcing
a downward cycle of deteriorating job quality. Those who do show
up are forced to work 'short' or able to offer only 'drive-by
home care' as they rush from one home across town to another.
[The nation must start treating its paraprofessional workforce]
as the scare resource that it is."
-
Michael Elsas, Cooperative Home Care Associates
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From
the May 17 article, "Nursing Shortage Said to Be Reaching Crisis Stage,"
on Medscape.com
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