The Nursing Shortage

The Los Angeles Times has this feature on the nursing shortage. I find this pretty interesting mainly because of my family background. From a family of six, everyone other than my brother and I is, was, or soon will be part of the healthcare field, and even my brother sold medical devices for a while. The article make it sound like it is a wonderful time to be a nurse in terms of financial incentives. The problem is that the types of nurses that hospitals and patients seem to want are those who are not concerned so much with their own pay and career as with the care of patients. I think it is interesting that this is one of a few professions where we expect that the employee will not have his own best interest at heart (with primary educators being another example). One of my sisters is just beginning nursing school. While I know that noble causes are driving her along her way, I sure hope that she finds a way to take advantage of the strong bargaining position she will be in once she graduates.

No doubt this is heresy to my father who has to deal with the recruiting, hiring, and retention of nurses for his hospital system. I'm not sure what the answer is, and surely he could write far more eloquently on the subject than I. (How about it Dad? hospitaladmin.blogspot.com could be the next big forum for healthcare management discussions) One thing that strikes me as surely being the wrong answer to the problem is further legislation. The article vaguely refers to a California law mandating staffing ratios. Of course the law will never be changed even as advances in patient care techniques evolve. This will put hospitals in an even more tenuous position in the future as they strive to allocate resources and run their business.

Finally, I think that hidden in this story is a financial warning for those still young enough to save actively. If you live long enough to need long term care or some sort of intensive care, then you better have enough money saved to fund it privately. A nursing shortage really translates into a shortage of patient care. If you want the best care for yourself or your spouse you had better be prepared to hire it on your own rather than lying in a room in a hospital or nursing home waiting for a patient care specialist to check in on you every four to six hours. It's just another thing that folks my age and younger have to keep in mind knowing that social security will be gone by the time we get to that point.

Jonathan 4/21/2002 09:21:00 AM