PMID: 15647661

Issn Print: 0002-0443

Publication Date: 2005/01/01


Print

Employment Conditions at the Bedside: A Cause of and Solution to the RN Shortage

Lynn Y. Unruh

    loading  Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid

Excerpt

Policy responses to the nursing shortage have focused primarily on improving the supply of professional nurses, especially the recruitment and retention of registered nurses (RNs). Policy measures include expanding educational opportunities, improving the image of nursing, and developing employment incentives to retain nurses and draw individuals into nursing.1–5
Yet, what if these efforts hit a brick wall of continuing difficult employment conditions? What happens when the increased number of RN novices begin work at the hospital, nursing home, or other patient care areas only to discover just how hard bedside nursing really is? And how long will the veteran nurses continue to work under difficult conditions? Finally, how many individuals will completely avoid the career of bedside nursing because it has a reputation of being too stressful?
In this policy brief, I present evidence that one of the most significant issues of the nursing shortage is that difficult employment conditions make bedside nursing unattractive compared to other professions and other nursing occupations. Unstable demand, difficult working conditions, and low wages are keeping individuals away and driving them from bedside nursing. I present policy measures for improvement.
    loading  Loading Related Articles