Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Who cares?
Before I get started, may I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to my friend, co-author, monastery companion, funny woman, splendid cook, educator, Sheila. We are both 1949 babies, so for most of a year we share the same age. Today she is older and wiser (ha!) than me. I’ll catch up in about a month.
Jan has been in the hospital again, this time for an infection that required IV antibiotics. She is home now and not much the worse for wear. She saw a diabetic educator and a nutritionist while she was in and got straight A’s for being as advanced in her self-care as she is. They apparently were amazed at how she has learned to plan her meals, give her insulin, and generally adapt her routine to this new condition. She also told them she is married to a nurse, and perhaps that is why she is so advanced. I will take credit for walking this new path with her, even though I was bossy and loud sometimes as we progressed.
I did not spend too much time at the hospital because of work and caring for Mollie Dog, who does not appreciate being alone for hours at an end. Jan was doing well in the hospital so my visits were confined to a couple of hours a day. In those couple of hours I observed the people who were caring for her. I mostly saw RN’s, and a few Patient Techs. They were all pleasant and responsive to the call light. After a particular person would leave the room Jan would declare, “She’s good.” There was one nurse, relatively new, who was being shadowed by an experienced RN and Jan declared him to be too slow and too hesitant. I don’t think she had much faith in his abilities, which is never a comfortable feeling when you’re the one in the bed.
There seemed to be enough staff to go around, but I did notice that there were several empty rooms on the division. Since Jan has been in various hospitals quite a bit over the last few years, I have witnessed many an RN, practicing the art of nursing. Jan would tell her caregivers that I am a nurse, and I would always qualify it by saying that I’m a retired nurse, lest they think I was going to tell them how to do their job. I could no more do that than I could climb Mount Everest. Generally speaking, these nurses all seemed to enjoy what they were doing, something I think is critical to the care of vulnerable people.
But this morning I read an article about the nursing shortage. There is a definite trend to be seen as more than half of all current RN’s are over the age of 50. Maybe this means there are seasoned veterans practicing nursing, but in a few years they will all be retiring. There is concern that enough young people will not take up nursing as a career in order to fill the gap. In 2021, though, nursing schools turned away 91,000 qualified applicants due to a shortage of faculty and resources. COVID19 in 2020 and 2021 decimated the nursing workforce as nurses left the profession in droves.
In 2019, there were 4,948,914 active RN licenses in the US (National Council of State Boards of Nursing). Also counted were the number of licenses of Licensed Practical Nurses – 996,154. The 2020 report from the National Council states that, “The proportion of nurses reporting a plan to retire from nursing over the next five years is on the rise, so the healthcare system needs to be prepared for large numbers of nurses leaving the profession in the near future.” Now we are in 2023, which to me counts as the “near future”. How bad is it today? One survey shows that 79% of nurses report that their units are inadequately staffed per a 2023 “State of Nursing” survey. This same survey reports that 91% of nurses surveyed believe that the nursing shortage is getting worse.
Well this is not where I wanted to end up, but facts are facts and all I can do is say that without enough nurses to go around I fear for the safety of patient care in our country. When life and death are in the balance, I want to be surrounded by people dedicated to the art and science of nursing. How about you?