The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) predicts a shortage of 400,000 nurses by 2020. (Agovino, 2001) Other agencies which have been watching this trend foresees no relief to the nursing shortage given increasing demand, an aging workforce, and inadequate supply, according to a report released today by Fitch Ratings
"If we agree that there is a right to healthcare, then we are also agreeing that someone must provide these rights," he said, noting that the right to healthcare is different than some other constitutional rights because it incurs a monetary cost on society. (Anand, 2000) Last year, in a survey of medical- school faculty and administrators published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 57% said they favored a single-payer universal healthcare system over either fee-for-service or managed care
"Our healthcare system is on life support and it is fading fast," said British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell recently. (Brown, 2002) The premiers of Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia say ballooning costs and long delays for some procedures can only be solved by private initiatives
In 2002, costs were expected to rise an additional 12.7% or more (Becker, 2002)
He suggested that descriptions of gender "depend upon an array of theoretical assumptions and not upon some guarantee of correspondence to a 'real' world independent of our conversations about it." Thus, nursing has been socially constructed as an occupation requiring gender traits that are associated with "feminine," regardless of the sex of its individual members (Chinn, 1999)
In 2001, UW Hospital had 2,600 mandatory overtime shifts for 1,100 nurses, which is close to 2 1/2 shifts for every nurse. (Conroy, 2001) As a result, the thorny subject of diverting of patients from the hospital to other care facilities came at a time when the UW were engaged in a bitter contract negotiation with the nurses union
As a result, nursing education programs are attracting fewer students. Admission levels are now lower than they have been in decades (Fletcher, 2000)
Indeed, more and more doctors are now willing to work in coalitions where they learn from and fight for the needs of those whom they have traditionally considered inferiors or adversaries. (Gordon, 2000) As a result, when President Clinton ascended the podium, and declared that universal healthcare is a right which Americans shared, no one questioned where the money would come from to fund such a huge expansion of the federal bureaucracy
" Due to these cultural barriers, men were not accepted readily in nursing schools for many years (MacPhail, 1996). Interestingly, in 1888, Darius Odgen Mills established the first male nursing school in America (Halloran & Welton, 1994), based at Bellevue Hospital in New York City
Patients and doctors alike realize the value of the services nurses provide. After Florence Nightingale revolutionized the profession in the 1850's, deaths in hospitals dropped dramatically, from 420 per 1000 to 22 per 1000 (Kurzen, 1997)
Personal experience may bring research and increase the body of knowledge. Since nurses have started to do research, they have begun to build their own body of knowledge, instead of borrowing that knowledge from others (Leddy, 1998)
A nurse featured in the article "The Quality of Mercy" said that she did not "mind her work- despite the high tech gear and the life-and-death responsibility- requires services as humble as Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet" (Wolkomir, 1998). Patient care studies detail treatment and therapies provided by nurses for treatment of various illnesses (Livesay, 1998)
Department of Health and Human Services in 1992, 1996 and 2000, is the latest to highlight the nationwide nursing shortage. (Loviglio, 2002) If it were possible to put aside social attitudes toward man and women and their roles in the work place, we could see that general differences in attitudes, temperaments and approaches to care do exist between men and women
For this reason, occupations requiring these qualities have been considered exclusively suited to women, and labeled "women's work." Due to these cultural barriers, men were not accepted readily in nursing schools for many years (MacPhail, 1996)
In terms of the art of nursing, "Caring (for the patient) is a mutual exchange in which both parties relate on the level of their shared humanness." (Montgomery, 1993) While the patient is looking to the nurse for caring reassurance as (s)he receives medical treatment, the nurse is also assessing the patients emotional well-being, and in tern giving out of his or her emotional resources to help the patient
Andrew Campbell, a veteran nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit, said: "The conditions just continue to get worse." (Mosiman, 2001) The first report to spot the negative trend predicted in 1997 that Canada would be short at least 69,000 nurses by 2011
Meleis (1997) states that the nurses uses this knowledge by promoting health, by helping to care for the patient, by helping the patient learn to care for themselves, and by helping empower the client, teaching them to use available resources. Philips (2000) discusses Rogers' idea that "nursing science is the prerequisite to the process of nursing" (Philips, 2000)
"The money is much better now" Lutheran General's Nilsson said. (Rackl, 2002) Male Nursing Roles Historically nursing has been considered a single-sex occupation, identified as a role that is inherently natural to the female gender
During the recent SARS outbreak in Toronto, the shortage of nurses in our northern neighbor exacerbated the crisis. (Silas, 2003) When hospital beds fill, and the conditions are life threatening, if the hospital, or in the current climate, the entire North American continent, cannot meet the demand with trained professionals, the results can affect the entire population
The 16-year RN veteran says he has learned to respect patients, rights and not to take their preferences personally. (Townsel, 1996) For those men who have made the transition into the female dominated world of nursing, they are often able to build compassionate tendencies because of their own experiences