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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-07-10, Page 6THE EDITOR,The provincial, national andinternational nursing shortagesare reaching critical levels.Researchers are describing the current shortage as “the greatest problem facing nursing human resources … an untenable crisis (that) … demands immediate action”. However, although researchers have realized a number of solutions, very few organizations (like provincial and federal governments, employers, nursing unions and professional organizations, and nursing educators) have acted to address the factors aggravating the shortage. Since the health care cutbacks and restructuring of the 1990s, registered nurses (RNs) and registered practical nurses (RPNs) have been struggling with increasingly heavy workloads, limited education and training, disproportionate overtime, poor professional identities, erratic and inflexible scheduling, health, safety, and security concerns, limitations on scopes of practice, inadequate aid from management, poor relations with physicians and other allied health professionals, mediocre human resource planning, and few opportunities for leadership and professional development. As a result, Canada faces a projected shortage of 78,000 RNs by 2001 and 113,000 RNs by 2016, according to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA). What’s worse, is that within the next nine years, 50 per cent of employed nurses will be of retirement age (the average age of an RN in Canada was 43.7 years in 2001), while at the same time, annual graduation levels from Canadian nursing programs is insufficient, at only one third of the estimated 18,000 new nurses needed annually to meet the anticipated requirements. As of 2001, the current nursing shortfall has leftCanada with only 74.3 RNsfor every 10,000 Canadians,and as the populationcontinues to grow exponentially, and as our lifespan continues to increase resulting in a large population of elderly people living with acute and chronic illnesses, the problem will only continue to escalate. Although the height of the nursing shortage has not yet been realized, the effects are already being felt. Research has shown that nurses who work more than 12.5 hours at a time are three times more likely to make mistakes, and that errors increase even more when nurses work overtime or when they work more than 40 hours a week. The nursing shortage is already resulting in increased incidences of infection, falls, medication errors, increased waiting time for medical procedures, and needless patient deaths, according to the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. However, how can one blame our youth or older nurses for choosing to opt for alternate professions or for retiring early? Who wants to work in a profession that results in stress, discontent and burn out? If nurses and the public continue to view the working conditions of nurses as stagnant, nurses will continue to walk away, leaving their colleagues in ever- worsening conditions, and the public will continue to avoid nursing as a profession, which will continue to put the health and wellbeing of the Canadian public in jeopardy. Nurses work in a variety of settings; in nursing homes, retirement homes, hospitals, medical clinics, doctor’s offices, health units, the community, workplaces, schools, churches, research facilities, etc. They work as front line nurses, as managers, researchers, educators, advisors, etc. The opportunities for nurses areendless.As a result, I personally feelthat the most severe effects ofthe nursing shortage are being felt and will continue to be felt in the community-nursing sector. Community nurses are both generalists, in that they are expected to practise a wide array of nursing skills, and specialists, in that they are to be expert clinicians in those skills. Community nurses provide simple and complex wound care, administer medications, initiate, maintain, and discontinue peripheral IVs, maintain and access central lines, administer and disconnect chemotherapy, assist with oxygen therapy, provide tracheostomy care, perform chest physiotherapy, manage feeding tubes and naso-gastric tubes, provide ostomy care, care for patients in traction, or with casts and splints, provide preoperative and postoperative care, care for those who are dying, care for urethral and suprapubic catheters, care for clients with pain pumps, VAC dressings, insulin pumps, and assist with peritoneal dialysis. Community nurses remove stitches and staples, manage drainage tubes, manage patients with diabetes, stroke, heart attack, COPD, and with new hips and knees. Even though community nurses are highly adaptable to changing situations, and highly skilled, they are paid up to $10 less an hour for the same or even more advanced care than that provided by their nursinghome and hospitalcounterparts.This is the rationale, in myopinion, of why the nursing shortage is going to affect the community more severely. With a dwindling number of nurses and an ever-expanding number of available positions, who would want to be responsible for up to 50 different people at a time, 24 hours a day, up to seven days a week, with such an array of care requirements, with such a substantial pay disparity? Me, that is who, a nurse dedicated to care in the community. However, such nurses are few and far between. Can you imagine our current health care system with few or no community nurses, for example? Emergency room wait times will explode, because clients who once received their wound care, or intravenous therapy at home, will be left no choice but to visit the emergency room, once, twice, three times a day to obtain such care. It will become even more difficult to get an appointment with your family doctor, because patients who need staples removed, wounds dressed, or assistance with their catheters will be crowding the waiting room. Those who wish to die in the home, with their loved ones surrounding them will be forced to die in hospital, perpetuating the backlog of chronic care beds, because there are no nurses available in the community to take care ofthem. Those in hospital withacute health issues, forexample a recent heart attackor stroke, will be sent home sooner and sooner to free up beds, and those in chronic care will be forced into retirement homes and nursing homes, well into the limited space left in such facilities anyway. Hip, knee, cataract, and other surgery wait times will become longer and longer, as there will be no nurses in the community to take care of the patients once they are discharged. Children requiring tube feedings, will no longer be able to go to school, as there will be no nurse available to visit the school to administer their feed. As a result, such children will have to stay at home, as will one of their parents, to care for them during the day. People who work, who have wounds, for example, will have to leave work early tovisit doctor’s offices oremergency rooms to have theirwounds dressed. No nurse willbe available to meet them at work or before or after work to change their dressing. So what can we as the public do to help put the nursing shortage at the top of the healthcare agenda? It is time that we take our heads out of the sand and realize the severity of the situation. Nurses are the foundation of our publicly-funded healthcare system. Without them, the system will collapse and chaos will ensue. The public needs to come together and demand that municipal, provincial and federal governments, nursing employers, nursing unions and professional organizations, and nursing educators take the required action to remedy the current nursing shortage now. Sincerely, Crystal McCallum, RN. PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2008.Letter to the editorNursing shortage an ‘untenable crisis’ THE EDITOR, Morgentaler receiving the Order of Canada has rekindled the abortion debate. And it brings an interesting question to mind. Pro-choicers tell us a woman has the right to do whatever she wants with “her body”. So, when a woman learns she’s pregnant, she has the right to abort the baby (lump of flesh, cluster of cells). It’s her body. Now suppose that same woman, at the same moment, decides to keep the baby (lump, cluster)? Will she then light a cigarette and pour a martini? Many women who smoke and drink choose to abstain during pregnancy. Why? Isn't it still “her body”? Physically, nothing has changed. It’s a healthy choice, but so it was before pregnancy. What’s changed? Is the lump of flesh now worthy of consideration, and if so, why was it not worthy of consideration while choosing abortion? Remember, same woman, same circumstances, different decision. Does the woman’s decision transform the lump into a person in her esteem? If so, that’s miraculous because it gives woman sole power to create human life. Without man. Without God. Only Mom can decide if it’s human or not. Yes, a woman can do whatever she wants to her body. Abuse it all she wants. But in pregnancy, it’s not just “her body” anymore. Sincerely, Thomas Bailey. Letter to the editor Writer shares abortion views Agricultural producers enrolled in production insurance who were unable to seed commercial crops in the spring of 2008 due to flood-damaged land may be eligible for fi nancial assistance under the Cover Crop Protection Program (CCPP). Eligible producers can receive $15 per acre to restore and protect wet cropland. Producers are required to contact the CCPP before July 15 if they have 10 or more acres of unseeded land due to flooding or excessive moisture. Call: 1-800-667-8567 Visit: www.agr.gc.ca/ccpp Growing Forward A vision for a profitable, innovative, competitive, market-oriented agriculture, agri-foods and agri-based products industry. Cover Crop Protection Program THE EDITOR, The Alzheimer Society of Huron County sincerely thanks our wonderful and dedicated volunteers and the support of the residents of Blyth during our annual tag days held in May. Volunteers collected $180 and county-wide, $7356.11 was raised to help support local programs and to provide Help for Today and Hope for Tomorrow for those affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Cathy Ritsema Executive Director. Letter says thank you Letters to the editor are a forum for public opinion and comment. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.