[ OUR OPINION ]
NURSING crews that are understaffed have raised concerns about medical care across the country. Issues resulting from the shortage contributed to nurses' month-long strikes at three Hawaii hospitals that were settled last month. The Legislature would be foolish to meddle in those areas, but creation of a center to help recruit and keep nurses in Hawaii's hospitals could be useful. Hospitals and the nurses' union both see the need for such a center. Nursing shortage
demands strategy center
THE ISSUE The Legislature is considering a bill that would create a center to help recruit and keep nurses working in their field.
The shortage of full-time registered nurses nationwide has been estimated at 126,000, or 13 percent of the nation's nursing work force, according to a recent survey by the American Hospital Association. That is expected to increase to 30 percent, or 808,000, by 2020, as many nurses reach retirement and the aging baby-boom generation requires more health care. The severity of the shortage seems to vary from state to state.
One of the consequences of the shortage has been mandatory overtime, a major issue in the labor contract negotiations between the Queen's, St. Francis and Kuakini hospitals and the Hawaii Nurses Association. A few states have enacted limits on mandatory overtime, but the issue is best left on the negotiating table. In July, California will become the first state to require minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, but those also may be unrealistic because of the increasing shortage of nurses.
Low pay, poor working conditions and low enrollments in nursing schools are blamed mostly for the nationwide shortage. However, while the average salary for a full-time registered nurse is $46,782 nationally, salaries for RNs in Hawaii start at nearly that much and go as high as $87,000. A national nurses union survey found that half the RNs considering leaving the profession cited inadequate staffing, heavy workloads and mandatory overtime as chief reasons for their dissatisfaction.
Part of the cause of the shortage is related to changing societal norms, which once dictated that women work as teachers or nurses. Many women who might have chosen nursing are now doctors, but men have not been drawn into nursing in large numbers.
Congress passed a law last summer providing scholarships to nursing students willing to work for at least two years at a health-care facility with a "critical nursing shortage." The bill also provides loans for graduate-level nursing degrees to address a shortage of nursing school instructors.
A bill before the Legislature would establish a center for nursing at the University of Hawaii to conduct research on how Hawaii could address the shortage. Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia have established similar centers in recent years, wisely adopting a plan to cope with the future.
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