Disturbing statistic for nurses and the public.
I recently read an article from the president of the Georgia Nurses Association. In it she stated that 50% of new grads will leave the nursing profession within two years of graduating. I was shocked but not suprised. Back in 1992 when I graduated from nursing school I had read an article in a nursing journal that stated the the average nurse's career last only about 7 years. After working as an RN for 15 years I'm making the move out of the profession. Not because I hate the job but because the job has become overwhelming, unfulfilling and down right dangerous. I worked in a very busy ER and saw our patient to nurse ratio more than double in the time that I worked there. I saw good nurses and doctors leave to be replaced by less qualified and less dedicated people. I saw the hospital I worked at go from a quality healthcare facility to a corporate oriented business where profits and cutting corners take priority over quality healthcare and a safe working environment. Although I was never sued I was deposed 3 times to testify in law suits involving other nurses and doctors. I saw a good friend and excellent nurse have her life destroyed when she was sued and accused in the death of a 13 year old boy. This is the realities of nursing today and it is only going to get worse. New nurses leaving the profession after only two years, the exodus of experienced nurses leaving and an aging patient population all spell very troubling times for American Healthcare. The time will come when the people delivering healthcare at the bedside will not be nurses. What we will see will be lesser educated (and lesser qualified) ancillary staff doing the task that nurses need to be doing. They will work under the "supervision" of a nurse who may be responsible for the actions of a whole floor of ancillary staff. The problem is that not only are lesser educated staff, less qualified to perform the task assigned to them, but these people usually lack the commitment and work ethic that you find in nurses.
It will be the task of the nurses that remain to solve the problems before them. Don't depend on the hospitals to solve them for you, hospitals have caused the nursing shortage by turning the working environment for nurses into what it is today. Their concern is squeezing out of each nurse everything they can. The answer of hospital administration to the nursing shortage is to put more responsibility and work on the shoulders of the nurses that are left. This only frustrates nurses more and more and the attrition rate continues to increase.
I'm working my last job as a nurse right now. I have a temporary assignment as a resource nurse to support a local hospital's conversion over to a new software program. Of course this program eliminates the job of the unit secretary, putting the responsibilities of ordering labs, radiology test and everything else on the backs of nurses.