One-third of the nurses is under the age of 30. There's a major shortage of nurses now at these hospitals, and the future isn't looking much better. Pamela Thompson, executive director of the American Organization of Executive Nurses, told UPI that while many of the problems cited by nurses in the survey are challenging the profession, other hospitals are giving nurses a greater voice in administrative decisions. There is a nursing shortage and this is a tough job.
Patients are sicker and there are increased demands on nurses, with fewer dollars to spend.
Almost half of U.S. nurses felt the quality of care in their hospital had deteriorated within the past year, and 52 percent said they had been verbally abused by patients or staff. California Hospital Association spokeswoman Jan Emerson told UPI that while the survey points out many of the problems facing nurses at hospitals around the country, the critical shortage of nurses is behind most of them. Thirty or forty years ago if a woman went to college she was going to become a teacher or a nurse. What we need to do is draw more students into nursing, and to do that we have to make changes. A survey of 700 nurses released last month by the American Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals found that half were considering leaving the profession due to understaffing as the number of patients and their severity of illness increases.