They also undergo therapies that are much more intensive and complex. The general hospital has almost become one gigantic intensive care unit where patients need more skilled nursing care, not less. All this is leading to a nurse-patient crunch. Over the next two decades, the RN workforce is projected to decline 20 percent below what will be needed, according to recent reports in Nursing Economics and the Journal of the American Medical Association. In some hospitals, nurses are already feeling the crunch.
Nurses are angry, burned out.
It's high stress, high physical labor, high danger. The last 10 years have seen a major overhaul of the nation's hospitals. Many are struggling to survive. Lower reimbursement rates from government health programs and managed care plans have put the squeeze on medical facilities, large and small. In an effort to trim costs, many hospitals have cut nursing staffs and replaced RNs with less-trained nurses and aides.