Evening star., 1947-04-14
Letters to The Star
Suggests Reason and Solution for
Nursing Shortage


Suggests Reason and Solution for
Nursing Shortage
To the Editor Of The Star:
Within the past few weeks two edi-
torials have appeared In The Star per-
tanning to the shortage of nurses and
the attempts being made to train prac-
tical nurses. To this latter I have nc
objection. What I wish to point out is
that there are almost 100000 regis
tered nurses who are not nursing Many
OF these women would return to the
profession if some Of the existing con-
ditions were altered.
Anne NJ. Goodrich. RN., former dean
OF nursing education at Yale, in an
article titled: "The Case of the Van
ishing Nurse" which appeared IN the
publication Medical Facts, has the fol-
lowing to say. have not quoted the
entire article but what appears is Just
as she wrote it.:
I'm headlines across the country, the
story has been told. Graduate nurses
by the thousands no longer want to
nurse.
I'm Hartford, Conn, the State police
department took on seven new MEM
bers for its women's division. Five of
them turned out to be rms changing
professions for s1,900-a-year Job.
I'm Chicago department store added
new saleswoman, nurse who for
merly had worked in it's medical de-
partment. She reported that the change
had brought her $50 per cent salary
increase and, for the first time, a life
of my own.'
Nurses Not Nursing.
I'm short, there are plenty OF regis
tered nurses, but good 100000 of them
are not nursing.
Physicians can expect the problem
to get worse before it gets better. The
National Nursing Councils Committee
on Careers In Nursing set goal Of 40
600 student-nurses for this years classes.
Yet early this fall 70 per cent of the
classes were still untitled. Most schools
have fallen far short of their quotas.
Can the trend be reversed? One
large city's department of hospitals
showed that it could, almost overnight.
The department published a new di-
rective guaranteeing nurses . starting
salary of $2,400 year with two meals
day supplied. It called for a 40-hour.
f1ve-day week; Is days OF vacation,
seven holidays and IA days sick leave
year. Within six weeks the depart
ment added 48 rms to its staff.
Such wage scale is not within the
reach of every hospital or every physi-
clan employer. But no campaign to
avert complete nursing collapse can
neglect drastic increases in nurses pay.
The average staff nurse working in a
hospital receives (according to the Ma
tional Nursing CounciD $3.50 a year
plus maintenance and without any re-
tirement benefits. That figure alone is
reason enough for thousands OF rms
to try something else.
More Than Pay Involved.
'But more than higher pay is needed
to turn the tide. An abridged version
of the nurses work week seems in order.
The prevailing 48-hour week does little
to gain recruits. In fact, it seriously
curbs enrolment Of student-nurses
once they comprehend that an eight
hour day can easily become IL hours Of
confinement to the hospital because of
split hours
"The specter of old-age insecurity
steers others away from the profess
sion. Hospitals, most of the nonprofit
institutions, rarely provide nurse en-
ployes with any sort of retirement bene-
fits"
Actually the nursing profession is in
much the same state as the teaching
profession, and for very similar rea-
sons. am an R.N. who no longer looks
to nursing to make her living.
have New England type of con-
science. 1t does not prick me because
I have deserted the field for which I
am so well prepared and in which I
have labored for a decade. AS the
British say, II have had it." Those
years, those awful years Of my youth
when I was so pathetically ambitious
and eager to help those mental pa
tients! And those few RMS who la
bored in that same field, as forgotten |
and bereft as those whom we pro-
tected!
Let us have trained practical nurses,
yes. But is it not shortsighted to over
look the thousands of women who
might return?