The nursing shortage over? A thing of the past? Well, considering that we have had a chronic nursing shortage over the past five decades, that would be a major announcement. But an interesting article appeared in a Cincinnati newspaper on September 30, 2004, indicating that hospital vacancies have dropped from 19% to 9% in about a year’s time. That is a major difference, and being the skeptic that I am, my first reaction was, “What’s the catch?”

These numbers came from a report issued by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. A spokesperson from the council announced that the change “reflects numerous recruitment and retention efforts at hospitals and nursing schools, from hospitals paying for scholarships and hiring bonuses to area tech schools promoting health careers.”

Beneath that paragraph was a one liner which quickly mentioned that people “living in a tough economy” were seeking out “relatively” well paying health care jobs.

Now let’s do a quick translation. Nursing has always fared well during times of economic recession. It’s one of the few professions where it is almost always possible to find work of some type. When times are hard, nurses who might have otherwise left the field remain, waiting it out, chewing their fingernails, and biding their time until the economy picks up. And then they bolt.

People who have been downsized, rightsized, and outsourced out of jobs have also turned to health careers as a second start in life. Many really have no idea what a nurse actually does, but have seen these glitzy ads all over the place, telling them to try nursing ’cause it’s a lot of fun. Or that they can get to do so much. Or that they make a difference. And so on. All they see in ads are grinning faces, toothy smiles, people who are absolutely estatic that they can get to be a nurse.

Next, the recruitment bonuses. That’s an old ploy that hospitals have been doing since the late 1970s-early 1980s, every time a nursing shortage gets really bad. The trouble is, many nurses go from job to job so they can get a bonus. A hire-on bonus may attract someone to a job, but if the job sucks, as a huge number do, then the nurse is out of there as soon as her year is up. Ditto for scholarships. Many kids join the military so they can an education without going in deep debt–that is, if they can even secure a student loan. This works on the same basis. Be a nurse, and we’ll pay for your school. Or the government coughs up some money.

But what this article hasn’t told us is if the nurses are actually staying on the job. Have any of the area hospitals instituted changes in the work environment that may convince nurses to remain there, and stay in nursing? How is the retention rate? Are nurses quitting as soon as their “bonus time” is up, or are they staying? Is the staff generally happy at these hospitals, satisfied with their job and/or a nursing career, or are they just waiting for the economy to move foreward and new industries to open up?

So many questions, and no answers. An article like this is absolutely meaningless. All it says is that Cinicinnati hospitals, through tricks of the trade, have managed to stuff some people into the holes. That’s it. And unless any of these facilities made some real changes to the work environment, I doubt those holes are going to remain filled for very long. The hallways may start looking very lonely, very soon.

Images: courtesy of Stock.XCHNG