It seems that George Bush has suddenly realized that the Gulf Coast is still not spiffy and clean. Only 18 months after Katrina and–ohmygod–people are still living in tent cities and FEMA trailers (if they haven’t been thrown out of them), and conditions did not miraculously return to normal. And he seems shocked. Bush has declared that he will do something about it. Gee, that’s so nice of you Mr. President. Wasn’t Brownie doing one “heckofva job?”

I suppose waking up after 18 months is better than not waking up at all, and Bush should have been down there three months after the commotion died down, stomping his feet and demanding action. If you’ve got 100s of billions to give to Halliburton–oops, I mean the effort for Iraq–surely a few nickels can find their way to them po’ folk down in the deep south.

Anyway, in the wake of Bush’s sudden realization that people are still homeless and covered with mold and slime, this press release came out about the dire shortage of nurses in New Orleans and environs.

From PR Web:

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 2, 2007 — As President Bush visited the Gulf Coast yesterday for the first time in six months, the National League for Nursing asks that he pay attention to the reality of the dire lack of nurses in hospitals and communities in the area.

This shortage of nurses is creating health disparities, inflated costs, and poor quality of health care. The lingering situation in New Orleans is unacceptable for anyone in America seeking access to health care.
In a letter to the president, NLN CEO Dr. Beverly Malone said, “This shortage of nurses is creating health disparities, inflated costs, and poor quality of health care. The lingering situation in New Orleans is unacceptable for anyone in America seeking access to health care.”

Though the White House says that President Bush has helped make the $110 billion in aid that Congress approved available for rebuilding, education, and rental assistance and that his Cabinet secretaries have visited the region dozens of times, the NLN points out that critical attention has not been paid to the ongoing problem of nurse shortages.

“Adequate health care is not possible in the absence of nurses and there can be no real recovery without it,” said NLN president Dr. Toni Bargagliotti. “We look forward to President Bush taking this opportunity to address this urgent issue.”

I would agree that the shortage of nurses probably has a real effect on healthcare down there, but in reality, what is Bush supposed to do about it? The nursing shortage in the Gulf is the same as the nursing shortage elsewhere, and stems from the same basic problems with a few extras thrown in.

Let me count the ways for you, Dr. Toni, and explain why nurses aren’t flocking to the region, except as temporary volunteers.

1) The pay sucks
2) The pay sucks. It is worth repeating. Nurses salaries in the south are among the worst in the nation.
3) Many nurses left the area and are happier living in other parts of the country. Better pay, perhaps better working conditions, and a lesser threat of another hurricane.
4) Let’s discuss working conditions for a moment–the south has about the lowest number of nurses who are unionized. Does that speak for itself?
5) Due to Katrina, there is a lack of housing. Nurses need a place to live. Unlike the fantasy model, real life angels of mercy require food, clothing and shelter.
6) The place is still a mess and nurses, like other mortals, are weary of it. They have signed on with travel agencies and are making good money, have a place to live, and will wait it out elsewhere. Translation: they do not want to be martyrs.

The only way that I can see Bush helping this situation in the immediate future is to allocate some of that money to paying for nurses to come to the region on a temporary basis. Offer travel nurses higher salaries than they might get in California, pay for decent housing (emphasis on the word decent–nurses aren’t going to stay in a rental covered in cockroaches and that has mushrooms growing out of the carpet), offer them fat bonuses for extending their contracts, and you may get people to come.

And once the nurses are there, you have to make sure that they are treated with respect, are given decent assignments, and so on.

That will take care of the problem for the immediate future. But if you want to repopulate the area, then hospitals are going to have to do the same as hospitals all over the nation–pay better, stop harrassing nurses, provide decent working conditions, treat them with respect, give them decent benefits–same old story, you know?

So instead of screaming and yelping about the lack of adequate health care and the need for nurses in the Gulf, perhaps Dr. Toni may present the Bush administration with some concrete suggestions that can be implemented immediately. Like I suggested. The nursing shortage down there isn’t going to solved overnight, and you’ve got to use your brain to figure out some real solutions that will work, instead of whining and farting up the same tired rhetoric. I know there is a lot to blame on Bush, but I think it is a little beyond his capacity to round up nurses and herd them down to the Gulf coast.

People like Dr. Toni love to address the problems, but never offer a real solution. Maybe some of that $110 billion can be used for nursing scholarships? That’s the popular battlecry. That will surely be a great solution. Or maybe it can be used to recruit minority high school students into nursing. That’s another “solution” to the nursing shortage.

Why can’t these so called nursing leaders ever just say something that makes sense, and say it point blank. Like, “Uh, Mr. President, can we have some of that $100 billion to help recruit temporary nurses to the Gulf? There are a lot of issues to be addressed with this, but right now the region needs nurses and needs them now.”

Is that so difficult a task?