Nurses prescribe Rx for profession
Thursday, January 18, 2001, Springfield Union News, By JOSIE HUANG

A group of Baystate nurses has proposed actions to make the profession more attractive.

Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association said they hope the measures will combat a nursing shortage affecting the country. They said it has been caused by decreasingenrollment in nursing schools and decisions by older nurses to try other fields.

Passing safe staffing legislation by the end of this year is the association's leading initiative, said Denise C. Garlick, president of the 20,000-member group. The association Dec. 6 filed a bill that would require a nursing corps appropriate to each situation. It supports bills that call for forgiveness for education loans and for mentorship programs.

A steering committee is scheduled to meet Feb. 5 to decide priorities among the initiatives which include enhancing the image of nursing and making workplaces more nurse-friendly.

The field has experienced ebb and flow in its workforce, but the current crunch is cause for panic, Garlick said.

"This is not some kind of natural evolution," she said. "We're seeing a dip. The nursing profession is being driven into the ground by the financing forces of the health care industry and the conditions that are existing now," she said, citing inadequate pay and grueling schedules.

There were 105,644 registered nurses and 22,628 licensed practical nurses in the Bay State last year, according to the Board of Registration in Nursing. The numbers do not reflect how many are employed in the state.

Western Massachusetts nursing homes have been especially affected by the shortage. According to a recent survey, the region has the state's highest median vacancy rate—26.6 percen—for nursing jobs at nursing homes. Nurses, especially those with special skills and experience, are so much in demand that hospitals across the country including Mercy Hospital have offered signing bonuses of $3,000.

Health care systems like the Sisters of Providence have needed to become creative offering to pay nursing assistants' way through licensed practical nurse training in return for a year of service after graduation, nurses said.

But sometimes in the nursing field, working conditions, not money, are more important. Last year, nurses at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester went on strike for six weeks over the issue of mandatory overtime. The picketing stopped only after the hospital amended its policy so that nurses would have more control over their schedules.

"Everytime you hear of someone working mandatory overtime, that's an indication that there is not enough staff," Garlick said.

Eileen T. Breslin, the dean of the school of nursing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, approves of the association's advocacy of safe staffing levels. She also likes the idea of more aggressive recruitment, though her own ationally accredited nursing program has enough applicants.

The following are recommendations by the Massachusetts Nurses Association to eliminate staff shortages:

Ensure safer workplaces with more nurse support programs like mentoring

Enhance the image of nursing through outreach programs to students in all grade levels and by stronger media relations

Support legislative initiatives that address the nurse shortage such as a safe staffing bill

Encourage educational reform by implementing leadership development programs and curriculum improvements

Collaborate with outside organizations on workshops and summits to frame the nurse shortage as a public health crisis.