To attract more people to nursing, we must change the conversation | Opinion
Nursing is a calling unlike any other.
Like most Americans, I have been incredibly moved by the images of nurses bravely serving COVID-19 patients, rightly earning the title of healthcare heroes.
As a nurse and nurse educator of more than four decades, many of my former students have told me how proud they are of the difference they’ve made in people’s lives during such a difficult time. This spirit of solidarity between the public, our healthcare system, and nurses at the frontlines must continue long after the pandemic is over.
But turn on the news or browse social media and you’ll likely see stories about how hard it is to be a nurse – especially during the pandemic.
There’s no doubt this has been a challenging time for nurses. But focusing only on the difficulties – or worse, disparaging nursing as a career choice – is not constructive. Such screeds risk alienating prospective nursing students, reducing workforce morale, and creating negative perceptions of a career that is fulfilling and critically important to our society. It also leaves little room for conversations about transformative change.
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So how do we make nurses feel proud of their profession?
First, it’s important to acknowledge that the challenges nurses talk about are real. Two years of round-the-clock-care, pandemic stress, and workplace violence are causing many to experience burnout. Those factors have led many nurses to leave their jobs and the nursing profession altogether. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the number of unemployed nurses grew by approximately 100,000 RNs, 25,000 LPNs, and 90,000 NAs.
According to a recent survey by the American Nurses Foundation, 89% of nurses say their organization is experiencing a staffing shortage and less than half of nurses (48%) say they intend to stay in their positions over the next six months. Nurses cite insufficient staffing as their primary reason for leaving, and younger nurses are driving the exodus.
To tackle the national nursing shortage, we must address nurses’ legitimate concerns. This means ensuring nurses are better supported, increasing workforce preparedness, and reaffirming the value of our profession so that more students choose to enter the field.
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In my decades of experience as a nurse educator, I know that to help students follow their dreams, we must prepare them to excel in a fast-paced workplace. To improve nurse education and support more students, we need to address program capacity challenges – including faculty shortages and limited clinical learning opportunities.
In order to boost capacity, screen-based simulation technologies that foster strong clinical competence and judgment should be fully embraced. Whereas in-person clinical sites are stretched thin, virtual training opportunities represent a safe, evidence-based alternative. Similarly, coach-driven models that offer students direct patient-care scenarios and encourage team-based solutions can facilitate better learning outcomes and prepare graduates to deliver safe, evidence-based care. The more we prepare students to succeed today, the more nurses we will have tomorrow.
America’s nursing shortage is serious, but we can’t hope to fix it until we all adopt a positive, proactive attitude toward our profession and embrace new ideas. Let’s shift to more solutions-oriented discourse on how to make the transformative changes necessary and include the voices critical to solving the challenges – nurses.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s that nurses can do anything. Let’s change the conversation and help create an even brighter future.
Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH serves as Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, where she also holds the Valere Potter Distinguished Chair in Nursing. She is also an Advisory Board member for ATI.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nurses must be central to the conversation on changing health care
