Another death in the ER waiting room

On the local news tonight it was reported that a 2 year child died in the ER waiting room of a large city local area hospital. The parents apparently reporting having been waiting one hour to see a doctor, the hospital disputing this. My question is...
...was it related to a nursing shortage?
Could the death have been prevented?
Was the triage nurse properly trained?
What kind of stress level are the nurses now feeling? And does anyone care?
Certainly not the parents. Why should they. They are mourning the loss of a child.

If you build it will they come?

As I am trying to renew my registration with the Alberta Registered Nurses Association, (and still waiting for California to send my varification through) I discovered that there is a new hospital being built in the province. I believe it will be a cardiac care facility. Of course when this came up in conversation I asked what had to be asked,
"and where do they plan on getting the nurses from, to staff this new facility".
The rep I was talking to couldn't really answer the question, or maybe I didn't give her the opportunity. I answered myself. Perhaps a new modern facility will help Alberta attract more nurses.
We all know they are certainly not just going to magically appear out of the sky. Some facility (s) somewhere is going to lose their nurses in order to staff this hospital. Why does it always seem to me that governments and governing boards keep spending the money in the wrong order. I don't want to say on the wrong thing, because I am quite certain, having been in Alberta myself, that some of their hospitals are in great need of updating. But how can you build and expect to staff it with nurses (someone needs to carry out the orders written) when they do not presently exist. The "hire ups" are doing things in backwards order....again.

The International Nursing Shortage

I have nurses and allied health professionals from all over the globe visiting my web site. Many fill in the forms I have placed there, seeking assistance with finding permanent and travel jobs. I am often challenged by those who are writing from developing countries. One such request came recently from a nurse in the Asia/Pacific area. Instead of looking for placement in North America, this nurse was wanting to move to another island. So in my research to locate agencies who recruit through these areas I happened across a radio broadcast from October 2004, on Asia Pacific radio station.
The headline read,
"Nurses abandon developing countries for more lucrative pastures The efforts of developing countries to build up their health systems is under serious threat from a shortage of professionals, especially nurses. Nurses from the Philippines, the Pacific and elsewhere are
leaving their homes and hospitals in increasing numbers for the greener pastures of the UK, the US, New Zealand and richer Asian nations".
This was from the 2004 Asia Pacific Nursing Congress, and the speakers were Professor James Buchan from Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh (recently involved in the
first global survey of the nursing workforce for the International Council of Nurses), Kuini Lutua (General Secretary of the Fiji Nursing Association), Pelenatete Stowers from Samoa (the Government Chief Nurse).
They were discussing their problems with the nursing shortage. Yes, it is a global problem. Many nurses from Asia and Africa, from the smaller islands as well, are leaving for "greener pastures".
They are actively recruited from developed countries who have more money to offer, plus better working conditions. I was somewhat surprised to learn nursing schools in developing countries are also faced with turning away elligible candidates.
Australia will be short 40,000 nurses by 2010. Africa's growing problem with Aids and HIV infected persons in putting huge strains on the limited nursing population, and the small islands also lose nurses to better paying jobs in developed countries.
When the radio interviewer asked what were the solutions none of the participants could offer an answer. There is work being done on an international agreement dealing with nurses (and I believe nurse recruitment) but as far as I could determine there was nothing set in stone yet.

Can hospital policy strangle your future?

When I was nursing in the USA (2002-2004) I discovered some hospitals have come out with policies that will not allow them to give out references to other employers. I'm not certain the reason for this but I am well aware of the consequences such policies can have on a nurses future employability. Human resource departments will only say that
"yes, this person was employed here as a nurses between such and such dates",
but they will not make any mention of whether you demonstrated safe and competent patient care. Now, if you were an employer, would you not be a little reluctant to hire someone about whom you had no indication of their competency as a nurse?
I am back in Canada at present, trying to re-register in a province where I have worked before. In order for the registering body to give me my certificate one of the things they would like is a simple reference from a recent past employer. Unfortunately that employers' policy is to "not" give out any professional information. So the registering body says to me,
"we have a glitch, the employer will not answer the questions we need answered".
So now what?
My point here is this. If employers practice these policies, which seem to make little sense at this point, could they cause a good, safe practicing, has never had their professional license suspended nurse, lose the ability to practice nursing any more?
Forced (due to circumstances) retirement? Driven from the profession for no reason? How many is this happening to?
Are we (the nursing profession) furthering the nursing shortage through ignorance of what our policies might be doing to individuals?
Think about it.

Nurses unite...and write

I was in the library yesterday doing some research for my book. At this point I need to know what type of competition I am up againsy for nursing non-fiction books. Well, little it seems. There are a number of medical mystery books about, some new ones like "Pandemic" by Dr. Daniel Kalla. What few books there are written by nurses, or about nursing, are mostly non-fiction "how to" or fiction classified under romance. Now these are good, sure, but much to scarce. So much "real" information about nurses and the profession can be portrayed in non fiction mystery or contemporary genre books. So why aren't there any? Either my research is severely lacking or nurses are just not writing.
When in comes to writing many people truly believe they can't. Yet anyone, with a bit of practice, can, and without having to go back to University to take special courses (though if you can afford a couple it sure may help. If you can read, you can probably write the same type of book. My childrens writers course aften reinforced the point, "write what you love"..."read what you write". And nurse have lots of practice writng to get the point across in as short a form as possible.

So write! Please!

Writing is good for you emotionally (and perhaps financially), reading is good for the general public (ask any school teacher), reading and writing exercises the mind which can help ward off Alzheimers, and if you consider non-fiction...WE can help people stay out of hospitals and emergency rooms, especially during this time of shortage of nursing professionals.

Governments close gates to willing nurses

There are nurses from other countries willing to come to the USA but the US government has put a 3 year hold on Phillipine (and I believe other foreign trained) nurses filling positions. I know of atleast one hospital (and surely there are probably others) who tentatively hired a number of nurses recently, expecting them within a year to fill needed positions. What now? The government surely doesn't expect other nurses will magically appear to fill the vacancies when they could not be filled locally (or nationally) before?
Again, it looks as though governments and schools are causing a worse shortage of nursing professionals than there needs to be.

The "COST" of nursing

I would agree that Registering bodies for nurses is important to protect the public, keeping nurses professional and accountable. But sometimes the cost of a nurses' licensure can drive them from accepting an employment offer.
Today it seems most Associations charge $250.00 and up (USA & Canada) per year, and if you want to work in more than one state/province, or accept a job in another jurisdiction, the cost can be enormous. In my case recently, trying to re-register in a province I have worked in before I needed to provide proof of registration over the last 5 years "in every jurisdiction I have held an RN registration". Plus I needed to provide proof of my "initial" registration after passing the Canadian exams. I understand the need for ensuring a nurse is legite but they already have received some of this information in the past. Everyone charges me a fee for "providing" information to another registering body, anywhere from $28.00 CAD to $60.00 USD. When you are looking for work because you're struggling each month to meet the rent just where are you supposed to find these extra dollars?
There is no real benefit to the nurse member, such as provision of liablilty insurance or free CEUs. Would it not make more sense to have national databases? Faster information for registering bodies, faster fulfillment for employers who are standing by with a job for you ( and a real need for your nursing services) , and certainly more affordable for the individual nurse to accept a job.
I wonder how many nurses have not been able to accept employment offerred because the could not afford to?
Like I said to my husband,
"I'm not sure I can afford to accept this job".