’m writing as a 16-year veteran of OB nursing and I’m currently a full-time I staff nurse in Kalamazoo, MI. I am also a graduate student at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, enrolled in the family nurse practitioner program- with a focus on education. In responding to your editorial, “Where Are the Nurses?” (AugusdSeptember 2000, Lifelines), it’s my personal belief that our professional organizations must be involved in recruiting nurses.

The nursing shortage is definitely affecting the work in which I’m in. For one example, this past summer our unit faced a staffing crisis. We weren’t able to recruit nurses either locally or nationally, through programs such as the traveling nurse programs. This caused havoc on both the professional and personal lives of our staff as all staff were required to add additional hours to their schedules or risk can- celled vacation schedules due to staffing shortages.

Even today, we struggle to recruit nurses who are interested in joining our staff, and when we do it’s increas- ingly difficult to get the nurse( s) ori- ented properly due to the added strain of constant short staffing. This situa- tion is as frustrating as it sounds and adds an additional load to staff work- ing as preceptors while also carrying a full load.

Interestingly, our hospital is locat- ed in a community with two local nursing schools and typically has nev- er “felt” the full blow of a nursing shortage because of the constant influx of new graduates in the com- munity. What our hospital is experi- encing, however, is the impact of few- er experienced and available critical care, OB, OR and ER nurses.

Nurses are notorious for working under adverse conditions-ven when remedies for problems such as short staffing or budget-driven cuts and

policies are immediately available. Compounding this frustration, how- ever, is the seeming disregard the hos- pital administration has for the quality- of-life issues affected by the lack of expert nursing staff on our unit.

Which brings me to my suggestion, for which you asked. I believe that the American Nurses Association and other specialty nursing organizations need to work toward better benefits for nurses in all clinical specialties, especially retirement benefits.

When staffing issues emerge on our unit, all of the RNs are in agree- ment that nurses are penalized when it comes to benefits by working in a predominantly female-populated occupation. Surprisingly, retirement issues are not just a hot topic for our aging nursing workforce; younger, incoming new grads express these same concerns. These nurses are look- ing at nursing careers on the whole, and younger nurses especially seem to be more cognizant regarding the importance of early preparation for retirement. A common theme among the new graduates is that they’d like to see perks such as student loan repayments by employers in return for work commitments.

Together, leaders and individual nurses need to insist on improved benefits, improvements to schedules and quality-of-life issues, and improve- ments in the quality of the workplace

environment. Professional organiza- tions can be instrumental in this effort.

Nurses must be advised that for them to strongly pursue these quality- of-life issues is to be engaged in health- promoting behaviors-their own!

Lynn Smolarkieun’cz, RNC Borgess Medical Center

Kalamazoo, M I

found your August/September “Per- I spectives” column to be right on the mark! I agree wholeheartedly that we are facing a nursing shortage. And as a part-time clinical instructor, I have observed that the caliber of nursing students entering the field of nursing is certainly of a lesser quality than in the past. I am with you 100 percent in believing that nursing needs to be marketed in the high schools, as well as the middle schools.

Young women have so many career options today that nursing is often over- looked. Nursing is no longer seen as a rewarding, lucrative, challenging and respectable career for a young woman.

8 AWHONN Lifelines Volume 5, Issue 2

Despite these obstacles, I believe nursing could be marketed to women, and men, as a viable career option. Nursing is a rewarding, challenging and respectable career-I believe this because I’ve experienced it. Nursing has so much to offer, not the least of which is flexibility. For years, I was told that “I could do it all: career, marriage, children. . . .” I quickly learned that only those who pursued plans to move on into masters’ and doctorate programs were given the nod of approval. But as a 40-year-old woman, with four children, I’m grate- ful that my career allowed me the flexibility to work part-time. I learned, like so many of my peers, that I can’t do all things at all times and give them all 100 percent.

I’ve always been attracted to maternal-child nursing, and within that field, I’ve held numerous roles, ranging from primary nursing care to the newborn nursery and labor and delivery. I have worked in home care and in a nursing school. I’m currently enrolled in an MSN program and am looking iorward to new and advanc-

ing opportunities in the area of edu- cation. My point is that, unlike some careers, nursing offers a wide range of settings and possibilities for women and men. Some may go into nursing dreaming of working in a hos- pital, only to find out that they don’t actually enjoy that-they don’t have to give up their nursing career just because they want to switch settings.

Nursing is challenging, and it brings with it the rewards necessary for those who enjoy working with people, particularly those who want to help relieve suffering, provide com- fort, support and teaching. For these types of people, nursing can be re- warding and meaningful. These are the aspects of nursirig that have kept me in the profession for 17 years. And I have to believe that there are young women and men who are looking for more from a career than just a pay- check. For those people, nursing can provide a career in which they can fulfill a calling and make a difference in the lives of those they touch.

M a y A. Foley, RN Woburn, M A

CORRECTION Lifelines, in its December 2000/Janu- ary 2001 issue, incorrectly spelled the name of Ohio Section Chair Roberta Kester, RNC, MS. We apologize to Ms. Kester and we regret the error.

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