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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 04, 2001
CONTACT:
Cindy Price, 202-651-7038
Hope Hall, 202-651-7027
rn=realnews@ana.org
www.nursingworld.org/rnrealnews
NATIONAL NURSES WEEK TO BE CELEBRATED
MAY 6-12, 2001
Nurse staffing crisis and possible solutions spotlighted during week-long event
Washington, DC -- The work of America's 2.7 million registered nurses to save lives and to maintain the health of millions of individuals is the focus of this year's National Nurses Week, which is celebrated throughout the United States beginning May 6, the traditional National Nurses Day, through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, founder of nursing as a modern profession.
This year's theme for National Nurses Week, Nurses are the True Spirit of Caring, reflects nursing's dedication and the many ways in which nurses have consistently delivered quality patient care and advocated for their patients despite the challenges of an increasingly turbulent health care system. That's why, in addition to celebrating nursing's accomplishments this year, the American Nurses Association (ANA) is asking nurses, patients and concerned citizens across the country to join us in pushing the call button over the nation's burgeoning nurse staffing crisis. For some time now, ANA has been sounding the alarm over inadequate staffing practices and an emerging nursing shortage. And those concerns were confirmed with ANA's 2001 Staffing Survey.
Chief among the survey's findings is that 75 percent of the nurses surveyed feel that deteriorating working conditions have led to a decline in the quality of nursing care at their facility over the past two years, while 56 percent say the time available for patient care has decreased. In addition, more than 40 percent said they would not feel comfortable having someone close to them cared for in the facility in which they work. And more than 54 percent would not recommend nursing to their children or their friends.
"We believe it is a crisis when so many registered nurses are voicing dissatisfaction and concern for patient safety," said ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN. "And we believe it does not bode well for patients or the nation when so many RNs are leaving acute care as result of poor working conditions."
To counteract this alarming trend, ANA and its state affiliates have embarked on a legislative agenda that focuses on attaining whistleblower protections, eliminating forced overtime, mandating the collection of workforce and nursing-sensitive quality indicators and establishing patient classification systems.
Complementing ANA's efforts, the United American Nurses (UAN), ANA's labor arm, has launched a Safe Staffing campaign that features National Nurses Week rallies across the country. And thousands of nurses have already signed on to "Demand Safe Staffing" through a petition directed at policymakers.
Also, thanks in part to ANA's efforts, two bills aimed at alleviating the nursing shortage -- the Nurse Reinvestment Act and the Nursing Employment and Education Development (NEED) Act -- have been introduced in Congress. Both bills contain provisions for a combination of scholarships, loan repayments and innovative recruitment techniques, which are designed to attract more young people into the profession and to encourage current nurses to further their levels of education.
"Through these various efforts, it is ANA's goal to restore the meaning to National Nurses Week and to truly put the spirit–and the nurses–back into caring," Foley noted. "We hope the nation will join us in our quest."
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The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its constituent member state nurses associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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