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No shortage of excuses
Nurses worry that health care industry will use staffing crisis to replace RNs by Susan Trossman, RN
The staffing shortage is real. So are the increasing attempts to assign RN responsibilities to school secretaries, EMT-like staffers and questionably trained medication techs -- all in the name of "the RN shortage." The issue of encroachment is not new to the nursing profession. But some nurses are worried that, given current hard times, institutions will gain virtual carte blanche to replace RN positions while continuing to ignore some of the major reasons behind staffing problems. Those reasons include short-sighted restructuring schemes, poor working conditions and a failure to recognize the important contributions RNs make to the ongoing health of patients, schoolchildren and other health care consumers.
AZ nurses mourn colleagues who died in campus shooting by Susan Trossman, RN The University of Arizona College of Nursing reopened Nov. 4, but nurses throughout the state are still mourning the loss of three of their colleagues who were shot to death by a student who was failing classes at the Tucson campus. The gunman subsequently took his own life. The three faculty members who were killed Oct. 28 are Cheryl M. McGaffic, PhD, RN, CCRN, a clinical associate professor and Barbara S. Monroe, MS, RN, CCRN, a clinical assistant professor -- both Arizona Nurses Association (AzNA) members -- and Robin E. Rogers, MSN, RN, CPNP, a clinical assistant professor. |
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