RK77

I am going to answer with what some will describe as obtuse.

It is because the customer is not paying for the product! The market forces are NOT at play here!

Think about this --- those of you who are old enough to.

In the late 60's early 70's the cost of healthcare was an ENTIRELY different issue for the american people. The focus was the $10.00 aspirin, the outrageous physician fees, the hospital errors.....

The people were SHUT UP not by these issues being addressed but by the insurance industry stepping in (along with the government) and saying "not to worry---we will pay for it" with a promise to bring down the costs.

They lied----people died!

The corporations then had a field day!! They could charge whatever they wanted and the only person there to examine the product no longer felt invested in those charges. AND as a perk---neither did the politicians who were just as happy to focus on the industries interest in them, as politicians!


And to make things even sweeter the repukes came in and convinced the working american that they could play in the market. Ignore Keatings S&L crap---ignore Enron---You too can profit off the health misfortunes of others!


Bingo---gold mine!

Once entrenched any idiot could have predicted that there would be people who would argue as many have here--that the termination of the problem would be worse than the problem itself---it would cost jobs, it would destroy the market, blah, blah, blah!

It is a scheme made in repuke heaven!

RK77

That is not a problem here at all! No one fails in nursing school! Everyone passes. There are always open slots on our side of the state.

Look---nurses were underpaid to begin with.

There is no real dramatic shortage of nurses---there are more than enough licensed RN's in the US to overstaff every patient! Hospitals have often more than 2 nurses per inpatient on payroll---they just have only a few nurses actually providing nursing care to the patients! The rest are caught up in a variety of activities made necessary, in part, by the complexity of the healthcare system itself. Many are sucked away from patient care by HMO's and megacorporations needs.

RK77

The nursing shortage has in part, been exacerbated by a physician shortage which created the need to expand the nurses responsibilities thus the need for more nurses.

And Yes---many many RN's choose to work 36 or even less hours a week--- which does enhance the shortage.

itsmeeeeeee

i completely agree with this assessment.

factor in this info also:

the skyrocking cost of prescription drugs directly corresponds to the advent of prescription drug marketing. all the major drug companies are now spending more on marketing than they are on r&d. please don't make me dig up the documentation. (my back's starting to spazz out and i have to go get flat.) it's stunning and pretty easy to find.

__________________

RK77

No need for me--- I have seen the numbers!

As the government dollar began flowing the advertisement industry demanded their share---and they got it!

I can think of nothing more extravagent in a country where people don't have care at all than for the government to allow ANY that receives a red government cent advertise on TV!

REALLY pisses me off!

Dawnling

this is all - pretty much - right on target...
'cept,

nurses don't need to be paid less.
nurses don't need to work more hours.

As my friend the emergency room nurse ( for 30 years ) said,

" nurses turn into really bitchy people because it SUX to wipe ASS
ALL DAY AND NIGHT and the paper work also SUX "

There is a shortage because FEW people want to live the nurse-life.

OK, next:

what are the solutions, please

RK77

PCA's wipe asses now a days---not RN's. I don't know too many who would complain about the relatively small amount of paper work nurses and doctors do for what they are paid.

Maybe your friend is just a little tired for right now---the ER burns you out--I did 20 years. A break or a year or the floors should have her clamoring to be back in the ER!

By the By---for what they do ER RN's are the most grossly underpaid RN's in all of medicine!

Dawnling

I don't see nurses in love with their work and I don't blame them.
It is nice to know that they are moving up.

My friend does ok...over $60,000.
It is TOUGH so he works two 24-hours shifts per week.

I really don't think that nurses need to be paid less or work more hours.

lrrp

We are living longer too, a few hundred years ago (tick of the clock evolutionarily speaking) most women died in childbirth. The average lifespan was about 35 years or so, and life was much harder. Combine this with the notion of mutually assured destruction in the cold war, so no big wars to thin the population, and some pretty serious advances in medical science, living longer and better. We are twice the burden on the planet's resources that we once were. It seems mother nature designed us with the 35 year lifespan, and we have managed to drug, treat or remove the things that used to kill us in droves. I don't think mother nature is all that happy about it either...

DanS.

Who said they did?