Career | Male Nurse archive: July 2009

Creating nurses, not just students

Once, at the School of Nursing, grade point average and standardized test scores were all that mattered. Students hoped for the highest marks they could achieve and administrators used them as a barometer for success.

Then came Betty Shelton.

Or, rather, then came Betty Shelton again. She had worked at West Virginia University for three years as a faculty member before taking an administrative job in Pennsylvania. It didn’t last long. The commute was easier, but she missed the supportive environment she’d left behind. So she returned to Morgantown in 2004, this time as the assistant dean of student services and with the intention to turn admissions on its head.

It wasn’t that Shelton rejected GPA and test scores all together – the rigors of the University’s nursing program require that students are academically inclined – but she thought the school should be admitting students based on more than a few sheets of paper.

Shelton had spent nearly two decades in the practice of nursing. Inspired by her special needs son, she treated mostly medically fragile and developmentally disabled patients, hoping she could help them reach mental and physical heights that once appeared unattainable.

She wanted the same for her students. And a new admissions procedure seemed like a good place to start, shaking the nursing school loose from its traditional boundaries.

She began pushing a plan in 2006, the year she became associate dean for undergraduate academic affairs. She wanted her colleagues to consider face-to-face interviews for all nursing school candidates, where administrators could gauge motivation and weigh it against cognitive ability.

“Who’s to say a student with a 3.5 GPA is going to be a better nurse than a student with a 3.4 GPA,” Shelton said. Because good nurses aren’t always measured in numbers. They’re measured in empathy and commitment, the qualities that matter when health, or life, is in peril and emotions take unpredictable leaps and dives.

“It took a while to convince people that it was an important thing to do,” Shelton said. But three years after finally implementing the plan, the nursing school has an unheard of 90 percent retention rate and Shelton has a national reputation.

National attention

That admissions procedure she touted – fittingly called the “Shelton Model of Student Retention” – is now used by nursing programs across the country to find students with the correct quantities of intelligence and promise. For that model and other contributions to student retention, the National League for Nursing’s Academy of Nursing Education recently named Shelton a 2009 fellow.

It’s a position that offers more prestige than it requires responsibility. But it’s also designed so that its members can capitalize on each other’s expertise.

In a field where the practice of the profession is often more appealing – and financially lucrative – than the instruction of it, nursing educators have a daunting mission. Their students must be taught to be meticulous but not dispassionate; shrewd but not glib. They must learn to love the science as much as the patients and the patients as much as the science.

It’s a delicate and frustrating balance that can chew through students’ determination and send them searching for new majors. Shelton wanted a way to stop the bleeding.

It started with the “Shelton Model,” and continued into the classroom with Shelton’s other brainchild, a student survey known as the “Perceived Faculty Support Scale.”

No longer would administrators search for candidates who would make good students. They would look for students who would make good nurses. And they would nurture instincts and respond to fears.

Listen to the students

The faculty support scale has an intimidating name, but a vital function. It’s a way for students to tell their professors what they need from the nursing program and to let them know if they’ve been receiving it. The system eliminates guessing and dissatisfaction. When students struggle, professors know it. If they need help, they get it, in the form of peer tutoring or faculty mentoring.

Traditional students benefit, of course. But students from coveted underrepresented or disadvantaged groups – often rural and male students in West Virginia – are buoyed, as well, providing them the support they need but might not receive at another school.

By 2010, Shelton hopes to make yet another student-centered transformation at the nursing school. She’s currently leading an overhaul of the curriculum. Many of the changes are obligatory, handed down by the accreditation board. But while other nursing schools are simply incorporating new classes into their existing programs to meet the requirements, WVU is throwing the old curriculum out and starting anew.

“We want to blow it up and restructure it,” Shelton said. “We don’t want to plug holes.”

The end result, she hopes, will be a more conceptual approach to teaching, one she believes will benefit student retention and success the way the Shelton model and support scale have. Because, while Shelton’s job often keeps her hidden in her corner office, away from students – “If I know them, it’s either really good or really bad,” she said, chuckling – it’s still the mission to improve their experience that keeps her moving, and her success in doing so that keeps her relevant.

“WVU really does care about the student,” Shelton said. “That’s why I came and that’s why I came back. Our students have a sense of community amongst themselves. They truly have a family in this school.”

source: http://www.lincolnjournalinc.com

Higher number of jobless nurses feared

WITH THE additional 32,000 new nurses who passed the recent licensure examinations, recruiters are worried that many would not be able to immediately find jobs in other countries due to the requirement of two or three years experience in tertiary hospitals.

In a text message to BusinessWorld, Lito B. Soriano, executive director of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said nursing students should consider shifting to a different course due to stringent qualifications.

"The nurses who [recently] passed licensure exams will not be able to find overseas jobs unless they gain two to three years experience in tertiary hospitals preferably in specialty areas.

"They join close to 200,000 unemployed licensed nurses. Enrolled student nurses should review their options to shift to engineering, ladderize courses and technical vocations," said Mr. Soriano.

Less than half of the 77,901 examinees (32,617) passed the recent licensure exam.

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Do women do better in a recession?

Female managers just might have an edge in a rotten economy, says the author of a new book. Here's why, and how men and women can learn from each other's strengths.

By Anne Fisher, contributor for CNN.com Money

There's one sure-fire way to start a heated argument, whether around the water cooler or at a dinner party: Just say something that suggests women manage very differently from their male peers. Then stand back and watch the fireworks.

"The idea that female managers think and operate differently than male managers is controversial, especially among women in the Baby Boom generation who had to fight so hard to overcome stereotypes about women being 'nurturing' and 'intuitive,' which for many years was corporate code for 'not tough enough, or analytical enough, to handle senior management jobs,' " notes Catherine Kaputa, author of The Female Brand: Using the Female Mindset to Succeed in Business (Davies-Black, $24.95).

Controversial or not, it's clear that women are doing something differently: Of the roughly 6 million Americans who have lost their jobs since the recession started in December of 2007, 80% are men, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. No doubt, a big part of the reason is that men tend to dominate in the cyclical businesses which have been decimated by the downturn, including manufacturing, construction, engineering and finance. Female-dominated fields like nursing and education have been less hard-hit, at least so far.

Still, says Kaputa, that isn't the whole story. In this job market, standing out from the crowd requires a "personal brand" -- a clear professional identity that highlights a candidate's unique set of strengths and skills -- and that's one area where women may excel. I recently spoke with Kaputa about why female managers just might have an edge in this dreadful economy. Some excerpts from our conversation:

Q. You interviewed more than 150 boomer women for this book -- the generation that has been working long enough to have attained senior management jobs. How do they manage differently from their male counterparts?

A. In general, women are most comfortable with a management style that is more collaborative and less concerned with rigid hierarchy and top-down directives. As it happens, that more inclusive, collegial style is what gets results in global companies today.

And it's clear that collaboration comes naturally to women, starting at a young age. In one study of middle-school kids, which I describe in the book, the researchers gave the same task to a group of boys and a group of girls. The boys appointed a captain, who gave orders, while girls formed a committee of equals where everyone had a say. Both groups achieved the goal -- they just got there differently.

That said, everyone has "masculine" and "feminine" traits to some degree, and some women could really benefit from developing their "masculine" sides, especially when it comes to things like self-promotion. A woman will tend to downplay her achievements, while men talk them up.

I worked on Wall Street for a number of years, and one female senior executive I knew told me that the men who worked for her always started popping into her office a couple of months before bonus time, telling her all about the great stuff they were doing. The women never did, not once. Guess who got the bigger bonuses.

Q. Why do you think women may be better-equipped to deal with hard economic times than men are?

A. There are a number of reasons, starting with the fact that on average, women still earn less than men in the same jobs. So in many cases, when companies are looking for ways to cut costs, the more expensive people get laid off, while the less costly managers stay.

Another cost-cutting advantage women have is that they tend to seek out ideas from more different levels of the company. They reach out to a wider range of people. A man looking for ways to cut costs is likely to rely on his direct reports exclusively. A woman will call somebody she knows on the factory floor, and a shipping clerk, and a call-center worker, and some other people all over the organization. And because she has that ear to the ground, she's likely to get more effective ideas.

Along similar lines, we all know by now how crucial networking is to everybody's career. Women are natural networkers. This is an area where the available research demonstrates that men and women differ in interesting ways. For one thing, women tend to gravitate toward relatively close, even intense, relationships with small groups of contacts, while men tend as a group to connect on a very superficial level with a much bigger group. And women in general are more reluctant to ask a networking contact for a favor, while men generally don't hesitate to ask for things from people they barely know. Women would be wise to cultivate some of that "masculine" boldness.

Q. One of the more contentious claims about women managers is that they're more empathetic than their male peers. But even if that's true, wouldn't empathy be a disadvantage at a time when so many employees are getting laid off?

A. Actually, quite the contrary. Of course, not all female managers are the warm, empathetic sort, but women in general do tend to be more skilled at building emotional ties and fostering a sense of "We're all in this together." Women are more inclined than men, usually, to acknowledge the emotional component of layoffs.

That's important because, like it or not, depriving someone of their job is an emotional blow to that person and to the survivors who are watching it happen. It's not "just business," and women get that.

In the book I cite an interesting study showing that people respond much better to bad news that's delivered in a caring way than they do to good news that's delivered in a cold, impersonal style. So female managers generally are better than men at both laying people off and motivating the employees who remain.

Readers, what do you say? In your experience, what are the biggest differences -- if any -- between male and female managers? Do you agree that women have certain natural advantages in tough economic times? Have you noticed differences in the ways that men and women network? Put your comments below.

Nursing Schools Aim To Increase Enrollment And Educators

By CityTownInfo.com

Nursing schools in Maryland, Florida and California are taking steps to stave off a severe nursing shortage that experts expect will occur within the next decade.

In Maryland, $15.5 million--financed through contributions from healthcare providers, insurers and individuals--will be provided to 17 nursing schools through the Maryland Hospital Association over the next five years. Institutions that will receive the grants include Montgomery College, Prince George's Community College, Anne Arundel Community College, the College of Southern Maryland, Howard Community College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

"We're getting older, getting ready to retire, and the demand is going to increase," explained John M. Colmers, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who was quoted in The Washington Post.

According to Catherine Crowley, vice president of the Maryland Hospital Association, the state will require 10,000 more nurses to meet the needs of the aging population and to replace the many nurses expected to retire within the next few years. Yet the problem, she explained, is a lack of qualified nursing educators and a lack of available open slots for students in nursing schools. The funds are aimed at helping nursing schools accept more students and hire more nursing educators.

In Florida, a recent report by the Florida Center for Nursing indicated that the state will also face a nursing shortage within the next decade. "Shortages in nursing are cyclical. They tend to respond to economic drivers," noted Mary Lou Brunell, executive director of the Florida Center for Nursing, who was quoted in The Orlando Sentinel. "This shortage is different. It's not driven by the economy, but by an aging population--both nurses and patients."

Yet as in Maryland, staving off Florida's crisis would require expanding nursing schools and hiring more nursing educators. In 2007-2008, more than 12,000 qualified applicants were turned away from state nursing education programs in Florida due to lack of space.

The Sentinel reports that the University of Central Florida's nursing school is addressing the problem by working with local community colleges to retrain nurses to work as teachers. Additionally, they offer teaching opportunities to nursing staff from local hospitals. According to Judith Rutland, coordinator of nursing education at UCF, school administrators have met with healthcare and government officials to try to increase the number of teachers.

In California, the Senate Education Committee last week approved Assembly Bill 867, which is aimed at ultimately increasing the number of nurses in the state. The bill will allow California State Universities to offer doctorate of nursing programs so that the institutions will be able to train teachers of nurses.

But such efforts are not likely to help significantly unless nursing students are given the financial incentive to become educators, notes California's Ventura County Reporter. "The real issue," the article points out, "is that a career in education just isn't worth it to many nurses looking to work their way up in the healthcare system."

Nursing tops stressful professions

by Patrick Caruana
source: TweedNews.com.au

NURSES, social workers and teachers have the most stressful jobs, compensation statistics show.

Preliminary figures from Safe Work Australia show 970 female workers in the health and community services sector made compensation claims due to mental stress in 2006/07.

A total of 6,255 workers across all sectors made a compensation claim for mental stress in the 12-month period.

Among male employees, 400 claims were made in the transport and storage sector, while 340 were made in the education sector.

Lifeline Australia said compensation payouts for stress were nearly three times as high as the median compensation payouts, and the time taken off for stress was double the average of all workplace injuries.

They say it costs the Australian economy $15 billion a year.

Lifeline spokesman Chris Wagner says Australia's nurses and social workers are constantly under the pump.

"It's no surprise that people are taking workers' comp due to mental stress," Mr Wagner told.

"People are working very long hours and they're dealing with very emotional situations.

"It's a very stressful industry. It's a very stressful sector."

Mr Wagner said it was up to bosses and employees to help make the working environment less stressful.

"We all have a personal role to play in managing our own stress levels," he said.

"But I think employers also have a role in keeping an eye on their workforce and making sure that their workforce isn't getting too stressed."

He urged workplaces to take part in Stress Down Day on Friday, saying small gestures such as allowing staff to wear silly clothing could make big differences.

"People are most stressed when they are at work," Mr Wagner said.

"We want people to whack on their slippers to work or school.

"A goofy thing like that can make that little bit of a mental break."

For more information on Stress Down Day, visit www.stressdown.org.au.

All Nursing Schools Discusses Obama's Health Care Reform and Nursing Career Opportunities

Obama's call for nurses creates opportunities for nurses in response to the health care crisis and nursing shortage, making today an excellent time to attend nursing school.

According to All Nursing Schools, the need for more efficient and affordable health care at a time when the economy is struggling and the baby boomer population is aging, makes health care reform crucial. With the health care crisis being felt by American families, President Obama's call for "comprehensive" health care(1) comes at a great time for nurses.

There has been a nursing shortage for years, and, in response, registered nursing is anticipated to be one of the hottest jobs over the next several years(2). This, coupled with the fact that one of President Obama's goals for the health care reform is to hire more nurses, makes today an excellent time to wear scrubs to work.

All Nursing Schools provides comprehensive and up-to-date nursing career and education resources for both students and professionals looking to advance their nursing education. Among the in-depth nursing education offerings, All Nursing Schools gives students a firsthand look into nursing careers and jobs, guidance on the wide diversity of nursing fields students can pursue, and important industry data--such as salary and how the recent federal stimulus bill affects the nursing shortage.

"There is so much opportunity in the health care and nursing fields today," says Dana Larsen, career researcher for All Nursing Schools. "Whether students want to be a travel nurse, surgical nurse or neonatal nurse--or are just looking to earn more money in their current nursing career--All Nursing Schools can help them find informative and up-to-date career and nursing education resources to help them take advantage of nursing career stimulus opportunities."

About All Nursing Schools
All Nursing Schools is a comprehensive online publisher of accredited nursing degree programs and nursing career resources. Since 2001, All Nursing Schools has been helping match millions of highly qualified prospective students with the schools that best meet their educational needs. All Nursing Schools strives to be the finest resource available to prospective students and nurses, and is one of several unique Web sites owned by All Star Directories, Inc.

About All Star Directories, Inc.
All Star Directories, Inc. is one of the Internet's fastest growing publishers of online and career school directories, matching millions of highly qualified prospective students with the schools that best meet their education needs. Recently, Inc. Magazine ranked All Star among the fastest growing companies in the country, and the Puget Sound Business Journal has recognized the company as one of Washington state's fastest growing companies for five consecutive years. From leading research institutions to fast-growing online and for-profit schools, nearly 6,000 featured schools trust All Star Directories as the authority in online student recruitment. The All Star network of sites focuses on a wide range of fields including All Allied Health Schools, All Art Schools, All Business Schools, All Education Schools, All Psychology Schools, All Criminal Justice Schools, All Computer Schools and All Nursing Schools. Please visit www.allstardirectories.com or call 1-888-404-8043 for more information.

(1) National Nurses Organizing Committee, 2009.
(2) Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009.

Press Contact:
Doug Rosenberg
(888) 404-8043

source: PRWeb.com

Ministry approves recruitment of 1,500 expat nurses

According to a newly released Ministry of Health (MoH) study, nurses form the largest body of employees in the ministry, with 12,420 nurses, 914 of them Kuwaiti, currently being registered with it. The study, which looked into staff distribution in the MoH, found that the Sabah Directorate employed the largest number of nurses, 4,975, with the other nursing staff being employed at various hospitals and health facilities across the remaining directorates.

It reported that 284 non-Kuwaiti nurses and 32 Kuwaiti nurses have recently resigned, while a further 1,717 non-Kuwaiti nurses and 71 Kuwaiti nurses have recently been recruited by the ministry. On the subject of recruitment, Dr. Yousef Al-Nisf, the Deputy Health Minister and Assistant for Supportive Medical Services Affairs, said that the Civil Service Commission has recently approved the appointment of 2,000 new non-Kuwaiti medical staff to work in new medical centers, 1,500 of them nurses, with the oth
er 500 to be employed in various medical specialty posts. He also revealed that the number of male nurses being recruited has risen in recent years, reported Al-Watan.

Dr. Al-Nisf said that the problem of nurses resigning from ministry posts had presented a predicament for the MoH, leading it to increase nursing staff numbers to ensure no shortages occurred. The deputy health minister also stated that the payment of financial expenses for nursing personnel needs to be enforced by the cabinet and the CSC through the introduction of a financial body specifically for that purpose, in order to reduce the number of nurses resigning.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced that it will pay bonuses to its employees, which has already been deposited at the Central Bank. The decision was made official following the approval of Education Minister Dr. Moudhi Al-Humoud, who is the current Acting Health Minister.

These bonuses will be paid to employees whose names have been included in a previously-prepared list, reported Al-Watan. However, employees who have already resigned from services, in addition to those who were promoted recently, will be excluded. A total sum of KD 3,761,255 has been set aside for this purpose.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce plans to follow suit and pay bonuses to employees on July 28. It will range between 1,550 to 700 per employee. An administrator will receive a bonus of KD 1,550 while supervisors will be receive KD 1,300. The heads of departments will receive KD 1,100 each. Other employees will be paid KD 700 each.

Source: KuwaitTimes.net

The 'problem with nurses'

is a problem with healthcare

The mismanagement at the state Board of Registered Nursing is a microcosm of a much broader issue.

By Barbara Greenfield
Source: LATimes.com

The Times' June 12 expose about the California Board of Registered Nursing oversimplifies the issue. The so-called problem with nurses is really just another aspect of the shortcomings in the overall healthcare system.

I have been a nurse for more than 30 years. Although I don't work in clinical settings now, I'm in them regularly -- at nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and acute-care hospitals. I am not excusing the horrible mistakes made by nurses who gave multiple doses of the same medications or did not properly inform physicians of the medications they were providing, per the physicians' orders. There are standards of practice for dealing with the administration of medications, which all nurses and physicians should follow to the letter. But the problem is far more complex.

First, the Board of Registered Nursing had staffing problems. Until last week, three of its nine positions were vacant (the governor filled two of those vacancies). In addition, prior to last week, three of the board's members were not practicing nurses. I am glad to see that since The Times published its story on July 12, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed to the board nurses from several fields. I hope the new board members are able to make definitive changes in a short amount of time.

The second issue is substance abuse, a problem that afflicts healthcare professionals at a higher rate than the general population. This does not excuse the Board of Registered Nursing for not expediting the reviews of the accused nurses, but the board's program to divert nurses with substance-abuse problems into treatment and monitor their progress isn't properly funded or administered. It's worth noting that many of these problems start with drugs prescribed by physicians.

Third, there is a nursing shortage. On average, nurses are paid about one-third as much as physicians. Mind you, nurses are paid well compared to teachers, another predominantly female profession. And people are often not moved to go into nursing unless they are altruistically inclined. But the problem is exacerbated by the dwindling supply of training programs for nurses (several major schools of nursing have closed over the last few decades) and a lack of will in high schools to educate students about nursing and other vocational and professional choices. I believe this is changing, but spots for students in associate-degree nursing programs and bachelor's degree programs are very few.

And finally, there's the issue of nurse-to-patient ratios. In 1999, then-Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill into law that increased the number of nurses in California by 80,000. However, nurses are being burdened with patients that require more intensive care. Typical emergency room patients are sicker today than they were 20 years ago -- that's a byproduct of our poor healthcare system. People are not treated or counseled adequately by their physicians regarding their problems, and there is little follow-up education. Once upon a time, when actual registered nurses worked in physicians' offices, the nurse would be the educator. Now physicians see too many people during their day and education is not their priority.

As I said before, the problem is not just a "problem with nurses." It's a problem with healthcare.

Barbara Greenfield is president and clinical director of South Pasadena-based BG Nurse Consultants.

Coping with the 'he-cession'

Economy has more men looking at traditionally female jobs.

Nicholas Martin majored in economics and thought about getting a master's in business administration but chose nursing instead.

He's one of 12 men in the newest class at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Martin, 26, chose medicine after an assignment in Kyrgyzstan as a Peace Corps English teacher got him interested in human service and health care.

"I didn't want to be behind a desk, or anything like that," he says. "I wanted to be on my feet. I really enjoy the interaction with people - whether it's education or health care."

But he's also playing the odds.

As the economy falls apart, health care, education and other sectors traditionally dominated by women are shedding jobs at a far slower rate than "male" occupations such as manufacturing and construction.

The pattern has caused an unprecedented gender gap in the unemployment statistics and talk of a "he-cession." Last month, the jobless rate among men was 10.6 percent, while among women it was 8.3 percent. Aside from a slightly wider gap in May, that's the largest difference since the government began keeping track in 1948.

As a result, men appear to show new interest in nursing and other traditional female jobs. Many want to switch from hard-hit "male" sectors.

"Recently I spoke with an engineer," says Brook Necker, admissions coordinator for the nursing department at Towson University. "I've also talked to a lawyer" and "someone from finance" - a bank vice president, she said.

Towson's newest nursing class of 72 includes 10 men - "the most male students we've had in a while," she says.

Don't be surprised if more men turn to teaching as well.

"We still do not have enough male teachers - and that is especially true of the elementary and middle schools," says Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education.

The job gap prompts deep thoughts from the gender-minded. "The Death of Macho" is the headline from Foreign Policy magazine. "Manly men have been running the world forever. But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history."

How that will happen when only a dozen of the Fortune 500 top U.S. corporations are run by women is a mystery.

As a practical matter, the divergence of male and female employment highlights Maryland's advantage in the he-cession. With higher shares of health care, education and government jobs (another sector with higher-than average employment of women) than other states, it's a relatively female-oriented economy.

That shows up in Maryland's overall unemployment rate of 7.2 percent for May, which was substantially lower than the national rate of 9.4 percent for that month.

It's true that national health insurance could reduce the growth of medical spending - and therefore the growth in nursing and other medical jobs. But at least the health professions will be growing. That's more than you can probably say about manufacturing.

"I wouldn't say that we've seen a huge increase in male applicants yet," said Sandra Angell, associate dean for student affairs at Hopkins' nursing school. Rather, she said, there has been a gradual rise since the school opened in the 1980s.

Nicholas Martin and the 11 other men in his class are learning alongside about 120 women, so men obviously aren't taking over.

But the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation projects that nursing and teaching, along with food service, housekeeping and computer engineering, will be among Maryland's fastest-growing job classes in the next decade - and maybe in the short term, too.

"With the way the recovery's going, they probably will be the ones that show the quickest growth - or any growth at all for a short period of time," says Bo Szczepaniak, DLLR's program manager for labor-market projections.

That's probably what Martin, who gets his nursing degree next year, is counting on. He wants to help people, not just get a paycheck. But the aging of the population and the prospect that the country will need more like him in coming decades, he says - "I definitely noticed that."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.hancock17jul17,0,1833894.column

Nursing attracts more students

as Texas faces huge shortfall

By JESSICA MEYERS
Source: The Dallas Morning News

It's rewarding, companies are hiring and there's money in it. The secret's out about the perks of nursing, and North Texas colleges are clamoring to keep up.

Long second shrift to other medical training, nursing education has taken on new relevance as the country faces a drastic shortage of nurses and a thin job market overall.

Colleges are quickly expanding their programs to encompass lengthy waiting lists. And Gov. Rick Perry has just approved $5 million to establish a regional nursing education center at the University of Texas at Arlington, a crucial resource facility for the area's 14 nursing schools.

But, right now, demand exceeds space.

"There is absolutely an increasing interest in nursing as a marketable skill," said Nell Ard, the director of nursing at Collin College in McKinney. "With the economy, people are refocusing and if we could admit everyone that was qualified, we would double the program."

Just this spring, the number of applicants increased by 50, she said. The community college will begin offering an expedited program in the fall that provides licensed vocational nurses and paramedics with a registered nursing degree. It has recently added a nurse's aide course as well.

Four-year colleges such as Baylor University are reeling from the same paradoxical onslaught. Its nursing school in Dallas had double the number of applicants than it could accept for the coming fall. The school started a similar fast-track program this summer that helps college graduates change careers by running them through an intensive 12-month nursing program.

Filling the shortfall

The percentage of college freshmen who plan to major in nursing has gone up from 1.7 percent in 1988 to 4.5 percent last year, according to the Higher Education Research Institute.

But today's nursing students don't fit age or gender stereotypes. They range from college-bound seniors to midcareer professionals looking for stability and a chance to fill the shortfall of nurses in Texas – estimated at 22,000.

Kristen Beaver, who graduated in the top 10 percent of her class this year at Frisco's Liberty High School, said the "availability of jobs was important" in her decision to specialize in neonatal nursing at Baylor.

For the first time in recent years, a cluster of Collin County's valedictorians and salutations said they planned to major in nursing. The number of top Dallas County students going into nursing more than tripled from last year.

Older career-switchers are just as eager to enter a field with job prospects and a shifting sense of purpose.

"They're seen as professionals now, more a part of patient care, rather than the people who get a cup of water or bring a patient to the bathroom," said Linda Franklin, a 46-year-old Celina resident who rotated through several professions, including physical therapy and special education, before she discovered an occupation she considers truly holistic.

She'll finish her nursing studies this year at Collin College.

Lack of resources

The downside to this mounting interest is finding enough training venues and equipment necessary for teaching this specialized profession.

"Everyone has the same problem," said Robert Rosseter, associate executive director for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in Washington, D.C. "There are more students but not enough faculty and clinical sites."

Texas alone had to send away 8,000 qualified applicants from nursing programs last year, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.

This puts people like Bobbi Jo Leisey in a prime spot. The 39-year-old Plano resident and second-year Collin College nursing student already plans to work at the Children's Medical Center campuses.

"With such a shortage it's hard to get things done," she said. "So people are more aware of the role nurses play."

Why Nurse Stereotypes Are Bad for Health

By Theresa Brown, R.N.
Article Source: Well.Blogs.NYTimes.com

My husband was working recently on a New York Times crossword puzzle when he called me over. “Hey, look at this one.”

The clue was “White-cap wearer” and the answer was . . . Nurse.

What?! There may be nurses in the hinterlands who still wear white caps, but no nurse I trained with or work with would be caught on the floor in a “nurse’s cap.” The outdated suggestion of wearing a cap raises the hackles of every nurse I know.

In the new book “Saving Lives: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk,” co-authors Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers explore the dated and false images of nursing that still persist in the media, ranging from popular television shows to the crossword puzzle. They cited a February 2007 Times puzzle that listed “I.C.U. helpers” as a clue. (The answer was RNs.)

“Helpers?” the writers asked with exasperated italics. That one word encapsulates their critique of how nurses are typically portrayed on entertainment television, in movies and in most journalism.

Nurses are not “helpers,” the authors argue. Nurses work with medical doctors, but not for them. Hospital nurses are hired and fired by other nurses, answer to a unit manager who is a nurse, and follow the protocols set by more senior nursing officers. Health care works best when doctors and nurses communicate, but the authors note that nursing is an autonomous profession and the formal management structure of most hospitals keeps M.D.’s and R.N.’s separate and independent.

Maintaining a nurse’s independent status is about saving lives, note the authors. “One of nurses’ most important professional roles is to act as an independent check on physician care plans to protect patients and ensure good care,” they write.

In nursing school, we hear over and over that keeping patients safe is a crucial part of the job, but we rarely see that role of nurses portrayed in the media. It’s not that doctors constantly make mistakes — they don’t. But in the ordered chaos of the modern hospital it’s good to have the person who spends the most time with the patient — the nurse — keeping a watchful eye on his or her patient’s care, and nurses feel that obligation heavily.

Sandy Summers was an emergency department and intensive care nurse herself for many years and now runs a nonprofit advocacy organization called The Truth About Nursing. Her co-author, Harry Jacobs Summers, is a lawyer and senior adviser for the group.

“Saving Lives” is an important book because it so clearly delineates how ubiquitous negative portrayals of nursing are in today’s media, particularly three common stereotypes of nurses — the “Naughty Nurse,” the “Angel” and the “Battle Axe.” They argue that these images of nursing degrade the profession by portraying nurses as either vixens, saints or harridans, not college-educated health care workers with life and death responsibilities.

The popular medical television shows “ER,” “House,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice” and “Scrubs” receive the bulk of the authors complaints. They list numerous examples of nurses acting as “helpers” in these TV programs rather than autonomous and knowledgeable professionals. The writers also contend that these shows go out of their way to denigrate nurses and insult nursing as a profession. In one episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” for instance, a male doctor insults a female doctor by calling her a nurse.

Another problem is that popular television shows often show doctors doing nurse’s jobs: giving medications, checking I.V.’s, educating patients about treatment, and providing ongoing emotional support from shift to shift. Of course, the focus of the storyline is often on the physician, so it may simply be easier to write and follow if the doctors do all the work. A notable, but still controversial, exception is the new Showtime program “Nurse Jackie,” which features Edie Falco as a capable and assertive nurse, although she’s also highly troubled and hardly a role model.

The problem with how nurses are portrayed in the media is that it has the potential to devalue the way we view nurses in the real world. The result is less support for important policy issues like short staffing and nurse burnout.

I certainly never expected my beloved New York Times crossword to reinforce an outdated nursing stereotype. White-cap wearer, indeed! Nurses don’t need headgear to show the world what we do. It’s what’s inside of our heads that counts.

Theresa Brown is an oncology nurse and a regular contributor to the Well blog.