In hospitals all over the country, patients routinely share rooms with one or more other patients, a practice that is proving deadly. They also share nurses, and all too often there are not enough of them to go around.

Evidence has shown that the number of people infected by these bugs can be greatly diminished in two ways: First, by every patient having their own room with their own bathrooms, and secondly, by having enough nurses available so that uninfected patients are not cared for by nurses who have been caring for infected patients. Additionally, having enough nurses available helps in infection control measures, as nurses are often the ones who implement these measures.

If this is known, why is more not being done? Although the cost of revamping currently existing hospitals to make all the rooms private would be astronomical, so is the cost of caring for the 10% of patients who require extended hospital stays because they contracted a nosocomial infection in the very place that was to help them get well. And we cannot discount the 20,000 deaths caused by these infections each year.

In at least 42 states, efforts are underway to counteract the problem. The American Institute of Architects has called for 100% private rooms as the minimum standard for some units in general hospitals in their document “Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities.”

This is definitely a step in the right direction, and it is likely that the remaining states that have not adopted these guidelines will do so, as people become more aware and concerned about this issue.

Source:

Nicholas Kohler, (2008). Death Traps. Maclean’s. p.40

One of the suggested solutions to the nursing shortage crisis has been to hire foreign nurses to fill the void. In theory, this makes perfect sense – they need the work and we need the nurses. Foreign nurses often receive a free education in their country of origin and are willing to work for less wages than domestically trained nurses. Why is this a problem?

The law of supply and demand is the basic underpinning of economic theory. When there is a shortage of labor in a market economy, wages increase as employers compete with one another to attract workers. If the shortage persists, wages and other compensations rise until enough workers are attracted by the higher wages and compensation; at this point, equilibrium is reached and supply and demand is balanced.

The practice of hiring foreign nurses to address the crisis may be beneficial in the short term but may worsen the situation in the long term. Foreign nurses willing to work for less pay and benefits falsely lower wages below what they would be in a fair market. Driving down nursing wages will result in nurses leaving the profession to work in other occupations.

In eight National Sample Surveys of the Registered Nurse Population (NSSRN) conducted between 1977 and 2004, a disturbing trend emerged: “According to the 2004 survey, there were an estimated 2,909,467 registered nurses in the United States as of March 2004. Of these, 16.8%, or 489,790, were not employed in nursing. Of those RN’s who were not employed in nursing, many were retired and others had left for family reasons. However, an estimated 209,140 to 241,563 left “for personal career reasons…or reasons connected to the workplace”*.

The NSSRN found that there were several reasons why these nurses chose to leave nursing. Some found that their current position was more rewarding. Others cited better wages, better hours, and concerns about their personal safety as reasons for leaving nursing.

Hiring foreign nurses to address the nursing shortage is not likely to fix the problem. Eventually, foreign nurses will leave nursing for the same reasons that many nurses now leave the profession: low wages, long working hours, and concerns about their personal safety as well as dissatisfaction with working conditions. In the meantime, hiring foreign nurses to fill the gap will only drive down wages and force more domestic nurses out of the profession.

The cure for the nursing shortage may be to address the issues that are leading to job dissatisfaction and to make nursing, as a profession, more attractive to those contemplating nursing as a career.

*Elgie, R. “Politics, Economics, and Nursing Shortages: A Critical Look at United States Government Policies.” Nurs Econ. 2007;25(5):285-292.