I love what you wrote here- the primary reason why nursing education went to the university model was the need for nursing to be recognized as a profession that deserves to be paid well, have career advancement, and a respected part of the team- if we can keep that momentum I agree that hospitals should take over nursing education!
I have long thought it was a shame when they discontinued diploma programs. My experience was more of Associate Degree nurses starting out - SO green, compared to nurses I’d known who came from the diploma programs, who had so much more practical experience when they started. I didn’t realize that BSN nurses also what sounds like too little clinical experience. Love the idea of going back to the 3-year programs.
This all begs the question for me as to why are nurses "burned out" and leaving the profession in droves? Educate nurses better so they can exhaust themselves working around "dumb systems"? If the systems were changed to allow nurses to be nurses what would nurse education look like? Just thinking about all this.
There's a lot to think about as it pertains to American healthcare, its cracks, the causes, and the necessary repairs. I can only speak to my experience and anecdotal evidence (conversations, social media, blogs, etc.) regarding problems in nursing. They are absolutely nuanced, and stating them (and the potential solutions) should not be done with a broad brush.
In some areas, nurses are burning out because there's a discrepancy between expectation and reality from school to their daily work. What they/we "think" nursing will be is often very different than reality. Others are burning out because they have too many patients and not enough time to spend with each of them. healthcare workers are expected to document and spend increasing amounts of times staring at a screen instead of their patients, resulting in another discrepancy in their minds and hearts when they don't have enough time (either time with their patients, or they're spending overtime at work and not enough at home).
The author, Theresa Brown, RN really hit the nail on the head in her book "Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient". In it, she discusses the Compassion we come with, and the difficulty we have demonstrating it when we're dealing with our own moral distress and fatigue and disparities in care.
The problem (burnout, staffing shortages, whatever we choose to call it) didn't start with the pandemic, it was simmering long before. Now? I do believe there is a significant wave of untreated burnout impacting our frontline healthcare workers (not just nurses). I think the solution starts with patience, kindness, and questions to the frontline. Like, "what do you need", "how can I help", "what would you change", etc.
Then quiet as we allow the answer to unfold. Then? Action.
Jesse, Thank you for this. All of this. I am focused on the "dumb systems" and "integrity outages" that confront all clinicians and patients. I will follow along to gain and learn from your perspective.
What a thoughtful, amazing mind and writing ability you have. I’m not a nurse and I don’t think I could ever be one, nursing takes a person with so many different talents and many different kinds of intelligence. I think you should turn this into a TED talk. We’re all affected by nurses. I will never forget one kind, caring nurse after my c-section. She was a Godsend.
I love what you wrote here- the primary reason why nursing education went to the university model was the need for nursing to be recognized as a profession that deserves to be paid well, have career advancement, and a respected part of the team- if we can keep that momentum I agree that hospitals should take over nursing education!
Oh such a good point, Jen! Maintaining the professionalism with the richness of the older ways. Love it!
I have long thought it was a shame when they discontinued diploma programs. My experience was more of Associate Degree nurses starting out - SO green, compared to nurses I’d known who came from the diploma programs, who had so much more practical experience when they started. I didn’t realize that BSN nurses also what sounds like too little clinical experience. Love the idea of going back to the 3-year programs.
It's feeling like a shift is needed.
This all begs the question for me as to why are nurses "burned out" and leaving the profession in droves? Educate nurses better so they can exhaust themselves working around "dumb systems"? If the systems were changed to allow nurses to be nurses what would nurse education look like? Just thinking about all this.
There's a lot to think about as it pertains to American healthcare, its cracks, the causes, and the necessary repairs. I can only speak to my experience and anecdotal evidence (conversations, social media, blogs, etc.) regarding problems in nursing. They are absolutely nuanced, and stating them (and the potential solutions) should not be done with a broad brush.
In some areas, nurses are burning out because there's a discrepancy between expectation and reality from school to their daily work. What they/we "think" nursing will be is often very different than reality. Others are burning out because they have too many patients and not enough time to spend with each of them. healthcare workers are expected to document and spend increasing amounts of times staring at a screen instead of their patients, resulting in another discrepancy in their minds and hearts when they don't have enough time (either time with their patients, or they're spending overtime at work and not enough at home).
The author, Theresa Brown, RN really hit the nail on the head in her book "Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient". In it, she discusses the Compassion we come with, and the difficulty we have demonstrating it when we're dealing with our own moral distress and fatigue and disparities in care.
The problem (burnout, staffing shortages, whatever we choose to call it) didn't start with the pandemic, it was simmering long before. Now? I do believe there is a significant wave of untreated burnout impacting our frontline healthcare workers (not just nurses). I think the solution starts with patience, kindness, and questions to the frontline. Like, "what do you need", "how can I help", "what would you change", etc.
Then quiet as we allow the answer to unfold. Then? Action.
Thanks for being here, Bruce!
Jesse, Thank you for this. All of this. I am focused on the "dumb systems" and "integrity outages" that confront all clinicians and patients. I will follow along to gain and learn from your perspective.
What a thoughtful, amazing mind and writing ability you have. I’m not a nurse and I don’t think I could ever be one, nursing takes a person with so many different talents and many different kinds of intelligence. I think you should turn this into a TED talk. We’re all affected by nurses. I will never forget one kind, caring nurse after my c-section. She was a Godsend.
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement, Karen! It's/we're/I'm a continual work-in-progress :)
Jessie