Urgent care for nurses

When considering careers, nursing seems like a good one, particularly since demand has outweighed supply for some years. The problem is, nursing isn’t easy, especially in today’s health care climate, and about one in five new nurses quits within a year. Fortunately, medical facilities and educators are recognizing the importance of nurse retention and are making attempts to provide better training and support to nurses. Traditionally, freshly licensed nurses received hands-on training in a trial-by-fire method. This, as one might imagine, can cause quite a lot of stress and anxiety and can result in new nurses quitting. Some hospitals are now implementing extended residencies for nurses so they can have more time to train and gain skills. New nurses are often paired up with experienced nurses and share patients, assigned mentors, and have classroom instruction time as well.

Patients and the public should feel encouraged by these new programs. How would you like to be a hospital patient cared for by a green nurse with little supervision or support? How confident would you feel having this nurse give you medications or put in an IV?

This was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 and is filed in the Patient Care categories.