By
Barbara Bronson Gray, MN, RN
Photo:
Eyewire/William Jacoby
July 12, 1999
Ever
wonder what patients, friends, and neighbors think about nursing?
A Harris Poll asked about the public’s perceptions of nursing
as a profession, what nurses do, and how nurses are educated. The
results revealed attitudes that experts say could have far-reaching
effects on health and education policy decisions in the next decade.
NurseWeek/HealthWeek
and Sigma Theta
Tau International, a 250,000-member honor society of nursing,
based in Indianapolis, commissioned the public opinion poll, conducted
by Louis Harris & Associates Inc. in June. More than 1,000 people
nationwide were surveyed.
When
They Grow Up
Using
a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very pleased and 1
being very displeased, how pleased would you be if your
son or daughter said that he or she wanted to become
a registered nurse?
|
|
Scale
|
Percentage
|
|
1
|
1%
|
|
2
|
1%
|
|
3
|
1%
|
|
4
|
2%
|
|
5
|
9%
|
|
6
|
3%
|
|
7
|
9%
|
|
8
|
20%
|
|
9
|
12%
|
|
10
|
41%
|
|
|
Happy
to hear it
As
the nursing shortage builds, some experts have wondered whether
the public’s attitudes about nursing could diminish the
number of new recruits into the profession. Yet the poll showed
that most respondents would be just as happy if their sons or
daughters said they wanted to become a nurse as if they chose
to become a teacher. In fact, having children opt for a career
as a lawyer, journalist, or police officer would make poll respondents
less happy than if their children chose nursing. Overall, 85
percent of those polled said they would be pleased if their
son or daughter became a registered nurse.
|
| |
|
|
Trust
us
An
overwhelming majority of the public—92 percent—said
they trust information about health care provided by registered
nurses, ranking nurses just 1 percentage point below physicians.
Nurses ranked higher than teachers or journalists. Only 2 percent
of respondents said they didn’t trust healthcare information
"at all" when it’s provided by physicians or
registered nurses.
|
Put
Your Trust In ...
In general, how much do you trust information about health
care provided by each of the following: |
 |
|
| |
| Some
nurses think even the small difference in the degree of trust
between physicians and nurses is worrisome. "I see a challenge
in the data, and I’d like to see the rating of trust equal
to physicians, or even greater," said Pamela Klauer Triolo,
PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president and chief nursing executive
at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. "We have to ask ourselves,
Why is it that patients don’t trust us as much as physicians?" |
| |
|
Well-prepared?
When
asked about the number of years of schooling they thought
nurses should have after high school, 76 percent of the
respondents said four years or more were necessary. Three
out of 10 said nurses should have five to 10 years of
education beyond high school. Respondents on both ends
of the education spectrum—those with only a high
school education as well as those who have done postgraduate
work—said nurses need more than four years of college
to do their jobs.
|
| |
|
Schooling
for the Job
Given what you know about nursing and what nurses
do, how many years of schooling do you think nurses
should have after they have completed high school?
(Partial results)
|
|
Years
|
Total
|
West
|
East
|
Midwest
|
South
|
|
4
|
47%
|
49%
|
42%
|
57%
|
43%
|
|
5
|
8%
|
10%
|
8%
|
6%
|
10%
|
|
6
|
14%
|
14%
|
18%
|
13%
|
13%
|
|
|
| |
|
"The
public recognizes the increased technology and the complexity
of health care and that you have to be smart to have a
degree behind you," said Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN,
FAAN, director of the Harvard Nursing Research Institute
and assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public
Health. "Nursing needs to trade on the public’s
trust and on our information [about the coming workforce
needs] and get state and federal legislation to subsidize
nursing education where they can."
By
2000, the Department of Health and Human Services projects
there will be 596,000 registered nurses with BSNs, with
a need for 854,000 baccalaureate nurses. It’s projected
that there will be 175,000 nurses with five or more years
of education, with a need for 377,000 in the healthcare
system. Projections for 2010 and 2020 continue to show
great disparities between the level of education nurses
will have and what will be needed. Entry-level BSN enrollment
has fallen 6.6 percent from a year ago, dropping for the
fourth year in a row, according to the American Association
of Colleges of Nursing in Washington.
Some
think the Harris Poll reveals a big gap between what consumers
think nurses know and what they actually bring to the
bedside. "Clearly, the public expects and supports
baccalaureate education as entry into practice,"
said Marjorie Barter, EdD, RN, associate professor and
chair, graduate programs, at the University of San Francisco.
Barter, who chairs the professional practice committee
for the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL),
thinks nursing organizations need to mobilize to make
a bachelor’s degree mandatory for registered nurses,
state by state, grandfathering in those who are currently
practicing nursing but have not obtained college degrees.
The ACNL is working to make a BSN the entry into practice
by 2010, she said.
|
|
What
Do You Do All Day?
As far as you know, do registered nurses: |
| |
 |
|
You
do what?
The
poll also revealed the public’s lack of understanding of
the full scope of nursing roles. When asked about specific duties
of registered nurses, the public recognized that nurses monitor
care and provide counseling to patients, but were less aware
that many nurses routinely diagnose, treat, and prescribe medication.
While 91 percent said nurses monitor the condition of patients
and 69 percent said nurses provide counseling to patients, only
34 percent thought nurses diagnose health conditions, and just
23 percent said nurses decide on treatments for patients. "This
data indicates the need to develop image and media campaigns
that show advanced roles of nursing and to market those roles,"
Buerhaus said.
|
|
Shortage
worries
Asked
about the emerging nursing shortage, more than half of Americans
believe the quality of health care is affected "a great
deal" by a shortage of nurses. The poll indicates the public
is very concerned about how the availability of nurses will
affect their health care. Triolo thinks this data poses a tremendous
challenge for nurses in marketing their work to potential nursing
students. "In terms of the desirability of the profession,
there’s a challenge for us here," she said. "We
are our own worst enemy when it comes to talking [disparagingly]
about our profession outside the hospital."
|
| |
|
| Buerhaus
said he thinks the high percentage of people who would be
happy if their son or daughter chose nursing reflects the
public’s core belief in the future demand for nurses.
"Nursing is not seen as a glamorous profession or one
that commands a high income," he said. "But the
public is smart. There’s an underlying concern that
the economy could worsen. They’ve heard about the coming
shortage, and they anticipate earnings will rise and jobs
in nursing will be plentiful." |
Worried
About the Shortage?
Many people believe that there is currently a shortage
of nurses in the United States. How much, do you think,
is the quality of health care that people in this
country receive affected by a shortage of nurses? |
 |
|
|
What
do you think?
Email us at
editor@nurseweek.com
|
