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I'm ready for nursing, but is nursing ready for me?
Supposedly, the nursing shortage has become a crisis,
and a crisis calls for prompt, creative mobilization
of resources. So, where are the nurse refresher courses?
I live in Northern California, about 60 minutes from
two major metropolitan areas. My nine million neighbors
and I are served by world-class hospitals, premier universities
with teaching hospitals and outstanding private colleges;
yet, in this milieu, only four nurse refresher courses
are available.
Of these four, two are offered by junior colleges,
one by a private nurse educator and one by an agency
that gives the enrollment challenge of providing neither
phone nor e-mail access on its Web site. One course
refuses candidates who have been out of nursing for
more than 15 years, and they all turn out only a handful
of nurses.
Why aren't potential nursing employers involved in
this? Offering a mechanism (nurse refresher course)
for a product that the market declares is in critical
demand is good business. Why are employers instead squandering
their money on sign-up bonuses to lure nurses? This
will never generate the critical mass of nurses needed.
How to go about tapping into the pool of former nurses?
Some suggestions for public health agencies, hospitals,
clinics, any potential employer:
- Create nurses aide opportunities for returning nurses.
Make these short-term, part-time positions in order
to give returnees a chance to provide care and survey
the nursing landscape. At the same time, you increase
your labor pool and have a chance to evaluate returnees.
- Likewise, encourage returnees to work with or as
a unit secretary/clerical staff in order to enhance
familiarity with drugs and procedures.
- Design curriculum in conjunction with the state
board of nursing and by reviewing other refresher
courses. The scarcity of these will make this a brief
review process. Have the program coordinated by your
institution's nurse recruiter and nursing administration.
Too much work? Couldn't be any more work than the present
frustrating job of trying to find nursing staff.
- Recruit inhouse expertise for the various presentations
in the course. Most nurses would relish the chance
to share their knowledge and would appreciate the
acknowledgement of their skills that being tapped
as a speaker for this course would bring.
- Publicize your course in nursing publications, community
newspapers, soccer newsletters (soccer moms had lives
before soccer), gym and athletic club inserts-the
list is endless.
- Post the program on your state board of nursing
Web site. Emphasize clearly that your institution
values returning nurses both for their previous nursing
experiences and for their life experiences since.
Prepare for the deluge.
- And, of course, charge for this. Charge because
this program, like any health care provider education,
is labor-intensive. Charge so that you can give your
inhouse speakers payment, which enhances their sense
of value in the institution. Work with your institution's
administration and with the board of nursing for pricing
such a course and for any nonprofit/for-profit issues.
I am a master's-prepared nurse who, for more than a
decade, worked variously as a nurse practitioner, college
instructor and clinical coordinator of an outpatient
department. Then, for two decades, I was home raising
four children.
My next decade? Well, I had hoped it would be nursing.
But is nursing ready for me?
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