Category: Employment

Recently I’ve read several articles about why nurses leave the bedside.  We all know the sobering fact that hospitals are now run like corporations and seem to be more focused on the bottom line rather than on patient care. Staffing is usually an issue and that everything that is required is difficult to get done in the time allotted. Think […]

Just about every day I hear that nurses cannot take their required breaks.  If they do take a break, it puts their patients at risk by giving the other nurses more patients to watch. In fact, several lawsuits have been filed against health care institutions claiming that nurses were not getting the breaks there were supposed to take and, even […]

I have written on this topic frequently because the nursing shortage is expected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Registered Nurse is among the top occupations for growth through the year 2022.  The field is expected to grow 19% between now and then. A 2013 survey […]

I believe that nurses have the answers to the problems in health care, but either they are afraid to speak up or others don’t listen.  So, how can we make change that will really occur? When you want to make change, think about the end result you are seeking.  That is where you start.  That is your intention of what […]

  A completely unscientific review of the nurses who I have represented for licensing issues shows that the vast majority of them worked the night shift. The areas where some nurses seem to get in trouble are: (1)    sleeping on the job – because they haven’t adjusted to the night shift schedule; (2)    taking Ambien for sleep during the day […]

There are more than 3-million nurses in the United States and approximately one-third, about 1-million, are “baby boomers” who are expected to retire soon. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1.2-million job openings for nurses by 2020 because of growth and the need for replacements.  Right now, hospitals are concerned and I have noticed more recruitment […]

  A Houston, Texas nurse has filed suit against her employer because she was not given her lunchbreaks.  Even though she worked when she should have been eating her lunch, she was NOT paid for that time.  She was deprived of her break and forced to work for free. This facility had a policy that you only clocked in when […]

Allnurses.com recently released the results of a 2015 survey of nearly 19,000 nurses across the United States. The survey brought to light several interesting salary discrepancies between nurses of different genders, educational backgrounds, and locations. The annual salary of nurses by gender reveals that male nurses tend to earn slightly more than their female counterparts. The fact that men earn […]

I received an anonymous letter in the mail from one of my readers in response to an article I had written.  She was concerned that nothing was being done about some of the injustices in nursing. At first I felt bad that for whatever reason my article didn’t benefit her.  I know not everyone is going to resonate with my […]

When I was a nursing student, I thought for sure I wanted to be either a labor and delivery nurse or a pediatric nurse.  During my clinicals in obstetrics, I had a patient whose baby died in utero and she delivered the baby knowing that it would not be born alive. That was so emotionally difficult for me that I […]