Nursing Assistants Needed

I am sure just about everyone realizes that this country faces a severe shortage of not only licensed nurses to care for our growing population of elderly, but for the very important place of certified Nursing Assistants in our healthcare facilities. I wonder if the same group of legislators, job corps, and agency staff are alert to the serious need for Certified Nursing Assistants as well. No television ads for CNA's, no magazine articles to address this issue are found outside of medical magazines.

Not only is our 'gen-x' population approaching the stage in their lives where they must think seriously about career, but we as nurses, administrators, and human resource personnel must also be in tune as to how to influence their decisions as to what careers they will pursue.

The nursing industry as a whole has not ever had to face this serious issue in the past 30 or more years. To enable 'our' recruiters, newspaper ads, and facilities themselves to entice future aides and nurses to enter the health care field we must first realize the culture in which they have grown up.

In the 70's and 80's it seems that the work was not as stressful as it is today, and much thought has gone into discovering the differences. The internet, television, and latchkey kids have changed the mindset of our future. For most young people, they have been taught that they have a "right" to do what they want for a living...not to say that in itself is bad, but especially in healthcare, the work is hard and the rewards are few, ( speaking of work for pay) issues, especially in rural areas of our country. The increasing involvement of families in their loved ones care has also created challenges that we 'baby-boomers' never had to deal with. The "right to sue" has created a fear and an extra burden of stress to those who 'just wish to do the right thing' for others.

Creative scheduling of nursing staff is necessary now. Gone are the days where all the staff worked scheduled blocks of times and days. For example, it is common now to find employees needing to work four to five hour shifts three days a week with every other Monday and Saturday off. Piecing together a schedule is a full time job in and of itself now, and any facility would be at a great disadvantage without a competent scheduler as they come to know the staff better even than Human Resource Dept. personnel do.

Nurse educators, charge nurses and others must deal with this generation almost opposite of how they were dealt with to avoid blame, accusations of 'verbal abuse', and 'yelling' at the staff. Approaching the younger generation takes skill and an extra helping of empathy, and realizing that schools in general are not able to prepare them as well as 'we' were prepared to enter the work force.

Childcare issues and cost also greatly affect the ability of young workers to completely 'give' of themselves to a full-time position. With all of these issues facing the healthcare industry today, it becomes a challenge to us all to continue to change the face of nursing care while at the same time maintaining a balance for quality care for our aging population.