Nurses leaving hospitals, union says

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Feb. 18, 2002 | 10:39 a.m.

Long hours, risky patient loads and understaffing are driving Nevada's nurses from hospital jobs in record numbers, according to a new union survey being released today.

"I'm very afraid for Nevada's hospitals," said Christy Sawyer, a registered nurse who helped coordinate the survey for the Service Employees International Union Local 1107.

The union contacted the 1,450 registered nurses known to have left hospital jobs in the past two years, and 190 of them responded to the mailed survey, Sawyer said.

Sawyer said she was particularly concerned that 45 percent of those who responded did not return to work at another hospital. Instead the nurses chose doctors' offices, surgery centers or insurance companies, the survey showed. Some have left the profession entirely, Sawyer said.

Ann Lynch, spokeswoman for Sunrise Hospital, questioned this morning whether the union's survey qualified as solid research, given the fact that just 13 percent of the more than 1,400 nurses contacted actually replied. The nurses who did respond are likely those "with axes to grind," Lynch said.

"Getting less than 200 nurses out of 1,400, that not a large enough return to draw any real conclusions," Lynch said. "(The survey) may tell you something, but it doesn't tell you everything."

Sawyer also cited a report released last week from the Nevada Board of Nursing showing at least 2,000 registered nurses living in the state have chosen to work in other fields -- more than enough to fill the state's 1,283 hospital vacancies.

For years hospital administrators have used the nationwide nursing shortage as an excuse to under-staff, Sawyer said. The result is the nurses still on the job burn out faster under the heavy workload, she said.

At least one federal study seems to support some union leaders' claims that the nursing shortage is artificial. Labor economist Linda Levine, in a Congressional Research Services report in May 2001, said she was unable to find evidence that registered nurses were in short supply. Instead, Levine said, there is a "misdistribution of labor," with many nurses choosing non-hospital jobs or other fields entirely.

Lynch said she intended to read the union's survey and compare its findings with the medical center's own exit interviews with departing nurses. Most of the Sunrise nurses who leave cite family circumstances, such as plans to move out of state or a husband taking a new job as the reason for leaving, Lynch said.

"Sunrise has worked hard on nurse retention, not just recruitment," Lynch said. "I think we've done fairly well."

Of the nurses who responded to the union survey, 72 percent cited poor working conditions as the primary reason for leaving their hospital jobs. One nurse said she was treated like a "factory worker" by hospital administrators. Nearly 65 percent of the nurses said they left their hospital jobs because they were routinely told to care for too many patients at one time.

Two Sunrise Hospital nurses say they were fired last May after refusing to accept risky assignments in a cardiac care ward. The matter has gone to arbitration.

"A nurse puts her license on the line when she accepts a dangerous assignment," Sawyer said. "It's extremely frustrating to nurses to not be able to give the best care possible to every patient. That's why we all got into this business in the first place."

The union's report comes at a time when five new hospitals are in various stages of development in the Las Vegas Valley. Bill Welch, president of the Nevada Hospital Association, said the enormous growth in Southern Nevada's population will support the new hospitals, but finding enough qualified staff is a serious stumbling block.

Another wrinkle comes from California, where recently announced mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios will require many hospitals to add additional staff in order to be in compliance with the new law.

"There's going to be an exodus," said Sawyer, who added that she holds dual licenses in California and Nevada. "I've talked to a few nurses already who are considering the move."

The union is recommending several steps to bring nurses back to the job, including limiting mandatory overtime and setting minimum staffing standards.

Nevada's Legislature took several steps in the last session to address the nursing shortage, including additional funds to expand enrollment at the state's nursing schools. The state programs graduated 277 nurses last year, but the hospital association predicts 662 new nurses will be needed each year in Nevada through 2008.

The hospital association is also launching an aggressive recruitment campaign aimed at students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Nevada has the nation's worst nursing ratio in the country, with just 520 nurses for every 100,000 residents.