Nursing shortage blamed on hospital working conditions

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

Nevada's nursing crisis won't be solved until hospitals improve working conditions, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday.

Reid joined Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.; Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas; and Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, at a town hall meeting sponsored by the Nurse Alliance of Service Employees International Union Local 1107.

"We don't have a shortage of nurses," Reid told an audience dominated by union members. "We have a shortage of nurses willing to work."

The meeting took place at the Winchester Community Center in Las Vegas on the same day that the union released the results of a survey sent to the more than 1,400 nurses who left Nevada hospital jobs in the past two years.

Of the 190 nurses who responded to the survey, more than 70 percent cited poor working conditions and under-staffing as a reason for quitting.

"Nurses are overworked, underpaid and you don't get the respect you deserve," Berkeley told the standing-room only crowd of about 100.

Union spokeswoman Christy Sawyer said at least 2,000 registered nurses in Nevada are working in other fields, more than enough to fill the state's 1,200 hospital vacancies.

Nurses won't be tempted back to the job unless the hours, pay and benefits are significantly improved, she said.

A new law in California that set mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in hospital wards could be devastating for Nevada, Koivisto said. Many California hospitals now must hire more nurses and will likely try to lure workers from Nevada, she said.

Bill Welch, president of the Nevada Hospital Association, took issue with the union's conclusion that there are enough nurses to fill the vacancies if the right terms are offered.

Welch said the state Board of Nursing contacted the nonworking nurses and fewer than a dozen expressed any interest returning to the job.

If Nevada decided to set nurse-to-patient ratios, Clark County hospitals would be forced to shut down, Welch said. The county's emergency rooms are continually forced to divert patients because of staffing shortages, he said.

Welch was not a participant in the town hall meeting. He said the hospital association learned of the town hall late Friday afternoon and was not invited to take part.

Maryanne Dawicki, a union spokeswoman, said Monday no hospital administrators were asked to be panelists because the goal was a nonthreatening environment for the nurses to talk with the legislators.