Letter: State must make better effort to retain nurses

Monday, March 1, 2004 | 8:45 a.m.

This is in reference to Helen Miramontes' Jan. 21 letter regarding the nursing shortage. The writer suggests that the shortage could be addressed if elected officals were willing to fund the expansion of current nursing programs and establish new nursing programs and scholarship opportunities.

While it is important that we maintain funding for nursing education, it is difficult to justify increased state spending on nursing programs given current budgetary burdens. When you consider that one-third of all new nurses will leave hospital nursing within three years of graduating from nursing school, it would be fiscally irresponsible for our Legislature to continually throw money into nursing education, without addressing nurse retention.

A close analysis of Department of Labor and Nursing Board statistics indicate that there are more than enough trained and educated nurses to fill current needs. Nursing schools are graduating new nurses, but hospital working conditions are driving them away. As a result, many nurses are opting for less stressful nursing careers in doctors' offices and with insurance companies, or they are opting out of nursing altogether.

If state lawmakers want to ensure that there will be enough nurses to care for hospital patients, they would do well to support measures that improve working conditions for nurses. By banning mandatory overtime and requiring safe nurse-to-patient ratios, our state could be on the forefront of efforts to alleviate the exodus of nurses from the nursing profession.

MELANIE SISSON