Future Problems

The nursing crisis has been around since I started in nursing, and there does not seem to be an end in sight. As these shortages continue, so does the number of people leaving the nursing profession because of stress and workload. One problem that seems to plaque the nursing profession is the old saying, "nurses eat their young". As gross a mental image as that provides, unfortunately it still remains true. We as a profession need to nurture and support each other and begin to build on the foundations of teamwork and cooperation among all age groups and education levels. There needs to be recruitment as well as retention of staff in order to improve the crumbling foundation of our health care system. If we can make our hospitals a great place to work, we may see an improvement in our health care team and the way they provide care to the community they serve.