May 6 – 12 is national nurses’ week. Most of us have interacted with the varying roles of nurses and witnessed their positive impact on our lives. Nurses are trusted advocates who ensure that individuals, families, and communities receive quality patient care.
I am a retired neonatologist who practiced for over thirty years in various NICUs. I could not have done my job in the NICU without the help of a nurse - every step of the way, every day, and in every way.
A nurse alerted me to patients’ problems, she called me to come and look at a new finding, she handed me instruments, she assisted me with a procedure, she let me know when a parent had questions, she ran to the labor and delivery suite with me to resuscitate a newborn infant. She helped me bundle up the new baby to show mom and dad.
She administered medications oh-so-carefully. She tediously checked central lines and tubes for proper function. She assisted radiology and ultrasound technicians to get the best image of the baby. She moved babies into transport incubators and carted babies off to be studied in another area of the hospital. Sometimes, she traveled on a transport call in an ambulance or helicopter to pick up a sick baby and bring them to the NICU.
She helped a new mother with her breast pump and treated her breastmilk like liquid gold, always encouraging the mother to keep pumping, and emphasizing the benefit only mom could provide in this way. She struggled to make sure that skin-to-skin holding was safe for mom and baby. (Just imagine moving a small baby hooked up to tubes and wires onto mom’s chest without pulling anything out!)
She was there for mom’s first feeding at the breast. She let me know when she thought a mom might be showing signs of depression. She patiently taught some moms how to bottle feed their baby when there was an uncoordinated suck and swallow.
A nurse kept the terrified parents calm and explained again all the things I had just told them. (sometimes parents are afraid to ask the doctor but will always ask their baby’s nurse). She was always at the bedside, a constant presence of knowledge, skill, and calm reassurance.
These are just a few of the invaluable tasks done by NICU nurses every hour of every day on my patients’ behalf. Nurses are an integral part of the NICU team of care. They are integral to all care teams.
As usual, the American public rated nurses the highest among a host of professionals, including medical doctors, engineers, dentists, and veterinarians, in Gallup’s annual professions poll.
There are approximately 3.5 million actively licensed, working RNs. This is a net increase of 400,000 licensed RNs since 2017. The nursing workforce is becoming more racially, and ethnically diverse, and male RNs now make up 12% of the workforce. RNs are getting younger with only one third of them older than 55 years. These numbers are from the recent HRSA.gov survey.
While overall job satisfaction among RNs remains high, around 80%, job satisfaction declined the most among hospital-based RNs. These nurses felt burned out at some point in their career, with most reporting burnout during the pandemic. Younger RNs under age 34 were hit the hardest.
The bad news: approximately 195,000 RNs left the workforce (5%) due to the pandemic. While some plan to return, 20% indicated that will not come back. The most common reasons for leaving the workforce are high-risk working conditions (51%), feelings of being overworked or burned out (50%), inadequate staffing (39%), and unsatisfactory safety protocols (37%).
Every two years the American Nurses Foundation and other national care groups survey thousands of nurses. At the end of the pandemic, U.S. nurses reported stress at work (68%), symptoms of burnout (57%) and feeling anxious at work (45%). More bad news: these survey numbers remain mostly unchanged for 2024.
Recently, nurses report that they feel like their employer does not care about their well-being (39%) and many state that they are overworked (45%). Almost half of nurses feel that their contributions to care are not appreciated by their employer.
Adequate compensation continues to be a main concern for nurses. In other surveys, three quarters of nurses (75%) want better pay, and inadequate staffing remains a huge concern, with 70% wanting to address the serious issue of inadequate staffing. Finally, most nurses want better schedules.
If you know a nurse, please give her, or him, a big hug. They work hard to care for their patients - us and our families. Tell them you appreciate what they do! We all need a reminder to be kind to the nurses we encounter along the way in our everyday lives.
If you know a hospital or practice administrator, a nursing manager or hospital vice-president, please consider having a conversation with them about the situation with their nursing staff. Ask what they are doing to support their nursing staff.
I remember our NICU nurse vividly — she was so kind, letting us know our baby would be OK. And it was a postpartum nurse who caught my preeclampsia! I
Such good memories. Most nurses are quick, skilled, calm and helpful!