Nursing Choices

Citation: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec

26, 1990 v264 n24 p3117(5)

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Subjects: Nurses_Job satisfaction

Nursing_Study and teaching

Nursing_Laws, regulations, etc.

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Abstract: Nursing as a profession faces important problems, as can be seen by the conflicting expectations attached to the current situation, in which nurses are better-educated than ever before, but still expected to ''serve at the bedside''. An overview of the future of nursing is presented, with input from health professionals in administrative, research, and academic positions. Nurses, in general, prefer to work in more personalized settings than the large, 21st-century hospital is likely to offer. The pressures in such institutions are discussed. In coming years, nurses will face a variety of non-hospital job choices, including peer review organizations, work for insurance companies, outpatient and home care, rehabilitative care, hospice work, and health care administration. Rural areas, which have experienced even more nursing shortages than cities, attract nurses with nursing diplomas or associate degrees, rather than a

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, there is more of a concentration of diploma and associate degree nurses, who, by virtue of their education and training, are geared toward hospital practice, so they tend to cluster around hospitals," she says. The recent decline in the number of rural hospitals thus affects the supply of nurses. Even where hospitals remain, she says, many are small and therefore have difficulty staffing for constantly varying occupancy. As a result, many rural hospital nurses are employed part-time, which causes problems for them in terms of employee benefits and quality of life. Rural nurses also have a thinner support network, she says, citing both fewer nursing assistants and physicians to take referrals. As a result, "there is a need for nurses who function in expanded roles, such as nurse practitioners and nurse midwives. There is also a tremedous need for case management and social services; the social side of health is simply more important in rural areas." However, rural health is facing enormous problems across the board; the future availability and role of nursing in these areas is only one of them and is unlike to be solved except in that context. Long-Term Care Another area, long neglected by society, is nursing h
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Abstract Nursing, Stasis Change, Ridge Ill, Bonds SPITE, Sister Marie, Veterans Affairs, Nurses' Association, Competition Needless, University Pennsylvania, Easley Especially, health care, hospital nursing, patient care, nursing homes, health nursing, nursing practice, nursing profession, independent practice, nurse practitioners, primary care, executive director american, hospital administrators nurses, department veterans affairs, community health nursing, autonomous nursing practice,
Approximate Word count = 5486
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)

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