According to a report issued by the Department of Labor (1998), as the largest health care occupation, there are over 2.2 million nurses currently working in the profession. About three out of every five of these nurses work in hospitals (both inpatient and outpatient departments. Others work mostly in offices, clinics and other health and/or home health care organizations and agencies (e.g., nursing homes, social service agencies, religious organizations, etc.) About one out of every four nurses work part-time.
In terms of general training, the Department of Labor (1998) reports that in all States, nurses are required to pass a national licensing exam and can be licensed in one or more States. Licenses must be periodically renewed and some states require continuing education for license renewal.
With respect to education, there are three major educational paths to nursing: Associate degree in nursing (A.D.N.), Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (B.S.N.), and diploma. A.D.N. programs. A.D.A. programs, offered by community and junior colleges, take about 2 years to complete. Diploma programs, given in hospitals, last two to three years. Only a small number of programs, about four percent, offer diploma level degrees (U.S. Department of Labor, 1998).
Generally, licensed graduates of any of the three program types qualify for entry level positions as staff nurses. A growing number of programs require clinical experience in a wide variety of health care settings (U.S. Department of Labor, 1998).
While the foregoing training and education required of nurses seems substantial, Rowland (2000) informs that in a report issued by the Institute of Medicine, it was found that up to 98,000 patients die in hospitals every year due to medical errors and that nursing mistakes alone are responsible for thousands of these injuries and deaths. Causes were attributed to over-work and poor training. More training hours is said to be one w...