9. Never mind not getting breaks—what about not getting vacations? There may not be a nursing shortage where you work, but it still may be difficult to get your vacation time because there are no nurses to cover for you. It happens more often than non-nurses may think.
Scrubs reader comment: “I’m a nurse with two years’ seniority on my unit and still cannot get vacation time during the summer months. We only allow two RNs to have off any given week and RNs are only allowed to take one week (if it is available in the summer).”
10. Are nurses the solution to spiraling health costs? To end the year’s news, how about something positive? In this day and age of trying to find how and where to cut costs in the healthcare system, the answer may be right in front of us. Nurses are not only educated in how to help patients heal, but are taught how to help prevent illness or to help patients maintain their health status. By hiring nurses to focus on this aspect of healthcare, the astronomical cost of medical care may actually drop.
Scrubs reader comment: “I think that nurses are the ideal ‘home base’ for patients… However, nurses are increasingly spread thinner and thinner…leaving us with little time to do what we know is right for our patients. This has led to demise in many areas of nursing and healthcare as a whole. If the nation wants improvement in healthcare, a definite line needs to be drawn in how thinly nurses can be spread.”
What do you think was the most controversial news item this year?
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