ER Nurses Blog

Over 50% of workers are age 50 or over in the nation.(1) The graying of America’s working population is approaching and with it the understanding that knowledge transfer will be a much discussed challenge. Indeed organizations like the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are looking at various industries and the impact the retirement of the baby boomers will have on the workforce. The transition in technical knowledge based professions will be affected the most which includes nursing. Although there is a current artificial unemployment situation in the nursing profession this is short term. Issues of profitability and companies wanting to stay financially viable means teaching institutions have reduced expenses. For hospitals, training new nurses costs money so there is a reluctance to hire. But it is expensive to replace a nurse who has long tenure. However, when demand for services and nurse retirement peak, medical centers may find themselves unprepared due to curren

Consider these medical situations that nurses have been involved in: A child is admitted to ER with possible symptoms of abuse. A doctor allows the patient to be discharged despite the nurse’s intuition about the situation. The child returns to the ER 2 days later dead on arrival. (2) A patient was in severe enough pain to be crying out. Increased ammonia levels caused him mental confusion. The doctors wanted to monitor his mental state and ordered that pain medication be withheld. Twelve hours later he died. (3) Readers could list many more situations like this in the various settings where nurses practice. These situations involve peers, patients, caregivers, and administration. The resultant feelings of frustration and helplessness have given rise to the term moral distress. Factors included in this phrase are cognitive dissonance, and psychological disequilibrium. But behind those fancy scientific terms lie the real crux of the matter. The nurse feels helpless, angry,