Every time a paper is submitted to the journal, the question has to be answered: Is this paper appropriate for the journal? Is the topic relevant to the plastic surgery specialty, is it of interest to our readers? Is the paper important: Does it deserve a place in the nursing literature? Do I like it? Is it important to me?
Of course, the paper goes out to the reviewers and they are asked a number of specific questions about the paper. However, if they do not think the paper is pertinent to nurses, they would let me know.
I do not doubt that there are times that readers wonder why an article is in the journal. Why is the article on insomnia, inhalant insulin, or nurse recruitment in the journal? The articles are on general nursing topics. They are interesting. Well written. A number of our readers read only one journal, so it is a service to them to get the information here. Since plastic surgery nurses care for complex patients, we cannot afford to have narrow vision, and have to know a lot more about healthcare than just our subspecialty.
This issue includes an article by Jennifer Westendorf about nurse recruitment and retention. Despite their specialties, the nurse shortage affects all nurses. The shortage affects all those who need healthcare. Jennifer recommends that nurses band together to do what they can to ease the nurse shortage. Her article offers many interesting suggestions. Perhaps, each of us can take one of the suggestions and pass it along to the administrators in our healthcare institution. If you have an idea on how your institution can retain nurses, pass that along too. Jennifer points out how the nurse shortage will be extended to 800 000 nurses by 2020, when many of us will be retired. What kind of things can your institution do to keep you working longer?
I know what would keep me working longer: school bus hours!! That means, working from 9:00 AM (after the school bus leaves) until 2:30 PM (before it returns) so I can be home for my child when it is most important. That way, I would be willing to work more days because my child would not feel my absence!! Years ago, I proposed those hours to a boss and she balked, citing that my peers "wouldn't go for it, they'd be jealous." The hospital is a busy place during those hours: the patients need morning care, treatments, diagnostic procedures, patient teaching, discharges, not to mention covering for other nurses so they can eat lunch!! I imagine that if I asked again now, the response I would get to this request would be different. As the shortage worsens, it is a good time to ask administrators for the flexibility you need.
One point that Jennifer Westendorf made in her article really stuck with me. To recruit a young person into nursing, we should start that recruitment effort with fourth graders, since by the fifth grade, children have already made decisions about which careers are worthwhile. I live with a fourth grader who has firmly declared that she will be a veterinarian. To ask her classmates, they are pretty firm as well. Surely, the majority will change their minds on their career path by the time they get to college, but it seems like this is a fertile time to talk up nursing!!
I participated in career day at my daughter's school, and met with 4 small groups of high school students. Luckily, many of them were thinking of healthcare careers. A few had been accepted into colleges of nursing. It is not surprising that healthcare would be a popular choice now, since the school is in a Detroit suburb, and the unemployment rate in this automotive city is dismal. However, nursing was not on the radar for most of the students. "I hadn't thought much about it," one said. "I'm not much for taking orders," remarked another. From what the students said, they were either uninformed or misinformed.
How hard would it be for each of us to make sure to talk up nursing with a few young people that we know? Get yourself invited to career day, or talk to your young relatives, neighbors, babysitters, brownie troop. Invite a child to "take your child to work day." When I met with the highschoolers, they were interested in what nurses did in a typical day, and the challenges that we face. It was important to discuss with them how we use autonomy and creativity in problem solving. They seemed to respond positively to my tales of all of the different jobs I have held in nursing: clinical practice, administration, teaching, editing. There are so many things we can do with our nursing careers. Some of you out there own your own businesses. These are the things that are interesting to young people, and talking about what we do helps clarify some of the misconceptions they have about nurses "following orders" all day.
An exciting program that is underway in the Detroit area is a cooperative effort between Michigan State University and William Beaumont Hospitals. They are setting up a program to educate displaced autoworkers to become nurses. These adult learners see the exciting opportunities and job security that nursing provides.
Nursing has been good to me, and I suspect it has been good to you too. (My assumption is that nurses who read professional journals are dedicated practitioners and leaders with enthusiasm for the profession.) What I treasure most is that I have never had a day in nursing that I was bored, or that I was worried about job security. Like the VISA commercial: A stimulating career with great job security: Priceless!!
I do worry about the lack of nurses coming up behind us. Who will take care of us in our old age? I cannot picture myself shuffling around the PACU at 75 years of age, but I think it will be hard to quit knowing that there are not enough nurses to care for our patients. At the least, we should all try to recruit one nurse into the profession to replace ourselves.