Pathways to Nursing and Nursing in Crisis
Advance Local operates 24 newspapers and 9 websites across the country, including The Oregonian. I worked with the editors there to produce two pieces for their special edition on the nursing profession in honor of WHO’s declaration of 2020 as The Year of the Nurse. Although the WHO made this determination mid-2019, before knowing just how important the nursing profession would become in a new decade, the honor is fitting.
For these special edition pieces, I interviewed dozens of nurses across the country, working within their field in different capacities to address the coronavirus pandemic. One thing held true throughout: nurses are amazing. I was honored to be a part of this homage, published in multiple newspapers across the nation.
Below are excerpts from both pieces, which appeared separately in different platforms. Each link is to a PDF document a print edition in which the articles appeared.
Photo credit to Rusty Watson on Unsplash
The first piece, “Pathways to Nursing: Multiple approaches aim to address the critical nationwide shortage of nurses in the immediate future and beyond” was the center article in each special edition.
“As the coronavirus spotlights nurses and other health care workers, a new generation is deciding whether to enter the field. With several pathways to becoming an RN and multiple opportunities for advancement within the profession, nursing has been an attractive job choice for those hoping to launch a new or (often) second career.
One question is how the pandemic might change that. Another is how rapidly the profession can evolve to provide wider, smoother pathways to career advancement, and who will want to take advantage of them.
Even before the outbreak, industry experts predicted an increase of up to 15 percent in demand for registered nurses by 2026, making nursing a top-rated profession for job growth and job security. The Health Resources and Services Administration has projected that more than 1 million registered nurses will reach retirement age within the next 10-15 years.
Admission to nursing programs is cut- throat, however, and there are not enough qualified nurse educators in schools and uni- versities to meet demand. And, as the health care industry grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus, many fear more practicing nurses will leave the field, exacerbating an already-worrisome nationwide shortage.”
Read more at OregonLive (the piece is on page 6 of a PDF document)
>> https://static.oregonlive.com/news/TheOregonian_20200517_ZYearoftheNurse.pdf
The second article focused on those nurses who had left, retired, t or were in lighter duty nursing work, but had volunteered to step up to fight the coronavirus in their region. It was called “Warhorses of a pandemic,” and it was an inspirational topic to cover!
“As COVID-19 swept across the country, killing patients and medical staff alike, it posed a painful question for senior nurses no longer serving in emergency rooms or inten- sive care units: Did they want to go back? How much should they risk their own health, or the health of their loved ones, to save per- fect strangers? Many chose to return to the front lines. Many others came out of retire- ment to support their former colleagues.
Coronavirus is especially dangerous for older people and people with pre-existing conditions. Debra Amerson is 63; fatigue and health issues convinced her to step out of the Intensive Care Unit at a Texas hospital years ago, for lighter duty in the Post-Anesthesia Recovery Unit (PACU),
”I originally went to the PACU to help ease some of the stress,” she said, ”But now that the coronavirus is here, I told my boss, ‘I’ll go back to the ICU, I’ll do what I have to, I want to help.’ It’s what nurses do.””
Read the full article in the Ann Arbor News print edition (last page)
>> https://static.mlive.com/news/AnnArborNews_20200517_NYearoftheNurse.pdf
