Report: 90% of nurses considering leaving the profession in the next year

My sister is a RN training to be a NP. Caring for others has always been in her blood. But I can tell she's not happy over the last few years (even prior to covid).

This survey has such a low number of responses to make any meaningful conclusion from. 200 people surveyed. Non surprising stats like 71% of respondents having 15+ years of experience wanting to quit.

What really should be the lesson here is that capitalism does what capitalism does best:

It cuts costs.

- More patients to nurse ratio (Simply unsafe given most medical professionals already lack sleep)

- Little to no compensation relief on the way. (Huge boom of travel nursing during pandemic)

- Excess job responsibilities (More paperwork/aid duties, less actual nursing)

- New talent / old talent challenges (Larger incentive to switch jobs, hard to properly train)

We better figure out something soon. The medical field feels like it's holding on by a thread. Insurance companies run rampant with no end in sight. Health care continues to increase in costs and fail patients to the point of walking out or even dying to get care.

While I think generally speaking, nurses like my sister just want to feel appreciated like other jobs people are burning out in. You can do that in many different ways:

- Don't overwork them.

- Don't underpay them.

- Don't give them unwanted responsibilities.

- Most importantly, listen to them.

I think you may find that people actually do love the profession as it's one of the most noble professions out there, just that they are being forced out of doing something they love because of greed. Greed is not good.

Opposite anecdote: For done reason about 10 years ago my asthma that had just been a minor nuisance and didn’t stop me from running, teaching fitness classes part time, etc. for a decade, sent me to the hospital and kept me coughing for nearly a year.

The doctors and specialists gave me every treatment under the son to no avail.

Then I did my own research and read I should try OTC psuedophredrine. It worked like a charm. Now every time I catch a cold (and when I got Covid), I pop psuedophredrine for a few days and I am good.

Yes, psuedophredrine is suggested to treat Covid if you have virus induced asthma.

Second anecdote: I have relatively mild cerebral palsy. As I’ve gotten older, my affected foot tightens up especially in the winter. My neurologist said it was physical and not neurological. I went on vacation and was drinking more alcohol than I usual do. I noticed I was walking without pain. I did my research when I got home and found a prescription muscle relaxant with the fewest side effects and ask my doctor about it. He prescribed it to me.

He didn’t bother telling me that I should get blood work done to check for liver problems. I had to bring it up to him.

I can now walk without pain and run when properly conditioned.

Instead of advocating for and gambling on a "free market" health care system that has never been tried successfully anywhere, and hoping that it will work out (because dogma?), why not advocate for systems that have been tried all over the world that have been proven to work?

I'd sign up for a significant increase in my taxes if the US system were replaced by the system that I experienced in Belgium for the first 30 years of my life.

And by successfully, I mean: everybody, irrespective of income or status, can expect to get the care they need.

A lot of us are saying we need to increase the pay of nurses, but we also believe that medical care is too expensive. So, where is all that money going? There are a lot of flippant answers but they never seem to lead anywhere actionable.

I have training similar to a WFR that I got in Argentina. I wanted to certify as an EMT in California because why not? It's 160 hours of classes plus 24 hours or practical or something like that for the national exam and then it's the state requirements. Private training is around 2000 dollars. Ok I'm cool with that.

There's no way to get a certification with online learning or with any kind of in person time schedule compatible with my job... ok... maybe I can get time off? I have to re-get all sorts of immunizations I already have and re-do medical checks that I already had to get for my green card, like a year ago... ok... that's a lot more time off. Oh, they drug check me! well... I guess even I would work on healthcare more for vocational reasons I'm not doing it while I'm in California. It's just too much of a hassle and with the staff shortages I feel I'm just being taken advantage off.

In Nevada it's only take the course, pass the exam and you can already go on an ambulance, so are most other states.