Richmond Times-Dispatch Examines Nursing Shortage in Two-Day Series

The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Aug. 27 completed a two-day series examining the area's nursing shortage and local hospitals' and nursing homes' strategies to recruit and retain workers to prevent "an all out crisis." On Aug. 26, the Times-Dispatch examined job satisfaction among nurses. According to a national survey of nurses, there is "wide variation" in job satisfaction among nurses, with those working in hospitals and nursing homes reporting the "lowest" job satisfaction (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/26). The Times-Dispatch on Aug. 27 featured "solutions" to the staffing shortage in four separate articles:

• "Nursing groups seek lasting remedies for shortage": The article details the efforts of hospitals and national and local nursing organizations, such as Virginia Partnership for Nursing, to recruit staff. Strategies include raising salaries and offering sign-on bonuses, working with schools to recruit nursing graduates, hiring temporary agency nurses, providing flexible scheduling and child care and recruiting foreign nurses (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/27).
• "Agency nurses loved, scorned": The article examines the use of temporary nurses from a placement agency, a practice that is "necessary" for many facilities. With the demand for nurses so high, many temporary nurses earn up to 50% more an hour than an "experienced staff nurse" (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/27).
• "United nurses forcing change": The article features efforts by nurses nationwide to use their "collective numbers to force" changes in working conditions. For example, nurses in California have pushed for "safe staffing" legislation that they say would improve patient care. The article also examines how nurses have gone on strike across the country to improve working conditions (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/27).
• "Minorities underrepresented": The article examines the demographics of the nursing industry and reports that the "typical nurse" is a married, white, 45-year-old woman. Minorities account for only about 12.3% of the nursing workforce, and men about 5.9% (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/27).