Travel nursing, cure or cause of nursing shortage?
Mar 26th, 2008 | By Jeff | Category: Nursing in generalHere is an interesting article about the nursing shortage and one hospital’s efforts to fight it using shift bidding. One thing that struck me was the blaming of the nursing shortage partially on travel nursing, when in reality travel nursing is a solution to the nursing shortage.
It is a strange relationship between the two because obviously travel nurses are nurses who choose not to work at just one hospital, potentially leaving a void at one hospital while filling one at another. I think much more can be said for the lack of new nurses coming in to the workforce and the huge number leaving it than anything else.
This was an interesting article, thank you. Does Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center use travel nurses? If the idea of bidding on extra shifts is working, then do it! What surprised me is that most hospital RNs are in their forties and will be leaving/retiring soon–this is real scary unless hospitals can do something to attract and keep the younger nurses.