Part of the solution is getting more students into nursing schools. But the schools have to have instructors to teach. And that’s where Rep. Peter Ujvagi’s bill, HB 127, helps. It incentivizes teaching by offering tax credits to nursing faculty.
It is projected that one million nurses will soon be retiring.
And though there are plenty of nursing students, their teachers will soon disappear.
In the next ten years, as Baby Boomers retire, 40 percent of Ohio's nurses will retire, too.
Nursing schools have boosted enrollment. But that's not enough. Nursing requires hands-on teaching, and the average instructor is in her 50s. So pretty soon there could be a shortage of teachers.
"This is a critical, critical issue," State Rep. Peter Ujvagi contended.
Rep. Ujvagi wants to offer tax credits to nursing faculty since teachers make less than those in clinical practice. Without an incentive to attract and keep teachers to train more nurses, he fears patient care will become like parts of Europe.
"Family practically has to be next to the sick person's bedside to advocate for them, to make sure that they get whatever needs that they have. We're practically at that point in many instances in the United States because of the nursing shortage," said the Toledo Democrat.
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Contact your State Representative (who is my Rep.?) and ask them to support this sensible bill.
3 comments:
West Ender, you are 1000% CORRECT. This is truly a great bill to support and is a growing issue within the profession. The other issue is of course burn out. One other thing would help and that is to modernize the healthcare system by getting all the paperwork out of the nurses life using modern technology such as electronic medical records. For the life of me I do not understand why the state and local governments are not pushing money out to all who modernize in this area. For every dollar spent, it would bring back savings of at least 4$.
I think privacy issues may be one of the holdups in electronic medical records, but once they can be satisfactorily addressed, it will be a great benefit not only in terms of cost savings but other areas as well.
Privacy with today's EMR is far greater than what you have today in the world of paper. With EMR, you have a record of every transaction, with paper, you can have your paper copied and faxed all over. I know this area because that is what I do for a living. We have all the security issues pretty well covered (nothing is 100%) but having years in the industry in healthcare, I can assure you that what is out there available is 1000% more secure than anything now being used.
Your issue with the nurses is however critical and also training in newer technology. Most nursing schools do not even deal with computer skills needed for the future.
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