All of us in the nursing industry have heard the reasoning that the nursing shortage that has been with us for a long time (well over 20 years) and probably will never end is due to the ever-increasing age of the American public. People are living longer and in many cases this is due to the advances of medicine. But to take full advantage of those advances requires nurses. And as the Baby Boomers retire, many nurses are retiring and few nurses of the same skill level are replacing them. 20 years ago your choices in a nursing career path were basically limited to hospitals, nursing centers and home health. Now, the opportunities are limitless and fewer and fewer nurses are choosing the career path of long hours and the demanding schedules of hospitals that take them away from their family and personal life.
This past week there was a trend in our agency. Over 10% of our nurses were taking personal time off to care for their aging parents. It is almost a given in most families that if there is a nurse in the family they are the designated caregiver. Weekly, we have nurses who ask for time off to care for their children but this past week was unusual. As we went name by name and noted why this or that nurse was not working, repeatedly it was "caring for his or her parent". So I guess we can add the nurses who are the caregivers of the family, the Sandwiched Generation ( of which I am one ) who take time off to care for an aging family member, to the multiple reasons we have a nursing shortage in the US.
I am by no means faulting our nurses who take time off to care for a loved one. Just the opposite, I am honored to be associated with such caring and responsible human beings. I'm thrilled that AMS is able provide our nurses with the freedom to create the schedule they need to live the life they want.
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