Nursing Shortage

It's taken a while for the nursing shortage to truly hit Utah with full force but I think it's here now. We always lose nurses in the Spring; people graduate and move to other areas, vacations, etc. But I swear this year we are lower on nurses than last year. I am a hospital supervisor. Part of my job is to obtain and distribute nursing staff to replace ill calls or help with high census. It is getting so much harder to obtain staff than previous years. I was talking to a hospital supervisor across town and she reports their hospital is having more difficulty getting staff also. I know people complain about the money, but we get paid pretty well; more will always attract more staff but I think the real problem is there just is not any out there to attract. Every day, I ask nurses to do things I think they should and could do but lately I've been asking them to work too hard not just the occasional night but every night because there are just not enough nurses in the pool. We need more nursing schools and more nursing instructors. We're getting too old as a profession. I love nursing. We need more people that love it. Nursing is not what I do; it is what I am......