The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #73756

Patricia Minors, PhD, Public Health, Healthcare Administration, Western Kentucky University, 1 Big Red Way, Bowling Green, KY 42101-3576, 270-745-4797, pat.minors@wku.edu

The healthcare industry has been seeking the better mousetrap for decades, and nursing has found itself trapped in mistakes from the beginning. In part, healthcare administration has responded to nursing burnout by introducing management strategies that were meant to strengthen the organization such as reengineering, job redesign, and patient-focused care. Yet, these initiatives have had quite opposite effects for nursing staff. Feeling no support from their employers, frustrated and exhausted, nurses are leaving the bedside and into other jobs or careers. However, there are forces at work beyond the nurses’ immediate experiences or environment. There exists systemic difficulties in the entire process of financing healthcare in the U.S. Physicians, the public, insurance carriers and intermediaries, government policymakers, employers and patients contribute to the melange of misinformation, misrepresentation, and mistrust. What or where are the solutions? This presentation suggests that the solutions lay in a nebulous middle ground between nursing and hospital administration.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to:
• discuss the current nursing shortage and the consequences to quality of care.
• recognize the conflicts between nursing and hospital administration.
• articulate the cyclical interactions of nurse staffing, quality of care, and financial concerns.

Keywords: Nurses, Workplace Stressors

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.