A new survey of 15,000 nurses refutes arguments that the recession has ended the nursing shortage:

More than seven in ten nurses said that staffing on their unit and shiftis insufficient, and more than half said they are currently considering leaving their position, according to an American Nurses Association (ANA) online poll that drew more than 15,000 responses.

The poll, which has been posted on ANA’s Safe Staffing Saves Lives Campaign Web site (www.SafeStaffingSavesLives.org) since March 2008, showed that about 7,900 of the 15,000 respondents said they are considering leaving their position. About 42%, or 6,300 of the 15,000 respondents, said the reason they would leave is associated with inadequate staffing. Also, more than one in three nurses reported that they knew a nurse on their unit who left direct care nursing due to concerns about unsafe staffing.

“These results confirm what we have long been hearing from registered nurses: that unsafe staffing on their units is their top concern,” said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR. “Nurses take our profession’s Code of Ethics very seriously. When obligations to our patients are compromised because there are not enough nurses on hospital units to provide the highest quality of care, registered nurses are understandably frustrated. ANA has a long track record of advocating for safe staffing conditions for the nation’s 2.9 million registered nurses.”

In 2007, ANA launched its “Safe Staffing Saves Lives” grassroots campaign calling for sufficient nurse staffing levels in healthcare facilities and supporting staffing legislation ANA crafted with members of Congress. Known as “The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act,” the legislation is expected to be re-introduced in Congress later this year.

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