I Love the Nursing Shortage

I hope the nursing shortage never goes away.  This is not a popular opinion, I know.  When I talk about this with my students or with my classmates, it sparks quite a bit of discussion - most of it in direct opposition of this controversial opinion. 

I like being a commodity, I think it's great that we're in high demand. 

Are there bad things about the nursing shortage?  Sure. 

One of my classmates says I'm nuts because if there aren't enough nurses, unlicensed assistive personnel will take over our jobs.  To that I have to say that I think we get caught up in doing too many tasks that we could delegate to others anyway.  We should focus on educating patients, assessing patients, managing their care across a continuum.  We definitely need to get better at delegating, though.

One of my students says I'm nuts because she where she works the staffing is horrendous and it will only get better if the nursing shortage ends.  To that I have to say that we do have a nursing shortage and that many places have great staffing.  She works in a place that doesn't value nursing and won't staff well no matter how many nurses there are. 

In the meantime, since I'm looking for a job (I'm going to, I really am) I'm happy there's a nursing shortage and I hope there always will be.