EDUCATION
“It’s how we get them ready for the real world,” explained
Quetina Pittman-Howell, director of nursing for the school’s
nursing program in Dallas.
The school’s 16-month Associate of Nursing Science RN
program is ranked third in a field of 40 from throughout the
state by a national nursing organization. The school’s practical
nursing program was recently ranked first in the state by
PracticalNursing.org.
The school graduates between 35 and 50 registered nurses
every year through its traditional 16-month program.
“Another 15 to 20 licensed practical nurses enroll in our
three-month Bridge program to become RNs,” Pittman-Howell
said.
The number of graduates is a drop in the bucket compared
to the unending need for nurses across Georgia, and the serious
nursing shortage nationally, she said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a national deficit of
nearly one million nurses by the year 2022. Previous shortages
were more about a lack of supply, with fewer people choosing
to make nursing their career, according to bureau reports.
Current shortages are the result of both an aging population
and aging workforce, industry observers note. ‘Baby Boomers’
are going into their golden years, and estimates show one in
every five people will be a senior citizen by 2030, according to
the government reports.
Registered nurses work in a variety of professional settings
or industries, with five of those — general medical and
surgical hospitals, offices of physicians, nursing care facilities,
home health care services and employment services — providing
about 80 percent of all nursing employment, the BLS
report continued.
As the population ages, so do nursing staffs, Pittman-Howell
said. Approximately one-third of the current nursing workforce
is 50 or older and there is a limited supply of new nurses
entering the workforce each year — not enough to cover the
deficit created by those who will soon retire, she said.
Nursing burnout also contributes to the shortage, she said.
“When you’re in practice, versus when you’re in school,
there is this realization of the demand — what it takes to be a
nurse,” explained Pitman-Howell. “It becomes daunting with
the hours you put in, patient loads, the health insurance issue
and how that has affected our country as a whole.
“When I first started 15 years ago, a patient might come
in with one diagnosis. Now they have four or five complex
disease processes. If I’m managing six people and everybody
has diabetes, hypertension and heart failure, I have to know it
all. My day is swamped with trying to prioritize, taking care of
families, passing meds, transferring patients to and from the
cath lab, patients going to the OR (operating room) and back,
and all this in a 12-hour shift. It’s exhausting.”
An alarming number of nurses elect to leave the profession
142 FACTBOOK 2020
long before retirement, she said. “We lose 50% of our new
graduates. They’re not leaving one hospital to go to another,
they leave nursing altogether. So even if we graduate 50 new
nurses this year, 25 of them might say next year, ‘I’m out of
here, I’m not going to do nursing anymore.’
“They’re leaving the profession because of the demands and
the way that we treat each other. That’s why civility is so big
in our program (at Chattahoochee Tech). We treat each other
with respect. If a patient codes, I can’t do it by myself. It takes
a village,” she said.
New doctors and residents are learning to respect nurses
more, replacing a more subordinate position many nurses had
to endure for decades, Pittman-Howell said. “Back then it was
like, ‘I’m the doctor and you’re the nurse,’ but the doctors are
learning how to work together. We’re on the same scale and
there’s a lot more respect. That’s the new paradigm.”
Loan, 28, chose the profession because she knew nursing
offered the opportunity to “take care of people at their worst
and making them better. It’s a very humbling job and I’ve
always wanted to do it. I worked in retail before, and then I
got my CNA (certified nursing assistant) and the hunger for
nursing just wouldn’t go away,” the Cartersville resident said.
“I’m definitely a people person,” notes McDonald, 31, from
Emerson, who was also a CNA before enrolling in the Chattahoochee
Tech program. “I knew I had to do this even though
it is highly demanding and stressful. The job security is solid,
and there’s always a need for nurses,” she said. “If you get
tired of ICU, you can always do bedside or post-op, or take a
break.”
“There are so many opportunities, and I couldn’t dream of
doing anything else,” Loan said.
Tuition and books typically cost the two-year students a total
of $6,000, Pittman-Howell said. “Nurses will earn that back
in two months and have no student debt.”
continued from page 141
Jill Mathis and Shawwain Lester, both ASN students,
complete debriefing after treating their patients.
/PracticalNursing.org