Nurses: Beloved, but still burned out and looking for new paths
As we get ready to celebrate National Nurses Month this month, there’s some good news: For the 23rd consecutive year, nurses are again No. 1 in Gallup’s “Most Honest and Ethical Professions” poll.
According to the poll, 76% of Americans rated nurses’ honesty and ethical standards as “very high” or “high.” The second highest-rated profession was grade school teachers, with 61% viewing them highly.
“This acknowledgment is an undeniable reflection of the positive impact nurses have on the patients they diligently care for and on the health care system they support,” says Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association. “What nurses do every day is nothing short of incredible.”
What makes it all the more incredible are the conditions many nurses face at work. Too much time at the computer. Not enough time at the bedside. Too many patients with complex conditions. Not enough administrative support and education. Too many injuries. Not enough security.
Nurse burnout, which gained worldwide attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, is still impacting health care. A recent study by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities found that nurse burnout was associated with less patient safety and more hospital-acquired infections, patient falls, medication errors and other adverse events.
A third of newly licensed nurses quit within the first two years, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a nursing shortage of 200,000 to 450,000 registered nurses involved in direct patient care as nursing schools struggle to keep up with demand.
When a nurse quits the hospital, what do they end up doing? Some enter non-health professions, but many stay connected as nursing professors, hospital consultants, medical writers and medical billers.
One of the fastest growing fields is patient advocacy The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that “health education specialists,” which includes patient advocates, will grow by 7% between 2023 and 2033, or about 6,700 new openings per year over the next decade.
Some patient advocates are employed by hospitals, physicians’ groups and insurance companies. Since they know where their paycheck is coming from, it’s sensible to wonder where their loyalties truly lie — but since nurses are deemed ethical and honest, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.
Increasingly, though, nurses and other burned-out medical professionals are starting their own patient advocacy businesses, taking the knowledge they’ve gained from decades at the bedside and using it to help patients and families navigate today’s fractured health care environment.
A number of organizations and educational institutions offer programs in advocacy, but it’s important to not only understand how to guide patients but also become a certified advocate and sustain a business.
I’m proud to have helped launch a number of these “nurse advocate entrepreneurs.”
If the advocate can get a patient out of the hospital faster, help them negotiate down a hospital bill or give them better quality of life, patients and families find it worthwhile.
Meanwhile, the nurse advocate is controlling her own hours and potentially earning more than she could in a hospital job.
As someone who’s been in nursing for almost five decades, it’s gratifying to me that nurses are so well regarded by the public at large. It’s also exciting to see them take their future into their own hands.
Every nurse is a patient advocate. Maybe there should be a month for them, too.
• Teri (Dreher) Frykenberg, a registered nurse, board-certified patient advocate, is the founder of www.NurseAdvocateEntrepreneur.com, which trains medical professionals to become successful private patient advocates. She is the author of “How to Be a Healthcare Advocate for Yourself & Your Loved Ones,” available on Amazon. Frykenberg offers a free phone consultation to readers. Contact her at Teri@NurseAdvocateEntrepreneur.com.