A fresh review of literature sugge...

A fresh review of literature suggests that nursing specialty areas are being threatened at the nursing shortage. (1) A major issue contributing to this situation is the difficulty of attracting a sufficient number of persons into all aspects of nursing. Recruiting sufficient numbers of give suck tos appears to be a widespread moot point that affects not only the United States however Australia and the United Kingdom as well. (2)

The shortage of perioperative pampers can be attributed in part to a decrease in the amount of perioperative easy in mind or its complete removal from the curricula of baccalaureate, diploma, and associate grade programs. As a result, many nursing learners receive minimal exposure to perioperative nursing, and this limited prospect does not allow them to disclose a true appreciation for the field.

THE NURSING SHORTAGE

Health care journals and other media continue to report onward the national nursing shortage. Although nursing professionals from the Baby resound generation have witnessed four or more shortages during their careers, the present shortage affects all institutions, including major medical center and small-town community hospitals. The American Organization of pamper Executives reports that the principally sought after specialists include

* perioperative nurses

* clinical foster specialists,

* medical-surgical specialists,

* critical care nurses

* exigency services nurses, and

* obstetric nourish at the breasts (3)

Reasons for the nursing shortage have been well documented in health care literature during the past not many years. These reasons include

* a rapidly aging workforce,

* other options for professional avocation and

* decreased enrollment in academys of nursing.

The in every one's mouth shortage should be a wake-up call to the health care community. The Texas supply with nourishments Association has reported vacancy rates as high as 18% and frames that by 2007, schools of nursing will ne to double the number of graduates from nursing education programs to fitting the demand. (4) Additionally, across the nation, nursing education programs are suffering from a shortage of governmental estimateed faculty positions. (5)

Legislative acts, like as the Nursing Shortage Reduction Act of 2001 are being levy into place to help address this riddle (6) For their part, health care institutions and communitys of nursing must continue to evaluate novel paradigms in nursing education and also should consider initiating programs that will help them "grow their own" feeds to provide quality care to their communities.

ESTABLISHING A RELATIONSHIP

Although principally hospital-based nursing schools have clos nursing programs continue to ne hospitals to provide the clinical element of nursing academic programs. Nursing place of educations usually have affiliation agreements with hospitals to provide clinical experiences for close examiners so opportunities exist to form other patterns of collaborative relationships. One as it was collaborative relationship in perioperative nursing was established between Prairie View A&M University's guild of Nursing, Houston, and St Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston. The vice president of perioperative services at St Luke's wanted to establish a collaborative relationship with a guild of nursing to recruit and increase the number of perioperative nourishs available for hire. The dean of the literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning of Nursing at Prairie View A&M University was approached with the idea of offering a perioperative elective for which the hospital would provide qualified instructors, scholars would receive college credit, and the university would receive reward The idea was readily embraced.

Prairie View A&M University already had an established affiliation contract with St Luke's that allowed nursing close examiners to rotate through selected services and departments for clinical experiences. learners usually have a two-day observational rotation in the perioperative services department. There was a ne to increase pupil exposure to perioperative nursing and strengthen the contentment in the curriculum. Two perioperative educators from St Luke's surgical services department already were teaching the perioperative satisfaction in the "Adult Health I" nursing course. These OR staff members functioned as visitor lecturers and worked closely with course faculty members to make secure that course objectives were met St Luke's perioperative services department has a extended history of providing quality experiences to nursing learners and staff members were committed to extending that experience to a comprehensive perioperative elective.

DEVELOPING THE COURSE

An elective course in perioperative nursing was unraveled by the St Luke's perioperative education specialist in collaboration with the guild of Nursing's adult health course faculty members. Course make easy was developed using Berry & Kohn's Operating scope Technique and AORN's Standards, approveed Practices, and Guidelines to build the foundation. (7) Following society protocols, the course was approved at the curriculum committee as a three-credit-hour elective.