Mandatory Overtime Ban in PA for Nurses starts July 1, 2009

Read the following article pertaining to the ban on mandatory overtime for nurses and health care personnel below:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/125531.php

I really do feel it's time that our government to step up and assist hospitals with their shortage, especially in the face of this new law. With no fear of retribution by the powers that be, those nurses who have finished their shift can reject overtime with no fear of retribution. And this could sound the alarm even louder that we need to address the nursing shortage NOW.

The problem is more complicated than providing students with a means to become a nurse. The main problem is that schools of nursing are pushing away students as their programs are understaffed and unable to teach the amount of students signing on to become nurses. Given that nurses make more than nurse educators, it's not going to be anytime soon that we see nurses exchanging their scrubs for text books. So the wheels grind ever slower toward the goal of a more healthy nursing industry.

I believe that the government must work in conjunction with hospitals to come up with a compensation package which makes up the loss in pay for any nurse who chooses to become a nurse educator. But it can't stop there. They also need to provide some sort of loan forgiveness program for those nurses so they do not merely make the same amount of money but realize a reduction in their personal debt to income ratio due to their student loans so they can get their Masters or PHD.

Currently now the only organization in Pennsylvania that provides a grant or scholarship for current nurses to become nurse educators is the Pennsylvania Higher Education Foundation. More information on this organization can be found at http://www.higheredfoundation.org/.