DEAR EDITOR:

Have you ever worked in a dangerous environment? Due to the surge of COVID-19 over the past two years, nurses have been working in dangerous environments, putting their license on the line, day in and day out.

Hospitals are seeing a major shortage in nurses and an influx in patients, causing the nurse-to-patient ratio to be way more than what is considered “safe staffing.” This causes many negative effects to hospitals and to the mental health of nurses working in these environments.

Nurses are becoming burned out faster the past few years than they ever have. Their workload is large, and they are unable to give patients the care they need. When the patients aren’t getting needed care, we start to see bad outcomes. We also see less bedside care and assistance, and patients’ needs are not being met. This can be dangerous for the health of the patients and getting them better and out of the hospital, but it also is dangerous for a nurse.

Nurses are very much in need right now, not only to decrease the workload for nurses, but to increase good outcomes and give better patient care.

A way to get more nurses in the field is to shorten the amount of schooling someone has to go through to become a nurse. This can be achieved through cutting out prerequisites and elective classes, allowing more time for nursing classes, and direct admission into nursing programs without having to take classes before they apply. Lastly, I suggest increase clinical hours for students and decrease the amount of time spent in the classroom.

LAUREN FROMMELT

Boardman