May 6-12, 2015 marks National Nurses Week where the role nursing professionals play in delivering high quality health care is celebrated. In honor of this week, Johnson & Johnson launched their “Campaign for Nursing’s Future” to shed light on the benefits of the industry and why more professional should consider a career in nursing.
Since the campaign’s inception in 2002, 750,000 new nurses have joined the field, yet there is still a lot of work to be done. With nurses making up the majority of the health care industry and with an aging population causing the demands for health assistance to be more urgent, the nursing workforce is expected to face a shortage of 260,000 registered nurses by 2025.
“It’s one thing to bring nurses in, but it’s another thing to keep them,” said Beverly Malone, who serves as CEO of the National League for Nursing.
[Related: What Are Your Odds of Finding a Nursing Job in Maine?]
In today’s technological age, Malone says one way to keep nurses engaged on the job is to enforce electronic messaging and health records. Bringing technology into the field helps to eliminate some of the administrative tasks that come along with being a nurse, allowing health care professionals to have more time to engage with their patients.
“I do want to make sure you get the services and medication you need, but I also want to take the time to hear how you’re doing and your family,” says Malone, who started her career in health years ago after earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1970 from the University of Cincinnati. “When you have less administrative work you have time to do the things nurses love doing best and that’s the healing part.”
Malone, who once served as president of the American Nursing Association, says nursing is an industry that also brings about lots of benefits and opportunities. Providing her with the opportunity to travel to Europe, Malone worked as general secretary for the Royal College of Nursing, which is United Kingdom’s largest professional union for nurses. She was also a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England and has served as deputy assistant secretary for health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“I’m from a very small town in Kentucky so to have a career that spans over to Europe to some degree has been quite amazing,” said Malone. “I would say to every potential student out there who’s thinking about a career in health, take a look at nursing and don’t by pass it.”
By 2018, the health care industry is expected to create 581,500 more nursing jobs with the option to work in a range of fields including personal care, pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing, medical equipment and supplies manufacturing, or at a college just to name a few. To learn more about nursing and how you can benefit from the industry’s career opportunities visit discovernursing.com.