On the Records: Expanded Nursing Could Boost Economy
Giving advanced practice registered nurses in Texas an expanded role in health care through legislative changes next year could increase the state’s economic output by $8 billion annually and create nearly 100,000 permanent jobs, according to a report by economist Ray Perryman released Monday.
“We don’t have enough doctors. We don’t have enough nurses, and the gap is widening every day,” Perryman said, noting the growing population in Texas. “So we don’t have any choice but to try to use the resources we have more efficiently.”
Perryman is president of the Waco-based economic and financial ...
Comments (9)
Bologna Vest
Wait... "we don't have enough nurses" so we should expand what they're doing? How does that help exactly. I can understand why these groups want to do more stuff -- it's easier to just say "I can do that" than to actually go to school and become a real doctor. But when they say there aren't enough of them out there while at the same time saying that they're they cure to the doctor shortage if only they're allowed to take on more responsibility that they're not prepared for is just stupid.
Christopher Thornton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why don't we have enough nurses? Part of the blame goes to colleges that don't have enough classroom space to teach enough people that want to become a nurse. (It took my wife 3 semesters and two attempts before finally being accepted into the LVN program, and then it took 1 year to finish the LVN program).
Part of the blame goes to hospitals. Most hospitals want to achieve "Magnet status" and in order to do that hospitals can only staff BSN RN's, no ADN RN's or LVN's. It takes much longer to become a BSN RN (4 years) vs. an ADN RN (two years) or a LVN (one year).
Jim Hsu via Texas Tribune on Facebook
W-w-w-wait. I thought Perry said all they needed to do was tort reform and medicine will reform itself, and that Texas was a great example of how gubbermint overreach was not needed in health care (but federal government subsidies always welcome)??
Donna Rene Johnston via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jim....jinx! You owe me a coke!
Richard S. Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Chris - Bingo! We need changes at both ends of the spectrum.
Cathy Adams Stanley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Hmmm, I know a great Dr./Nurse duo that Texas needs. :)
Healthy Texan
Texas lacks RNS but not APRNS. Instead of the medical associations standing in the way of increasing access to high-quality of care, they should get on board and work with their nurse colleagues to implement solutions to the severe physician shortage in the state. Instead, they are only worried about their income and not their patients.
susan smith
This would absolutely save the state money, especially if the nurses work at the top of their licenses and provide critical preventive care. http://whatstherealcost.org/video.php?post=five-questions
J Garcia
I work alongside nurses at a hospital. I am physician assistant. Nurses do their job very well. But they are not clinicians nor should they perform activities that affect other clinician's management of chronic disease states. Nurses are trained under the nursing model. Physicians and physician assistants are trained under the medical model. There is a significant difference. To expand the pharmacologic management of chronic diseases to a nurse is foolish and myopic. There are countless examples of when a medication should be discontinued or when additional management is needed. Having your nurse simply refill your prescription is as dangerous as filling the Hindenburg with hydrogen.