Saskatoon Canada: Nursing Shortage Is Canceling Surgeries

SASKATTON (ASRN.ORG) - Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital is canceling surgeries due the shortage of nurses.

According to Dr. Susan Shaw, department head for adult critical care at the Saskatoon Health Region, "I can't give numbers, but all three ICUs have peaked."

Quebec Canada To Pay Bonuses To Nurses

QUEBEC (ASRN.ORG) - Health Minister Philippe Couillard announced that Quebec nurses that work in stressful jobs, such as emergency rooms or Intensive Care Units
will get bonuses of up to 10% of their salaries, but only until the end of summer.

He said a "working group" would address the long-term problem of the nursing shortage in the fall.

Malaysia Needs 20,000 Nurses

KUALA LUMPUR (ASRN.ORG) - Malaysia needs 20,000 registered nurses, in all specializations.  Adding to the nursing shortage is that approximately 1,000 nurses are leaving the profession annually. 

Local nurses cite the "demanding work and long hours" as the reason for their continued departure from the profession.

One nurse states that it is "simply a reflection of the nursing crisis happening around the world."  Like everywhere else, she says, "there is a shortage of nurses that are in high demand caused by the graying population.”

Colorado Needs 3,600 Hospital RNs

DENVER (ASRN.ORG) - Colorado's Governor Bill Ritter, may have won the battle stopping legislated mandated nursing staffing levels against the nursing union, but it hasn't gone away for good.  At the time of the union negotiations, he created a task force to address the nursing shortage, which he now has to address.

"There are 3,600 hospital RN vacancies in Colorado. But if you consider that 21,000 of the more than 53,000 licensed registered nurses in the state aren't working as RNs, we may be able to create incentives to reduce, if not eliminate the nursing shortage."  That figure includes nurses that have retired, according to the Nurse Alliance of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that compiled the statistics.

N.Y. Nurses Seek Decade-Long End To Battle Against Mandatory Overtime

ALBANY (ASRN.ORG) - New York's Capital, Albany, has been under protest this month by over 700 hundred nurses, including representatives of five unions, asking that bills in the Legislature be moved to the floor for a vote.  The proposed legislation would bar hospitals from forcing nurses to work overtime, while allowing those who want to work overtime be able to continue to do so.

The danger is having tired nurses working 16 hours straight.  According to the Mellenium Research Group, medical errors are the fifth-leading cause of deaths in the US, with up to 98,000 deaths annually.  And a recent survey by Alertness Solutions in Cupertino, CA shows that over 55% of nurses have problems with insomnia or staying asleep.