May 7, 2012- ALBANY, GA from WALB - It takes a special person to become a nurse, dedicating your life to caring for others. It is national Nurses Week, a time to recognize all the work nurses do.
But as the population ages, the need for nurses will get greater and greater, increasing the nurse shortage.
When a patient is checked into a hospital, the majority of their time will likely be spent with a nurse. But the shortage of nurses continues to grow.
"One of our issues is retention, that is the magic thing, we are trying to see how we can retain nursing students, so we are currently working on that, and I am sure that is the common denominator among all nursing programs," says Kourtney Wilson, R.N./ Albany Tech Nursing Instructor.
Georgia schools only have about 1 nurse for every 2,300 students, that's one of the lowest in the country.
"With the Baby Boomers coming up, it is going to be a growing shortage because we are going to have more patients and less nurses to care for those patients, so nursing shortages have been in existence and they are still in existence today," says Wilson.
Nurses are critical for patients, not only for the services they provide but the relationship they build with each patient.
"You are the only person that the patient sees all day so it is very important to develop a therapeutic rapport with your patients to ensure trust," says Wilson.
And by establishing that relationship, Wilson says you are likely to get better results from your patients as well.
"When it comes to a procedure, like inserting a folic catheter, that is not fun for the patient, but they may build a relationship with you and trust you and that procedure will go much better," says Wilson.
As the population grows older, many colleges hope more students will decide to become registered nurses.
About 7 nursing students will graduate from Albany Technical College on June 1st with a nursing degree.