In its annual Honesty and Ethics poll, Gallup has named nursing as the nation’s most trusted profession. In light of New Mexico’s persistent medical professional shortages, nurses say this should be a call to action to support the nursing workforce with more investments to keep patients safe and healthy.
The poll found 75% of Americans give nurses “high” or “very high” ratings for honesty and ethical standards.
Nurse Practitioner Shawnna Read is President of the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council and said having that trust is essential since nurses are the frontline foundation for the health care system and are the most consistent point of care for many patients.
“Nurses are really good at being able to adjust the care plan before things spiral out of control, because patients tell us things, and that trust is even more essential when we’re in rural and underserved communities, because they don’t have access to quick follow up or specialists,” said Read.
In New Mexico, nurse practitioners have what’s called “Full Practice Authority”, which means they have the full ability to examine patients, diagnose, manage treatments, and prescribe medications without a doctor's oversight. The designation comes with years of schooling, passing national exams and adhering to state laws not required of more common registered nurses.
Read said because of the provider shortages many patients have a manageable condition that turns into an emergency visit or even a hospitalization. It also leaves nurses having to manage a range of issues, from stabilizing chronic conditions to helping with referrals and next steps.
“Nurse practitioners and nurses are essentially the glue that holds our access together,” Read said.
As New Mexico continues to face shortages in all health care fields, Read said nurses need help with unsustainable workloads, more investment in career pathways and leadership opportunities, high malpractice premiums for advanced practice nurses, and the biggest complaint – low compensation.
“We should be rewarding nurses for expertise, clinical skills and longevity, and they should be looking at retention incentives to try to keep nurses. Not just recruit them. They have to keep them,” said Read. “It's very expensive to recruit a nurse, and so we need to try to, on the back end, keep them retained”.
According to the Gallup Poll nurses have outpaced all other professions in trust, a position they have held for 25 years.
This coverage is supposed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners like you.
