Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Nurses' week

• The "gentle spirit" of nursing has made a huge impression on the American people, according to public opinion polls. Nurses are seen as trustworthy, capable and conscientious caregivers, critical to the health care system.
  


• A poll by Vanderbilt University's Medical Center's School of Nursing
  and Center for Health Services Research in Nashville, Tenn., showed that 95 percent of Americans overwhelmingly trust, respect and admire nurses, and that 83 percent would encourage a loved one to enter the nursing profession.
  


• While most people know that nurses are responsible for bedside care, administering IVs, giving injections and drawing blood, fewer than four in 10 people know that nurses are involved in reducing health care costs, working in laboratories or writing and revising hospital and clinic policies.
  


• "My personal experience has been that nurses are of more help than doctors. They seem to be more committed," said Walt Baker, community affairs director at Channel 2 KBCI-TV in Boise (after seeing how they cared for members of his family).
  


• Only half of Americans know that RNs must have a bachelor's or an associate's degree.
  


• Fewer than one in five know that nurses must be licensed.
  


• Less than 20 percent of Americans know that RNs must have continual education.
  
  
• More than two in three Americans do not know that nurse practitioners are allowed to prescribe drugs.

posted by James at 10:22 AM

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