Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow launches campaign to combat nursing shortage

INDIANAPOLIS - Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow, a coalition of 32 leading nursing and health care organizations addressing the nursing shortage, is launching a national advertising campaign to recruit young people into the nursing profession and encourage existing nurses to remain.

The coalition developed the campaign - titled "Nursing. It's Real. It's Life." - to boost the attractiveness of nursing as a profession. The campaign targets middle- and high school-age youth, and current nurses who may be considering leaving the profession. Honorary campaign co-chairs are Luci Baines Johnson and Elizabeth Dole.

The campaign consists of seven print advertisements and one television public service announcement (PSA) featuring seven real-life nurses in different capacities. The coalition plans to add a radio spot, brochures and other materials as more funding is secured.

The nurses featured in the campaign are:

• Sharon Brigner, RN, MS - Senior Health Policy Analyst, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare in Washington, D.C.
  
• Aurora Hernandez, RN - RN-to-BSN student, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
  
• Jeff Jefferies, RN, CEN - Staff Nurse, Emergency Department, Laurel Regional Hospital in Laurel, Md.
  
• Sandra Lea, RN, CNOR - Perioperative Nurse, InteliStaf.
  
• Garry Olney, RN, BSN, MBA - Chief Executive Officer, San Dimas Community Hospital in San Dimas, Calif.
  
• Janice Phillips, RN, PhD, FAAN - Program Director, National Institute of Nursing Research in Bethesda, Md.
  
• John Wesolowski Jr., RN, CRNA - Staff Anesthetist, R.A. Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore, Md.

A reason for concern
Just as the legion of baby boomers is about to swell the need for quality health care, America's nursing population is aging and more nurses are moving into primary care settings. The result: America's hospitals and other institutions need more nurses, especially those who deliver specialized care. Consider these facts about the nursing shortage:

• There are fewer nurses available to replace those who retire or leave for other opportunities. Currently, the ratio of RNs in their 40s to RNs in their 20s is four to one.
  
• About half of the RN workforce will reach retirement age in the next 15 years.
  
• According to the Division of Nursing of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the rising demand for nurses will surpass the supply of RNs by 2010 if current trends continue. In addition, 114,000 full-time nursing jobs will go unfilled by 2015 without intervention.
  
• Unlike the shortage of the 1980s, this one is not about sheer numbers of nurses, but about having nurses with the needed specialties, skills and experience. Nurses are in particular demand if they can lead multidisciplinary teams, serve as patient educators and managers of care across the continuum, or demonstrate a high level of skill in the operating room, recovery room, emergency room, intensive care unit, critical care unit, pediatrics, newborn intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, and labor and delivery.

Nursing. It's Real. It's Life.
The tagline "Nursing. It's Real. It's Life." is incorporated into all of Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow's communications materials, including the print and broadcast advertising campaign.

"The tagline attempts to show young students that nursing is hip, it's cool, it's exciting, it's respected, it demands real brain power, and it is necessary for sustaining human life," said Greta Sherman, senior partner of JWT Specialized Communications' health care group, a Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow sponsor and creator of the advertising campaign.

The agency's focus group research with students in grades two through 10 indicated that young people are not being provided with adequate positive information about nursing as a profession. The Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow advertising campaign features specific messages aimed at improving the image of nursing while encouraging young people to enter the profession.

Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow is using both formal and grassroots methods to distribute the advertising campaign beginning this week. The 30-second television PSA is being distributed to 200 television stations nationwide. In addition, the seven print ads can be viewed on the coalition's Web site, www.nursesource.org, along with a mechanism to request copies of the ads for local distribution.

www.nursesource.org
The Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow campaign directs audiences to the coalition's Web site where visitors can learn more about nursing. Content includes career profiles of nurses, career resources and links to educational programs.

The site is linked to an interactive health careers job-bank database, operated by campaign sponsor VitalCareers.com, which allows Internet users to search for career opportunities nationally. The site also links to the home pages of all coalition members.

Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow major campaign sponsors include JWT Specialized Communications, VitalCareers.com, NurseWeek, Nursing Spectrum and Seabury & Smith.