Why hire RN's when other disciplines can do the job

3 Has anyone noticed that pharmacist at major drug chains administer flu, pneumonia, and other vaccines at large pharmaceutical chains. The medical assistant at my doctors office calls in medications for me because they don't hire RN's. In the hospitals we have nursing aids, & patient care technicians assist with patient care. I know the value of RN's doing the many functions, but I ask myself when did personnel or professionals from other disciplines start performing what was once mostly performed by RN's.

Could this be part of the reason new grads. can't find employment, or frankly many nurses in different markets. Why bother hiring RN's ? I Know that nurses do more than administer medications, call in medications and perform other physical labor, but sometimes I ask myself if the push for more anxillary health care help is slowly replacing the need for RN's. I recall getting injections from RN's at the large pharmaceutical chains years ago, but now the pharmacist administers. They hire nurse practioners for the outpatient clinics at the large phamaceutical chains or drug stores, but they are advanced degree Registered Nurses. Does anyone value a nurse with a simple RN behind her name anymore?
No, RNs cost money, and they all want to cut down on costs. One of the best ways to do that is to combine roles, in the case of the pharmacists, or replace RNs with cheap labor.

The corporate machine won't stop until everyone that's making more than $50,000 a year is down to $12 an hour.The field of nursing needs to quit trying to "elevate" the profession by pushing B.S.N.'s. This will only increase cuts of R.N.'s to other types like M.A.'s and CNA's.The money would be better spent on ad campaign smearing hospitals for replacing R.N.'s with M.A.'s CNA's, etc.The public has high regard for nurses, and the public doesn't understand what's happening. They think all these other people are nurses too.They need to understand that their healthcare is being delivered by people making not much better than Starbucks.

I think its the nature of the medical profession. Years ago there were many things that RN's were not allowed to do that was the doctors job. Foleys for example. These days thats a rarity unless its urology because its something that we can do. Despite a lot of tasks going to lesser trained personell for stuff we used to do, on the same token we have been able to advance our practices to do much more. But when it really comes down to it, we can still do it all if we need to even right down to the basics.

Well what we first need to do and this will probably cause a flurry of controversy but the word nurse MEANS something and hold weight. We need to regulate the use of the title nurse to well nurses LVN/LPN's RN, NP's actual licensed nurses.There are some really good M.A's out there but they should never be referred to as a nurse ( usually the Dr encourages this so their patients don't realize how cheap they are) and the same thing in LTC's a good chunk of the time the patients refer to the CNA's as nurses and the CNA's do nothing to discourage this. I'm not putting down these above professions at all they DO have their place but they should not be coopting the name "NURSE"Forget occupy Wallstreet. Lets take back our titles!

Quote from adnrnstudentThe corporate machine won't stop until everyone that's making more than $50,000 a year is down to $12 an hour.The field of nursing needs to quit trying to "elevate" the profession by pushing B.S.N.'s. This will only increase cuts of R.N.'s to other types like M.A.'s and CNA's.The money would be better spent on ad campaign smearing hospitals for replacing R.N.'s with M.A.'s CNA's, etc.The public has high regard for nurses, and the public doesn't understand what's happening. They think all these other people are nurses too.They need to understand that their healthcare is being delivered by people making not much better than Starbucks.

Quote from MarisetteHas anyone noticed that pharmacist at major drug chains administer flu, pneumonia, and other vaccines at large pharmaceutical chains. The medical assistant at my doctors office calls in medications for me because they don't hire RN's. In the hospitals we have nursing aids, & patient care technicians assist with patient care. I know the value of RN's doing the many functions, but I ask myself when did personnel or professionals from other disciplines start performing what was once mostly performed by RN's. Could this be part of the reason new grads. can't find employment, or frankly many nurses in different markets. Why bother hiring RN's ? I Know that nurses do more than administer medications, call in medications and perform other physical labor, but sometimes I ask myself if the push for more anxillary health care help is slowly replacing the need for RN's. I recall getting injections from RN's at the large pharmaceutical chains years ago, but now the pharmacist administers. They hire nurse practioners for the outpatient clinics at the large phamaceutical chains or drug stores, but they are advanced degree Registered Nurses. Does anyone value a nurse with a simple RN behind her name anymore?

To the OP....you make it sound as if only RN's are nurses. LPN's are nurses too. And stating "RN behind her name" makes it sound as if only women are nurses. Men are nurses too.

Quote from SDALPNTo the OP....you make it sound as if only RN's are nurses. LPN's are nurses too. And stating "RN behind her name" makes it sound as if only women are nurses. Men are nurses too.

Quote from SDALPNTo the OP....you make it sound as if only RN's are nurses. LPN's are nurses too. And stating "RN behind her name" makes it sound as if only women are nurses. Men are nurses too.

Quote from SDALPNTo the OP....you make it sound as if only RN's are nurses. LPN's are nurses too. And stating "RN behind her name" makes it sound as if only women are nurses. Men are nurses too.

Quote from tothepointeLVNI wasn't going to go there but thank you and yes we are

I recognize that nurses are far more than the task they deliver,but when in school I was thought you asses and educate patients while in the process of delivering care. Why should pharmacist administer medications, when RN's can't dispense medications? And Yes I'm aware the LPN's are nurses. I believe many of the task previosly done by LPN's are more often delegated to less trained assitive personnel, also. I know men in nursing and would love to see more, but frankly when I use, she, I refer to most of the nurses in healthcare.