Shortage of Nurses Being Felt in County : Careers: Hospital officials say the situation is caused by more work choices for women and 10 years of growth in the health care industry.

At St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, recruiters of nurses are rewarded with a bounty of $1,000 each.

At Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, a nurse earns a week’s pay by working three 12-hour shifts a week.

The Ventura office of Nursefinders, a nationwide registry, pays registered nurses as much as $35 an hour to fill hospitals’ emergency needs. Like other registries, Nursefinders provides fringe benefits for nurses who work as infrequently as one day a week.

The nursing shortage, in other words, has arrived in Ventura County.

It isn’t as acute as in, say, Los Angeles, where an estimated one of every 10 nursing jobs is going begging. But the shortage is here and is affecting patients.

It probably doesn’t mean you will receive a reduced quality of care, hospital officials say. But you may have to wait a few days to be admitted to a hospital.

If you’re a hospital administrator, it means you’ll undoubtedly continue breaking new ground in employee relations, courting your present and prospective nurses with such enticements as short shifts, a few long shifts, on-site college classes with paid tuition and, of course, increased salaries.

If you’re a registered nurse or licensed vocational nurse, it means finding ads in the newspaper promising: “We give you the hours you want, competitive salary and convenient locations throughout Ventura County.”

Or: “We are looking for dynamic individuals to staff our cardiovascular nursing team. . . . We offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits including a new tax-deferred retirement plan.”

Most experts think the country’s nursing shortage, which first appeared in the early 1980s, has two major causes. One is increased opportunities for women outside such traditional career choices as nursing. The other is 10 years of growth in the health care industry.

Also contributing, some experts say, is the tendency of many people to avoid the high cost of hospitalization by putting it off as long as possible. Once they do go to a hospital, the theory goes, they’re so sick they stay a long time, creating a need for more nurses.

Whatever the cause, the shortage has sometimes been so acute that Ventura County hospitals have had to shut down beds, according to Monty Clark, regional vice president of the Hospital Council of Southern California.

“The closures have taken place especially in critical care units and operating rooms, where the State Administrative Code requires certain nurse-to-patient ratios,” Clark said.

He estimated there are 100 to 125 unfilled full-time and part-time nursing jobs in Ventura County.

Local hospitals compete for nurses with one another and with hospitals in other parts of Southern California.

“A young woman in her early 20s can earn $40,000 a year and even more as a nurse here,” Clark said. But many of them take jobs in places like San Bernardino and Riverside counties, where housing costs less.

Clark said about 5,500 licensed nurses are employed in Ventura County. About four-fifths are registered nurses, and the rest are licensed vocational nurses. RNs must have at least two years of training; LVNs, one.

At St. John’s, the county’s largest hospital, Ruth Lacasse, vice president for nursing, says 7% to 8% of 300 nursing jobs are vacant. “Still, we’re better off than we were a year ago,” she said. “Then, 12% to 13% of our RN jobs were unfilled.”

St. John’s has avoided eliminating any of its 269 beds by taking such steps as asking staff nurses to work overtime and calling on registries that provide temporary nurses at premium cost.

The greatest shortage, Lacasse said, is for highly trained, specialized nurses such as those who work in critical care units and operating rooms.

From the nurses’ point of view, the shortage presents job opportunities but more pressure.

Adrian Benson, 40, graduated from the nursing program at Moorpark College in June, 1989, and was offered jobs at all four hospitals where she was interviewed. “I think every one of the 22 people in my class is now working as a nurse,” she said.

Benson, who finished first in her class, was sought after. She now works three 12-hour shifts a week as the lead nurse in an operating room at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

The three-day week gives her time to be with her 4-year-old daughter, but can be tiring.

“I’m involved in as many as six surgeries a day,” she said. “It’s demanding. I not only get tired, I feel stressed a lot.”

In fact, she is convinced stress is a major reason why people leave nursing. “But I’m going to stay with it, even though I hear some nurses say they’re leaving. To me, this is an exciting profession. Every day is an adventure. And I’m still learning.”

Norma Dalton, 49, a nurse in the intensive care unit at St. John’s, believes the nursing shortage and the pressures it produces are considerably worse than when she went to work there in 1986.

“I find that it affects intensive care more than most other areas,” she said. “Sometimes, depending on how ill a patient is, the hospital has to assign one nurse to watch a single patient, around the clock.”

Jeanee Bedard, 48, decided to return to hands-on nursing, helping stroke victims struggle against paralysis, after having been assistant director of nursing and manager of the rehabilitation unit at Community Memorial.

“I stepped down to get closer to the patients,” she said. “I enjoy interacting with them, feeling that I’ve made a contribution to the quality of their lives.”

Sometimes, Bedard said, staffing becomes so difficult that nurses have to be brought in from other institutions and paid by the day, an expensive arrangement.

Linda Weaver, director of nursing services for the Ventura office of Nursefinders, believes the greatest cause of the nursing shortage is 20 years of improvement in opportunities for women in other fields.

At Ventura County Medical Center, personnel head Judy Nash reports a constant need for per-diem nurses to augment the hospital’s staff.

“Two of our special needs for full-time people are for mental health nurses, and for public health nurses who speak Spanish,” she said.

Carol Dimse, director of patient care services at Community Memorial, says the nursing shortage in the county would be much worse if it weren’t for strong nurses’ training programs at Ventura and Moorpark colleges.

Dimse said she’s cautiously optimistic about the nursing shortage. One reason for optimism is a campaign by the Hospital Council to encourage students to enter nursing.

Lacasse, at St. John’s, agrees that things will get better, citing increased enrollment at nursing schools.

The shortage, she said, first occurred on the East Coast. “I understand it is now resolving itself in the East, and I have every reason to believe the improvement will move across the country.”

But Benson wonders. Her older daughter, Jenna, 17, now attends Moorpark College, just as Benson did a few years ago.

Jenna, however, isn’t enrolled in the nursing program.

“She’s majoring in child psychology, and I can understand that,” Benson said. “Whenever I discuss my work, she usually says, ‘How gross!’

“Come to think of it, a lot of the things we do are unpleasant. Besides, I’m sure she’ll make more money in child psychology.”