I work in a small family practice office, where the nursing shortage is not really noticeable. I have spoken to many nurses in hospitals, and took a refresher course in hospital, and in those settings the nursing shortage is absolutely inhuman! I could never work in a situation like that. I struggle to see how a WI-FI system could help at all. HIPAA violations would be constant, as discussing a case while caring for another pt would be the order of the day. The only solution is more RNs, and better pay and benefits for the RNs that are working now.

This one seems to me to be a no-brainer, regardless of staffing levels. I think all of the nurses I've known, from my mother on down, would agree that wireless phones are a Good Idea in hospitals.

The staffing crunch just made the problem visible, as there are fewer nurses to pull a "quick cover me on this catheter insertion, I've got to return a page".

And they ARE paying more these days, which is good, as nursing is a dirty thankless job for the most part. (Best friends recent ex just finished one of her nursing degrees, and has the choice of anywhere in the country to work, at quite nice wages).

I think I've seen these phones in use at a local hospital, and it does seem like a good idea.

However, any time an employer says "a shortage of <employee-type X>, I ask myself "how long would it take to fill that shortage if they offered ten times as much money?" How many former nurses would come out of retirement, or would switch their career back to nursing, and how long would it take to train a whole lot of new nurses, if hospitals started offering to pay doctor's salaries to their nurses?

I'm not saying that's really possible, just that it's something to think about.

Think of it as the flip side of the conservative argument that minimum wage laws cause unemployment, on the grounds that if employers could pay less, they could afford to hire more people. The converse is that if employers offered more money, they'd attract more candidates.