As a fourth-year nursing student, I often wonder what drew me to the profession.

As I reflect back to my final year in high school, my future ambitions were very different from where I am today. I never knew any nurses personally, nor did I know what their job description entailed. I graduated high school in Prince George and never had the opportunity to attend a “career day.”

After graduation, I had interests in law and accounting. Soon afterwards, I moved to the Comox Valley and obtained a job as a pharmacy technician.

Over the next couple of years, I worked in the pharmacy as well as the home health care department. This position allowed me a glimpse into health care and strongly peaked my interest.

I began to seriously consider nursing as a career choice. I still had no idea what nurses did, but I knew of the nursing shortage across Canada and the world and I also knew that the wages were quite desirable according to the media. Based on the excellent possibility of job security and good wages, I decided to apply to North Island College.

At the expense of tuition and textbooks, I used my first year of nursing school to thoroughly explore what it is that nurses do. Some fellow classmates decided throughout that first year that nursing was not for them. Unfortunately for them, the money and time spent on that first year learning about nursing will not be reimbursed. Despite losing some friends throughout the program, I was quite intrigued by nursing and continued on in my studies.

As I prepare for my graduation in June, I am faced with the challenge of deciding what area to work in and for what institution. It is common knowledge that there is a dire shortage of nurses and that this shortage will only continue to worsen as many nurses near retirement.

I just recently volunteered at a Wellness Fair for School District 72. A teacher approached me and asked if I and a couple others would be interested in speaking to his Grade 11 class about nursing.

This invite really got me thinking about recruitment strategies. Based on my own personal experience and the need for nurses, why are we (nursing community) not targeting young people in high school when they are beginning to ponder their futures÷

Why do nurses not verbalize the great work that they do? Whose responsibility is it to recruit young people to the profession of nursing?

The Canadian Institute for Health Information states that the largest percentage of registered nurses in the workforce is aged 50 to 54. Based on these trends, the profession will lose 25 per cent of its nurses to retirement over the next couple of years.

Furthermore, a comprehensive study published by the Canadian Nurse’s Association predicts a shortage of nurses in Canada of between 59,000 and 113,000 by 2011. With decreasing numbers of young people entering the profession, it does not take a mathematician to figure out that the country’s workforce is growing older as the number entering it continues to spiral downward.

Where does this leave us? The way I see it, recruitment and retention is the only answer. For starters, career day at the local high schools is an excellent opportunity for nurses to elaborate on their job description.

Not until I joined the program did I find out the vast number of areas that nurses work in the community and hospital setting.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority has launched a new graduate transition program that “has proven to be a successful vehicle for supporting new graduate nurses during their first year of practice to increase their confidence, consolidate their practice, become a team member, and integrate into the culture of the unit or department, as an enhanced recruitment and retention strategy for the Vancouver Island Health Authority.”

This program is especially appealing to me as a fourth-year nursing student. I often hear about the emotional, physical, social and political pressures of the workforce.

I envision this program as an outstanding way to ease into full-time work without the extra stressors that may occur otherwise. Offering this program will surely help appeal to, and retain new graduates from North Island College and other institutions.

I challenge VIHA, post-secondary institutions, and nurses themselves to take part in recruitment and retention strategies. As we are all aware, it is the patient who suffers at the end of the day due to staffing shortages.