Wendy Hollis

Director of Nursing, Los Angeles Harbor College

I think nursing is very important. I probably wouldn't have said this even as late as twenty years ago, but nowadays it really is important because a nurse is the person on the front lines with the patients.

Interviewer: And we interviewed some incoming students. First or second year students, and they're full of hope and idealism. What is the complete picture of what's going on in the healthcare field, especially with an aging population?

Well, as you said, our population is aging. In fact I'm one of the aging people in it so I'm very interested in producing nurses who can take care of us, as well as the people who are now in nursing care. It's going to be a huge problem because America is aging. We are living a lot longer and because we're living longer there are more opportunistic diseases.

Healthcare has moved into the community, it's no longer just in the hospital. You don't go to the hospital to die anymore. You get taken care of at home, you get taken care of in long term care facilities. There's a multitude of places. All of them really need a nurse.

You know, if you don't have someone who can, at a professional level, take care of people, you are going to have a very real problem. A nurse is in the hospital with the patient for an 8 or 12 hour shift. So, there with the patients all that time. The physicians are in for five minutes to a half-hour at the most because they have other things they have to do. They are very busy. So today's nurse doesn't just do caretaking. Today's nurse has to be able to assess the patient, diagnose, and intervene as needed. So students today have to learn a thousand percent more than what I had to learn when I went to nursing school.

Next: Why are fewer people going into nursing?