Did U Ever Feel?

That nursing should have many more possibilities than currently available...Just to review..Here are some new and previously posted issues;
1) Yesterdays post about nurses being able to charge for individual services would set up a more professional standard than the current situation of just being part of the Hospital charge. We deserve our own place in healthcare.
2) A federally funded nursing retirement plan: This could not only improve the influx of people into the profession, but also be a great benefit to nurse retention, especially if it includes past service and years of experience. This could bring nurses back to the bedside; if they were assured of having a dedicated plan for the years of service (Nurses who have left the profession after i.e. 12 years of service come back for eight years and have a full retirement). AARP recently noted that less than 60% of nurses have retirement plans. This federal plan would be portable from job to job. Facilities could enhance retirement benefits or provide other inducements to the profession with the funds currently in use. IF railroad employees, teachers, firefighters, and police officers can have full retirement after 20 years, WHY have nurses been left out? The nurses I have presented this idea to most frequently ask me that question. WHY is this idea not already in practice?
3) Increased political awareness and interest for nurses. Facilities should have a dedicated position related to nursing politics. I have talked to many coworkers and they agree that knowing more about how their local, state, and federal politicians vote on issues regarding nursing would affect not only their voting participation but how and who they voted for. (i.e. IF you believe patients and families have a right to know what SAFE staffing ratios are and how those ratios affect patient safety and care, in addition to how the facility they are currently admitted to staffs their floors, then a politician votes against a bill that promotes these issues, Would you vote for that politician?? And another NOVEL Thought...
4) An agency that monitors the dangers and RISKS that nurses are often subjected to: to have written protocols and standards of what constitutes patient safety in relation to acuity and ratios. (i.e. What constitutes a 1:1 patient, a 2:1 patient, a 4:1 patient???). One that monitors how often those standards are not met and why. How to make it better to keep nurses at the bedside.