DANVILLE — Bremer Conference and Workforce Development Center at Danville Area Community College was a celebratory gathering for the local nursing profession Wednesday.

The Lakeview College of Nursing “Power and Passion of Professional Nursing” conference is one of two planned for this week. Today, a similar all-day conference is at the college’s Eastern Illinois University location.

The day is intended to promote pride in the profession, which suffers a substantial shortage as more professionals retire and those newer to the profession leave the field.

The conference addressed these issues with a packed auditorium at Bremer that included current Lakeview students, graduates and veteran nurses.

The conference served as a celebration of Lakeview’s 114-year history of educating nurses in Danville. The school has offered a baccalaureate degree for 20 years.

Leading the day’s program was Karen Stefaniak, a 1965 graduate of Lakeview and current faculty member of the University of Kentucky nursing program.

She talked with students about the importance of the profession and celebrating its impact on society. Stefaniak also facilitated discussions among the conference attendees, in which they shared stories of their work.

“We need to do more celebrating if we’re ever going to do anything about this shortage,” she said.

The nursing field faces a shortage for a number of reasons.

Chief among them, Stefaniak says, is the public image of what nursing is.

“Society has a traditional view of who a nurse is,” she said.

Many people think of nurses as doing menial work in hospital wards.

The profession also is changing because it was traditionally considered one of the few professions suitable for women.

“So many of us are getting older,” she said. “Now there are so many other professions for women.”

When she was going through school in the ’60s, Stefaniak’s family gave her two choices: she could be a nurse or a teacher.

Many women her age faced similar choices.

As a result, much of the field is in her age group. The average age of a nurse is 47 to 48. Nursing faculty are in their 50s on average.

Now, the main task facing Stefaniak and others like Lakeview nursing dean Sara Rich-Wheeler is letting current and prospective students know what opportunities abound in the field.

Most people don’t know that industries like insurance or pharmaceuticals require a nursing staff, she said.

“It’s not just someone who works in a hospital. There are a lot of things we’re involved in,” Rich-Wheeler explained.

Nurses can spend their careers as traveling nurses, or go into home health care. They might also gravitate toward education.

“I don’t know of another field of study where you can get a bachelor’s degree and the world is your oyster,” Rich-Wheeler said.

Nurses are guaranteed a job anywhere and can work any hours they want, they added.

Nurses with bachelor’s degrees can choose any specialty, but they also can change fields easily.

Rich-Wheeler began in the medical-surgical field, and then moved into obstetrics. She decided she loved working with families and eventually began specializing in paranatal mood disorders, the most common of which is known as postpartum depres-sion.

Reasons for leaving

Many nurses leave the field quickly after entering because they’re not prepared for the intensity of the long hours they put in.

The criticality, or intensity of illness, of today’s patients also influences many nurses’ on-the-job stress levels.

Today’s hospital intensive care units are full of people who suffer from complications from smoking and obesity, such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and others.

The number of nurses to care for this growing number of patients is shrinking, the women said.

But those who stay in the field are rewarded far more than they expected to be.

“You’re with people at the best and worst times of their lives,” Stefaniak said.

From birth, through illness and even at death, nurses are present.

“It is a privilege to be able to participate in people’s lives like that,” she added.

One thing that will help young nurses is support and mentoring during the transition year, or first year of work.

“Schools and healthy care agencies will have to work together,” Rich-Wheeler said.

COMING FRIDAY

See Friday’s Commercial-News for additional coverage of Wednesday’s event. Younger nurses talk about what the profession means to them.