Do you think there would be less RN students if the economy was better?

[kalevra]

I noticed this while talking to a group of people from my class. Many of them are on their second career after it ended around 2007 and up. They then began to work towards entering the RN program as a way to get into a filed that was "recession proof" and that " there would always be a demand". I got the felling that if the recession did not happen then there may be less RN students or at the very least fewer people trying to be an RN student.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

and the hospital has scholarships/tuition reimbursement that require those students to work for the hospital for 2 years or they have to pay it all back at once. There are about 45 nursing students graduating this semester with that obligation, but there are only 2 full time positions available and a small handful of part time positions. These students may be stuck with student loans without a nursing job because none of them have the resources to pay back the hospital and find a job elsewhere.

I think to remedy this problem (I had the same problem with the state of NC paying for me to take my National Boards and then my contract was not renewed-they wanted their money-$2500-NOW. I had to go to court to get them to allow installments) of scholarship, there are hospitals that offer retro scholarship. You work for them for 2 years and then they pay a portion of your tuition (may be all depending on where you went to school). I think that is a good idea.

[P51Mike1980]

I guess I am in the minority. The economy had nothing to do with my changing careers. My original career was going just fine. I just want to be a nurse and am not getting any younger.

Ditto! I had what most would consider a "good job" before I quit last year. It was in finance, and just like some people aren't cut out for nursing or anything medical related, I am absolutely NOT cut out for finance or anything business related. I started out as a bio major with the intention of applying to medical school; halfway through college I switched to Finance and dropped the med school dream - I still have no idea why. Last year, I decided to go into nursing after realizing that if I stayed in business I'd be miserable. I grew up around nursing - both my parents were nurses before they retired and I didn't go in with any rose colored glasses about the career. That being said a lot of nurses are just plain nasty to me when they hear my story, and most of those nasty people are online. I volunteer in an ED and the majority of the nurses are extremely supportive...like every other career, nursing is cyclical and I believe that a lot of hospitals are doing themselves a disservice by not hiring a healthy amount of new grads. If they keep hiring only experienced nurses, there will be a time in the future where there will absolutely be a shortage of nurses because all the experienced nurses will have retired. That being said, no career is recession proof and I do think that the motivation of those going into nursing as a second career should be questioned. Those going in for job security are in for a massive shock. Nursing is not a glamorous career as shows like Grey's Anatomy and Nurse Jacky portray. There were many days when my parents came home dejected, upset, and wanted to quit. Most of the time it's thankless and you have to put up with a lot of BS from patients, doctors and others. I'm also very interested to see if the hiring disparity pertains more to those with and ADN versus a BSN and also to individual departments such as the ED, ICU, L&D, etc...it seems that everyone I talk to wants to be an L&D nurse and won't settle for anything less. I'd like to do ED/ICU because I eventually want to become an ACNP but I'll take anything that hires me right off the bat. I also take the posts of others on this forum with a grain of salt and take the advice from nurses I interact with as a volunteer more to heart. Sorry, but online I think you often get bitter and angry individuals posting more than those that genuinely want to help and offer advice.

[rys22]

I think there is some truth to the original question.

For me, I originally planned to become a nurse after high school and did all my research projects and job shadowing assignments on nursing, as well as volunteering at my local hospital after school a few days a week. Why did I end up not doing it? To this day Im not completely sure. I went into esthetics and massage therapy. Well now here I am 5 years later, struggling to get through the day sometimes because I wasnt as careful as I should have been with the erganomics of the job and have now messed up my hands. I know I wont be able to get all the way up to retirement at this rate and I had to pick a different career. Sure, the economy has affected the spa industry as well, but I've been lucky enough to be in a great spa, with a great clientele. I have now revisited the nursing plan and am going for it. I am kicking myself everyday for not starting right away, especially looking at the friends who have already graduated and are enjoying their life without juggling school, work, and family. I do worry about having a hard time finding a job after I graduate because I cant tell you how many of my clients are in the nursing field. Some have good things to say, some dont.

I think some of those who are in school now because of the economy will not last. Some might give up before graduating, some during the job hunt, and others after working for a while. I dont think its a field that you can just stay in even if you hate it. At least not forever. Which works for the rest of us who actually want to be nurses. :)

[FitMommyRN]

I'm also in the minority of people who are going for a career change and it isn't due to the economy. I was teaching college full-time, and had a full performance calendar (My bachelor's and master's degrees were in opera) when I decided to make the switch.

Nursing had always been in the back of my mind. One day when one of my students cancelled their lesson, I did a little search and discovered accelerated nursing programs in my area. I read up on the pre-reqs that were involved, figured out a time-line, and basically gave a presentation to my husband lol. He simply said "why not?" and here I am.

To answer the OP, I ABSOLUTELY believe the saturation of nurses and new grads is due, in part, to the economy. I think nurses may have come out of retirement if their retirement savings got nailed, they may have put off retirement, nurses who worked part-time may have switched to full-time, and there is a large number of career changers who absolutely still believe that there is a nursing shortage and they'll have hospitals beating down their doors to hire them. I met the latter on a daily basis when I was still taking my pre-reqs.

[kalevra, BSN, RN]

My class started out with like 55 people, and half of them were idiots. Now we're down to less than half that amount, 22, and while I think a few of them won't make it, I think that most of them will make great nurses.

I was recently reflecting on what a huge money maker level 1 of nursing school must be. Especially when you consider that some people will retake the same level a few times before ultimately giving up.

I know what you mean. There are tons of people that want to be RNs but they just do not realize the level of clinical and book work it takes. My school went to a merit system so they weed out the week ones before giving them a seat. Prior to that we had a lottery system where you would lose like half the class in the process. Now our class average floats between an 83%-92% on ATI.

The pre-reqs are a huge money maker for the college. People drop and retry and many of them keep doing this for years until they are blur in the face.

[IEDave, ASN, CNA, LVN]

My take is that there'd be fewer students across the board if the economy was better. My last paying job was an IT gig for a local community college district (and I've still got contacts there) - the reason there's been a 55% uptick in CC tuition in California over the past 5 years is primarily to try and cut the number of students down. CC's are running at full boogie and getting into ANY class is a challenge (believe me, I know - couldn't get ANY classes for Fall semester at Chaffey) let alone nursing.

Good news is that (a) there's been a slow but steady progression in terms of unemployment; (b) most likely there's going to be a fair amount of attrition in all fields requiring secondary ed as people bail on fields they dove into because it was in front of them at the time; © we're just getting into the "golden era" for nursing - the leading edge of the Baby Boom is just hitting retirement age right now; give it about 7 - 15 years and the meatiest part of the Boomer curve'll be looking at LTC, RCFE's, Assisted Living, etc. - brush up on your geriatrics, folks!

In my personal case - rather than blathering on (like I've already done on other threads) let's just say that in my case (a) I'd still have gone into nursing, but probably by a different route (most likely ADN -> BSN, rather than CNA -> LVN -> BSN), and (b) for me, well, I guess the best way to put it is that this is something of a "calling" for me. No illusions about this field being "recession-proof"; saw several acquaintances in healthcare that got their patookuses nailed by layoffs. As far as this field being "for me" - I have reason to think so (see comment on blathering, above), but after tiptoeing around some of the basic issues (let's try Pharmacy Tech; no, no - let's volunteer at a hospital; nope - volunteer at a hospice...) I finally figured out that the only way I'm truly gonna know...is to get in there & DO IT.

I start my CNA training on December 20th.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

There would be less RN students if the schools didn't make it sooooooo flippin easy to get in. A LOT of schools don't even require General Chemistry. The pre-reqs are filled by "aerobics, english 101, art, walking class, basic psychology for a gen ed, a history class, maybe a nutrition class, oh and the OMG SOOOOOO HARD A&P". Some schools do it right and require the chemistry, organic chem. But some that even require Microbiology...have a watered down version. Major university here in town has Micro 3200. The "Nursing" required micro is Micro 1230......come onnnnnn. Then you hear students whine that nursing school is so hard to get into. Try taking Biochem, Physics, Organic Chem, etc, then get back to me on hard. I've taken those, no sympathy from me.

With all those science classes you should have gone into medical school and get a better bang for the buck!