FREE Colleges?! & How it affects Nursing

Nurses General Nursing

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So the new federal proposal for FREE higher education across the nation is a close reality.

This is great for upward mobility and all, but without serious moderation would this be a disaster for RNs? Personally Im not seeing how its great for everyone (adults & kids) to flood our colleges & job markets all at once. I am trying to comprehend how this will affect the nursing job market and I just can not fathom the infinitely exponential repercussions. Will nurses accept jobs for less money? Will jobs be on a 4 year waiting list to apply? Will hiring politics be corrupted? Will we lose negotiation leverage like full-time perks, etc? Will we all just need graduate degrees? Etc, etc ...

Furthermore, am I the only one kicking myself that I actually had to pay for college? I mean, looking forward I picture myself in 5 years from today still paying off my BSN student loans, meanwhile my newly hired coworkers will be debt-free, homeowning new-grads, with others daily applying for my staff job by the thousands? :sour:

Sigh, ok a bit dramatic I think, lol. It just stings with a facepalm type of regret & I just have a bad gut feeling about this. Please help to remind me why free college is a good thing for nursing again?? ~ Thaaank You ~

nutella, MSN, RN

1 Article; 1,509 Posts

So the new federal proposal for FREE higher education across the nation is a close reality.

Furthermore, am I the only one kicking myself that I actually had to pay for college? I mean, looking forward I picture myself in 5 years from today still paying off my BSN student loans, meanwhile my newly hired coworkers will be debt-free, homeowning new-grads, with others daily applying for my staff job by the thousands? :sour:

Sigh, ok a bit dramatic I think, lol. It just stings with a facepalm type of regret & I just have a bad gut feeling about this. Please help to remind me why free college is a good thing for nursing again?? ~ Thaaank You ~

I can't help but think that you are jealous although there is nothing decided yet.

Yes, it might lead to more competition in the job market but in some areas it is already hard to find a good nursing job.

I have 2 children, one of them will go to college next month and the other one in 2 years. Since they do not qualify for any needs based aid and schools are somewhat picky with merit aid if you are not a minority, I have to pay for their education, which is expensive. I think free higher education is necessary. I am not against paying some sort of fee or for books but the way tuition and fees have increased is crazy. It is not fair to have whole generations graduate from college with so much debt that they start their adult life with a pessimistic outlook. A friend of mine who is a teacher, is close to her 50. birthday and still pays several hundreds a month because she had to take out loans for her education that included a master's degree in teaching. It is around $ 500 which goes towards the loans - she was able to buy a condo some years ago but continues to struggle in some ways.

There is nothing wrong with new grads owning a home....

elkpark

14,633 Posts

OP, I saw your thread about the increase in the minimum wage, also. You suggest that both of these things are just about to happen, and you're all worked up about how are going to negatively going to affect you. Putting aside for the moment how jealous and self-centered you sound in both posts, I think it's highly unlikely either thing is going to happen anytime soon (unfortunately, IMO). Maybe you should just take a deep breath and worry about actual, real-life concerns.

Nursing has been doing a fine job in the current economic and educational climate of turning out droves of minimally prepared graduates and running down nursing wages and benefits for quite a while now, without needing any assistance from anyone else. We shot ourselves in the foot, collectively, a long time ago.

Even if we went to some sort of civilized system of public higher education, that wouldn't mean huge numbers of people would get accepted into nursing programs. Plenty of people who are willing to pay can't get into nursing programs now. Nursing isn't like English 101; you can't just open up a few more sections and suddenly accommodate twice as many students.

PinayUSA

505 Posts

Too much money to be made in Higher Education, it will never be free.

Community colleges yes, 4 year degrees not gonna happen

pixiestudent2

993 Posts

Nursing programs will have to be more selective. There are only so many seats and they wouldn't make money to make more.

I'm all for free higher education. It's not happening soon like you say it is though. College should be accessible to everyone.

macawake, MSN

2,141 Posts

Sigh, ok a bit dramatic I think, lol.

Honestly, I think that you're being very dramatic.

Will jobs be on a 4 year waiting list to apply?

There are many more factors than whether higher education is free or not that affects supply and demand of jobs. I applied for seven nursing positions during my last semester studying for my BSN (entry-level in my neck of the woods), went to seven interviews and was offered employment at all seven.

In my country higher education is free. Tuition cost for my BSN was $0, same as for my MSN. Actually I received pay (appr. 50% of my regular wage) from my employer when I studied for my MSN as I was already employed where I planned to start working after I'd completed my degree. Picked up a couple of shifts per month to increase my disposable income and did just fine. Had I wanted to become a physician or a lawyer, the same would have applied. No tuition cost.

Elkpark is right. Just because higher education is free doesn't mean that everyone will suddenly become a nurse or a physician. You still need to have the required grades to apply and get accepted and you still have to pass all your classes.

Furthermore, am I the only one kicking myself that I actually had to pay for college?

It just stings with a facepalm type of regret & I just have a bad gut feeling about this.

How will we ever make progress and evolve as a society if we won't allow future generations to have it "better" than we had it?

Libby1987

3,726 Posts

If they are debt free home owning new grads, then I think your estimation of thousands applying for your job is too high as is your suggestion that they accepted work for less pay.

And how do you correlate free education with thousands of more slots?

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

:sarcastic:

Bottom line: college NEEDS to be more affordable; there are people with the right type of grades who get shut out or give up a seat because they can't afford it; a potential loss of that actual person that can contribute to society without being a dillard. :cool:

WheatGerm

82 Posts

Although I'm sure this would increase the amount of people continuing their education, you have to remember that everyone is not cut out for college or wants to go to college. My brother, for example, would have been able to go to school if he chose to do so. However, he decided it wasn't for him and has moved on to pursue other things.

And in terms of nursing, there still are going to be qualifications that need to be met and prereqs. Just because it will be free doesn't mean the market will be flooded with these awful and unqualified nurses....

As much as it would be nice to have free schooling after you've already paid for it, hey, you learn from having to deal with loans and how to budget.

OP, Nursing isn't like English 101; you can't just open up a few more sections and suddenly accommodate twice as many students.

Please explain what you mean by this? I dont see the reasoning why we think nursing schools have a limited capacity and what exact factors are involved in that limitation. Thank you

dishes, BSN, RN

3,950 Posts

Please explain what you mean by this? I dont see the reasoning why we think nursing schools have a limited capacity and what exact factors are involved in that limitation. Thank you

Nursing school seats are limited to the number of clinical placements that are available.

AJJKRN

1,224 Posts

Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

I would hope that if we ever did get to a "free" college tuition point in the US that both colleges/universities, and students for that matter, would be made to follow stringent guidelines ensuring the quality of their curriculums, students, clinical sites, etc. not like these for profit schools drowning students in debt with degrees that aren't worth the paper that they are printed on.

It would also be nice to see each nursing school in the US follow the same curriculum standards so we wouldn't have as many areas like mine where the community college boosts a better prepared education and NCLEX pass rates for a fourth of the cost of what the big name university does in the same town :no:.

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