Question for you wise owl older nures

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

I went to the Student Health Center today because I have a sore throat and swollen glands. I told the doctor that I wanted to make sure I did not have strep because I was a nursing student and did not want to get my clients sick. He said that now is a really good time to get into nursing, that it "goes in waves" where there are no job and tons of jobs. Do you remember the "waves" of nursing over the span of your career? Could you share? Why you think they happened, will they happen again; for the same reasons....and how far have we really come? And if it is a long way, what do you think did it so we can continue in your foot steps to make it even better?

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this is what I experienced:

when I graduated in the 70s they were looking for nurses and I found a job right away

later in the 70s I was looking for a job and every place I went told me that they would keep my application for three months then throw it away because they had a hiring freeze {but I was hired anyway at a facility because I went in person and she liked me}

Then in the early 80s the agency I was working for stopped having work, so I was hired casual by another organization (who offered me full-time after about 3 months)

Then in the early 90s I was reading about the difficulty for nurses to find jobs, so they were keeping their full-time jobs instead of moving around.

But RNs who I worked with expressed fears of losing their jobs and the RNAs expressed their fears that their jobs would go to aides. This was during the time of the Recession of the early 90s. And where I was employed - they started having no work for the RNs.

I moved to another province and was told that there were no jobs for RNs because the market would not bear the cost, so they would hire nursing assistants instead.

My friend RN has not been able to find full-time work in her area; seems to be either part-time or fill-in (but I don't know how much she has looked around).

Now when I go to the job fair, there are places that are looking for nurses (and one said that there is a myth going around that there are no jobs)

I don't know if that answered your question.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Well, when I was in nursing school in the early 70s we were told there was a nursing shortage. I never had a problem getting a job no matter where I moved to. All through my career I kept hearing about this nursing shortage except perhaps during the time of Reaganomics. In the mid-80s the hospital I was working for laid-off over 100 nurses and it was hard for a nurse to get a job at that time in that area of the country. In the later part of the 90s I had a devil of a time finding a hospital job when I moved across the country to my new location. It was very odd I thought and had nothing to do with my credentials as they are longer than my arm which is how I ended up working in a nursing home at the time. Now, I'm hearing nursing shortage again.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

BUMP

Thanks for all the replys, keep them comming, they are great

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.

i didn't graduate all that long ago (less than a decade) but.....

a couple of months before i graduated, one of the hospital systems in the city where i went to school laid off a bunch of nurses. i don't think those nurses had a tough time getting a job, but it really made it difficult for my graduating classmates to find jobs. i was already planning on moving after graduation, so i didn't feel it too much.

however, several of my classmates that had been working as uaps thought they would have a job as an rn when they graduated.....and didn't. some had to move, some had to sign "new grad contracts" where they promised to work for a year or two to "pay back" orientation.

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