Is the "system" failing its New Grads???

[Barbara H.]

This is from a conversation happening earlier and I would love to hear other opinions...

"you are missing my point. I have worked as a travel nurse before myself, so I understand. However, something is wrong with the "system" when new grads get left behind only because it might be too expensive or inconvenient to train them while the hospital has no problem spending 100/hr between paying the travel agency and the nurse. This in my opinion is "disgraceful" at the best. A nation has to look out for their young people, they are the future and this is clearly not happening..."

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

For them to "fail" new grads implies the hospital owes them something. They don't.

[Barbara H.]

Well, consider the fact that healthcare is to a great part financed by the government speak the taxpayer...Should it not be in the public's interest to solve this issue...Doesn't this country deserve competent nurses when the baby boomers retire???

[ceebeejay]

There is no implication of a debt owed, it's about professional responsibility. When the stock of travel nurses, who by in large received their experience and qualifications by being trained in hospitals, retires out what kind of nurse is going to be left to fill that void? The model is not self sustaining. Yes, there are too many new graduates right now and not all of them would be able to obtain a hospital position, but even "Nurse in Training" positions are being given to nurses with experience already! The "profits over all else" model for business isn't working - anywhere. The creativity and ingenuity is being drained out. At what cost? The companies, including hospitals, need to balance investment in the future with the demands on them today. I have seen the company that my husband works for change from a creative, innovative, profitable - though not mega profitable place to chasing the dollar and the uptick on the stock at all costs. It is a dreary, boring, company now with NO innovative products that doesn't look toward the future. It is dying, as are most hospitals. No, hiring new grads will not "save" them, but having a more holistic approach just may.

[Jmira.BSN.RN]

To answer your question... yes.

When licensed RNs have been unemployed for so long that they are having to get government aid to be able to feed their children and survive, riding the bus because they had to sell their car, having creditors nipping at their heels from unpaid debt, and even praying that the CNA position they applied for may deem them worthy, then YES the system is failed.

Its the same with most other professions as well, of course. Anyone who disagrees simply hasn't been in the shoes of us new grads who are far below the line of poverty. It's a sad day when a licensed RN starts looking for minimum wage jobs, but for me that sad day is just around the corner.

[NurseRies, BSN, RN]

It is definitely disgraceful what new grads go through. I think many don't want to train new grads because they are likely to stay 1 year and then go elsewhere, if they make it through orientation. They are too risky for most specialties. Nursing in general seems to be a revolving door of job changes, which maybe is the real problem. Shouldn't we be compensated for longevity, loyalty, and experience? Is there really an incentive to stay somewhere? When the going gets tough, many run elsewhere, because it all pays the same, more or less. How many new grads have you seen train for 6 months, work for 3-6 more months and then bail for something else ? Solution? Anyone? I wish we were paid more for loyalty and years experience... Training a new grad is too expensive and many hospitals are cutting corners in every way possible due to budget cuts.

I guess that solves both those dilemmas-- things will just stay the same, due to budget cuts

[Jmira.BSN.RN]

I agree, there are many reasons why the market is so rough for not just new grads, but seasoned nurses as well.

No one can place blame on an 1 particular entity, but I will say that it makes me angry when people assume that Nursing Jobs are handed out like fliers and that I must not want it bad enough. Of course, no one who has said this to me actually works in healthcare!

I know in my heart that coveted first nursing job will come all of our ways eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later. And I know 1 thing is for sure, I will be grateful and blessed to have any position that I can get. Long and hard days (or nights) they might be, but they will be something I will not take for granted. In the meantime I will be finishing my BSN classes, and continuing to volunteer with the spare time that I have.

Even though we should all vent every now and again, we are all blessed to have those 2 capital letters after our name. They may not represent a paycheck at the moment, but they do represent a future!

[Sam J.]

Is America failing Americans? I'll leave that open-ended.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Do we actually have a "system"? I don't think we do. There is a healthcare industry, but providers are not united by any common goals. All the players have competing priorities & no one is willing to compromise. As if that wasn't enough, the people who make the rules are so mired in partisanship that they are only focused on acquiring and maintaining power - to the detriment of everything else.

That being said - none of us was forced to become a nurse. We may have been duped by advertising campaigns or snake-oil recruiters for high-dollar commercial schools, but we are all volunteers. The major 'gotcha' for exercising free will is to accept the consequences of one's own decisions... no one owes us anything.

[elkpark]

I had many conversations on this topic with nursing administrators in hospitals all over my state when I worked as a hospital surveyor for my state and CMS quite a few years ago. Hospitals feel that new grads are coming out of school much less prepared to enter practice than they used to be, and hiring them requires that the hospitals spend a lot of time and money teaching them stuff that the hospitals, rightly or wrongly, feel that they should have learned in nursing school -- the most basic stuff that they need to know to be able to get through a shift on a med-surg floor. As already mentioned, the turn-over rate for new grads is much higher now than it has ever been before. And there has also been a much greater at-least-perceived sense of entitlement on the part of new grads. Before everyone jumps on me, I'm not suggesting that this is true of all new grads, or even most, but I heard repeatedly from nursing administration folks in hospitals all over my state, large and small, rural and urban, that they were sick of new grads showing up with an attitude that the hospital should be grateful to get them, and, if they don't get offered a job right away, in their preferred specialty, on their preferred shift, they're being mistreated somehow.

Now, this was back before the economy tanked, so I'm sure the sense of entitlement is gone with the wind by now. But, unfortunately, a few (I'm hoping only a few :)) "bad apples" have created a bad situation for all new grads for some time to come. Many healthcare employers feel like they've been badly burned by new grads, and they're not going to get over that quickly. We were starting to see "New grads need not apply" notices on hospital websites even before the economy tanked, and, now, because of that, employers are in a position where they absolutely don't have to hire new grads if they don't want to. And since this phenomenon started before the economy tanked, and was not directly associated with it, I don't think we can assume it will change just because the economy improves.

I'm not blaming any individual new grads for the situation; I mostly blame the nursing education community for this. It's a shame that the students are the ones who end up holding the bag. However, as already noted, we're all big boys and girls, and we all make choices and live with the consequences. No one is being forced to choose nursing for a career, and it is the responsibility of individuals to make sure they're making informed choices about school and career.

[Susie2310]

I had many conversations on this topic with nursing administrators in hospitals all over my state when I worked as a hospital surveyor for my state and CMS quite a few years ago. Hospitals feel that new grads are coming out of school much less prepared to enter practice than they used to be, and hiring them requires that the hospitals spend a lot of time and money teaching them stuff that the hospitals, rightly or wrongly, feel that they should have learned in nursing school -- the most basic stuff that they need to know to be able to get through a shift on a med-surg floor. As already mentioned, the turn-over rate for new grads is much higher now than it has ever been before. And there has also been a much greater at-least-perceived sense of entitlement on the part of new grads. Before everyone jumps on me, I'm not suggesting that this is true of all new grads, or even most, but I heard repeatedly from nursing administration folks in hospitals all over my state, large and small, rural and urban, that they were sick of new grads showing up with an attitude that the hospital should be grateful to get them, and, if they don't get offered a job right away, in their preferred specialty, on their preferred shift, they're being mistreated somehow.

Now, this was back before the economy tanked, so I'm sure the sense of entitlement is gone with the wind by now. But, unfortunately, a few (I'm hoping only a few :)) "bad apples" have created a bad situation for all new grads for some time to come. Many healthcare employers feel like they've been badly burned by new grads, and they're not going to get over that quickly. We were starting to see "New grads need not apply" notices on hospital websites even before the economy tanked, and, now, because of that, employers are in a position where they absolutely don't have to hire new grads if they don't want to. And since this phenomenon started before the economy tanked, and was not directly associated with it, I don't think we can assume it will change just because the economy improves.

I'm not blaming any individual new grads for the situation; I mostly blame the nursing education community for this. It's a shame that the students are the ones who end up holding the bag. However, as already noted, we're all big boys and girls, and we all make choices and live with the consequences. No one is being forced to choose nursing for a career, and it is the responsibility of individuals to make sure they're making informed choices about school and career.

elkpark, would you be willing to tell us more about how you perceive the nursing education community contributed to the situation referred to in the OP? If I recall correctly from previous posts I believe you have experience teaching in BSN and ADN programs.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Ok, this is just my experience of it, but I don't see travelers and new grads as vying for the same positions. When I worked in the hospital, we mostly used travelers to cover maternity leaves. It takes longer than 12 weeks to train a new grad whereas a traveler gets 1-2 shifts of orientation before she is expected to hit the ground running. When the floor is understaffed due to leaves, we don't need a new grad who's going to be on orientation for the entire leave. We need someone who can work the floor NOW and that's where travelers come in. So even IF we hired a new grad for a permanent position during that time, she'd be on orientation and not taking her own patient load, so we'd still have needed a traveler to cover the hole in the schedule. And there might not be any reason to hire a new permanent nurse if we're expecting the nurse on leave to come back at full hours.