UNEMPLOYED NURSES

bree* · Feb 5, 2011

One of the places that I spoke to said they are averaging near 150 QUALIFIED applicants PER nursing position. I don't care what ANYONE says about "nursing getting better"..not even the baby boomers can cover that...and don't forget about the 100 new (if not more?) associate/accelerated nursing programs out there...2 years and you have another what 10,000+ new nurses every year? Anyone that can do do math knows that the baby boom isn't going to save us worth a gosh darn and I'm actually amazed that some people are on here talking about going into a nursing program! Yikes. Well...I'm not paying the tuition on that one, so I'll keep my little snout where it should be. I'm big enough to admit that I want to slap myself SILLY for leaving my nearly 50k simple little desk job (union too) to follow my passion..but I'm trying to cheer up about it, because I purposely took the LPN route, rejected acceptance into a RN program, and gave it a shot before I would have ended up REALLY hating myself going for 4-5 years.

PS. Nurse Practitioners don't have much of a chance these days either! I worked with a TON of NP grads on my rotations...wanna know what they were doing? Working on the floor as RNs. Don't trick yourself into thinking that a BSN...then a MSN..then a PhD..etc. is going to help you. Stop listening to the college advisor/counselor/salesperson and listen to logic.

bree* · Feb 5, 2011

There are more than 645 nursing schools in the u.s. that maintain membership with the american association of colleges of nursing as of 2010. These include undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programs in both public and private colleges and universities.

Does anyone care to find out the actual number of nursing schools out there? I would love to do a mathematical equation on that...say for instance, there were only 645 nursing programs out there and they all ran on a semester schedule averaging 20 new nursing students per semester...and of those...only 13 out of 20 students ended up graduating/passing NCLEX...now let's do the math...even though we all know the numbers are much higher...let's just low ball it to give ourselves an idea.

645 nursing programs x 2 semesters x 13 who "made it"= 16,770 brand spanking new nurses per year. ?

That's "small scale" scary already. I don't want to know the truth because I guarantee it's a lot higher.

B52-H · Feb 5, 2011

This is how I see the future nursing crisis everyone keeps talking about turning out:

Either

It turns out to be like Y2K. Lots of hype, wild predictions and panic, but passes by without much of a hitch. I read recently that with the current amount of non-practicing RNs (Unemployed, New Grads, Current students, Left the field etc) in California, we have almost twice the number needed to meet the projected demand. Given the trouble everyone is having finding work across the country, I can imagine this is true for the whole US. Even if it turns out to be nothing, I guarantee it won't stop people from predicting some other impending nursing shortage 10 years from then.

OR

The nursing crisis hits because older RNs are retiring together around the same time along with the baby boomers. The need for nurses will be exponentially worse because there will still be an overwhelming need for experienced nurses. This is because years and years of new grads were unable to find work, get trained or left the field leaving a huge gap of experience that will not be met no matter how many people you crank out from school. If I can't find work now because I do not have experience, its going to be 10 times worse if this scenario happens.

I think that some of the data out there about nursing shortages is valid and for good intentions (Better patient/staff ratio, increased awareness). But on the other hand I sense a bit of self preservation. Few things better call attention and funding to your career field than a looming crisis. Perks include a high demand for your occupation, significant pay increase and benefits. Its a bit sad, but I don't think the talk of a nursing crisis will every go away. It will always be 10 years from now or 20 years from now or when this generation retires.... (I know its a bit of conspiracy theory)

Just my :twocents:

bree* · Feb 5, 2011

I go with your first prediction. I know a lot of people are counting on "older" nurses to retire..but ya know what? The older nurses were ahead of the game and took their pretty little fannies out of it before we got into the mess we did.

Of EVERY single rotation I have gone on..and EVERY single hospital visit I have had in the last year (in different parts of the country), I have only seen ONE RN that looked like she could have been near retirement age. She had a dandy job at a Dermatology office, so I don't blame her for not retiring. From what the nurses have told me themselves, and from what I have seen..seems around 85%+ of the nurses that I am running into are in their mid20s to late 40s. I mean..unless ALL of them are using some REALLY great face cream...totally not even buying into this nonsense about all of these people retiring...best case scenario every single nurse retires and ALL the baby boomers hit their downfall....the number is still NOT large enough to absorb the jobless nurses out there....if we're lucky, it may go from 150 QUALIFIED applicants per nursing position to a "meager" 50 applicants we have to compete with...lucky us!

B52-H · Feb 5, 2011

Of EVERY single rotation I have gone on..and EVERY single hospital visit I have had in the last year (in different parts of the country), I have only seen ONE RN that looked like she could have been near retirement age.

I agree completely, granted I was limited to only southern California for rotations, but I only once thought to myself "Wow how old is she and how long has she been working here?!"

bree* · Feb 5, 2011

I have to agree completely, granted I was limited to only southern California for rotations, but I only once thought to myself "Wow how old is she and how long has she been working here?!"

Lol! So did I! I would have been MUCH happier to see older nurses working...but on top of them being smart enough to get their fannies out of nursing before it all came tumbling down..the ones who didn't have a lot of experience and demand fair pay...which pretty much gets them exiled from nursing altogether. Employers don't need older nurses letting everyone else know that nurses actually have rights and deserve fair wages...that would be a disaster!

MHSA LPN · Feb 5, 2011

Laid off journalist. Covered medical and fitness news. New LPN. Graduated in August. Passed NCLEX in October. Became IV certified in November. Sent out a gazillion applications. Had 2 interviews. One was for a job at an ALF. Salary: $12 an hour (no typo). I've been working as a legal writer since September. A Home Health agency has expressed interest. They gave a me a test that was harder than any test I've taken, and then invited me to an orientation next week, so even though I feel defeated, I am hopeful.

bree* · Feb 5, 2011

Laid off journalist. Covered medical and fitness news. New LPN. Graduated in August. Passed NCLEX in October. Became IV certified in November. Sent out a gazillion applications. Had 2 interviews. One was for a job at an ALF. Salary: $12 an hour (no typo). I've been working as a legal writer since September. A Home Health agency has expressed interest. They gave a me a test that was harder than any test I've taken, and then invited me to an orientation next week, so even though I feel defeated, I am hopeful.

Home health took an interest in me, as well..but truth be told, I'm terrified to think they would even trust me, as a new nurse, to be unattended and caring for patients....I am completely inexperienced...practically feel like it's license suicide! However, I do wish you the best. I can't believe you were offered $12/hr...I used to waitress at IHOP's and made DOUBLE that.

hope3456, ASN, RN · Feb 5, 2011

Based on my observations - nsg schools all over the U.S. increased their admission #'s to nsg schools dramatically in response to the 'nursing shortage scare' in and around 2002. My CC doubled their capacity. Now that there isn't as much of a demand - and in fact an oversupply - it seems they should respond to that and not be graduating so many new nurses. Of course that might make too much sense.

B52-H · Feb 5, 2011

Random thought occurred to me while watching Animal Planet channel. I know the government has given millions of dollars in stimulus money to various industries to create innovation and jobs. Couldn't we take a bit of that money and fund some new grad transition programs? Doesn't even have to be employment, just clinical experience and some skills training to keep us fresh. Or is it already spent up?

I am sure there is at least one program we could divert money from and the taxpayer wouldn't mind given the choice.

Give a huge money grant to a group of scientists to study the mating habits of the

Pot-Bellied Spotted Howling Gecko Wombat

OR

Create programs to help new grad nurses transition out of school; improving your healthcare by improving their skillsets.

Give a huge money grant to researchers to create an alternative fuel out of bat guano that could one day generate enough energy to close your garage door

OR

Give grants to hospitals so they can accommodate more new graduates to prepare for the large influx of retirees.

Just a thought.

Catch22Personified · Feb 5, 2011

The more I read this thread, the more I regret my BSN.

Right now I have basically a worthless piece of paper that I paid $80,000 for.

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Feb 5, 2011

or
give grants to hospitals so they can accommodate more new graduates to prepare for the large influx of retirees.
just a thought.

what influx of retirees??? the nurses i work with that are near retirement age (70) all plan to die on the job (no joke). the only ones talking about retiring are non-nurses who have pensions coming from working for a company that provided a pension back when he/she started working in the 70s and 80s. everyone else had retirement plans wiped out by walstreet, including me... however, i am relatively young just like the majority of my nursing co-workers so anyone waiting for us to retire will be waiting a long time.

also, another thought... most older nurses with experience do not work bedside any more, which is where new nurses need to start. so the influx of jobs will not be by the bedside any time soon even if they do retire. yes, i understand that if they retire from their nice positions that will open them up for experienced bedside nurses to move into those positions. however, not all of us can afford the pay cut to take jobs away from the bedside. thus, the government should not waste more money on new nurses. many new nurses already wasted enough government money taking out loans to attend expensive nursing programs based upon rumors of a nursing shortage that never existed and may never exist.

*UNEMPLOYED NURSES*

UNEMPLOYED NURSES