Nurses not immune to sick economy

It's about freakin' time that an article tells it like it is. I was getting sick and tired of all the supposedly nursing shortages articles that have been coming up even on this website and how we need to recruit more students. If that was the case then why have I been having such a difficult time getting a full time RN job?!?

Have said this before, and shall say it again, indeed shall go on shouting it from the house-tops; nurses consider themselves a profession while hospitals and toher clinical settings consider them labour. In case of the latter it means they are a cost which must be managed.

States and or the federal government could long ago have mandated staffing levels, and so far only one state (CA) has done so. The reason is simple, ever since modern hospitals were created they have depended upon a steady supply of "cheap" labour when it came to nurses. Be it working student nurses as unpaid lackeys as part of their "education", to bringing in nurses from other countries to fill a "shortage" of nurses.

The situation is a Catch-22 really. If word spreads amoung the general public that there really isn't a shortage of nurses, and or that GNs and new RNs aren't being hired in great numbers, nursing program enrollments will drop as they did back in the 1980's or so. Should this happen sooner or later when many of the current baby boom age nurses retire (or die), there will be a shortage of nurses.

Personally believe the matter is too grave and important to the nation to be left to the market place, and the federal government should finally step in once and for all and sort out the matter. The answer is NOT bringing to these shores vast numbers of nurses from other countries, but to make all manner of nursing an attractive career choice.

I find it odd that these facilities are only now acknowledging that there aren't many jobs for new RNs. The nursing schools in my area are still touting that there is such a shortage in our area, yet most facilities are on a hiring freeze indefinitely, and those few listings there are want 2 or more yrs experience. We've all been seeing this for almost a year now, and the media is just catching on-JEEZ

I've seen "recessions" before and they were NOT this. I'm afraid at this point that I'm going to lose out and end up taking work I don't want. What else are we supposed to do? It would be so different if I'd graduated from cosmotology school, for god's sakes. Come on!

I do have to say this though. When the economy is the way it is, none of us should be picky about what type of nursing job we get. There are so many people without jobs. Let's be grateful!!! And when the economy changes and jobs begin to open up, then go for the one you really wanted.