Study on recession's effect on nursing shortage

I work for an agency and they have not had any shifts for me. They told me the hospital even had to send some of their staff home for low census.

I don't think so Dan, i mean some figures I see shows that there will be a deficit for a while.

I live in Alaska (therefore AK skier). Normally things slow down for agency work in summer. Usually Alaska is looking for nurses. I know some of the hospitals are still hiring. I think I am going to go apply to work prn at one of the hospitals. Agency is always the first cancelled since we are more expensive.

But someone told me that a one of the cities in Idaho did not hire any new grads this year. I was surprised.

A friend in Texas said things have not slowed down there. They are keeping busy.

New Grads were turned away this year in Maryland near Baltimore

I spoke with the owner of a staffing firm yesterday and he is saying that there are job demands coming in but from different places than normal. He services 15 states and he says that all his hospitals that are normally not hiring are now hiring.

He also informed me that in first quarter of 2009 more than 27,000 NEW RNs were hired.

Apparently the jobs are out there, just not in places that people are normally looking.

FYI, according to an immigration attorney I know, the H1B visas are opening up in the Philippines with a start date of October 1 because the recession is keeping all other industries from hiring overseas and therefore the visas are being under-issued rather than being over-quota like normal.

Being a nurse for over 30 years, I have seen many changes in the way health care is delivered.
I spent the majority of those years in an acute care setting/staff nurse in a hospital.
Being 'shamed' into working overtime by your supervisors, was a common practice. Bordered on blackmail-but that was the way it was.
Administration began to impliment the staffing grid during my years as a staff nurse in the hospital setting. Whoever came up with this system, and the parameters, have a very loose grasp on realty.
The nurse to patient ratios, that would 'allow' you to have an additional staff person was ridiculous/still is. This was one of the main reasons I left floor nursing/hospital nursing. My heart will always lie with the trauma, the adreneline rushes of emergency nursing/surgery.
I transferred to an outpatient/ambulatory surgery center/clinic setting. The staffing grids followed to this type of clinical setting as well. Administration pushes for more productivity with less staff. Does not matter that you do not get a lunch break or any type of break during your work day.
Now--the nursing staff was 'encouraged' to start working four 10 hour shifts a week, to cut back on overtime.
The demands of a clinic nurse, are different that those of a hospital nurse. The mentality is that the clinic nurse does not work as hard a hospital nurse. Having done both jobs--this is an utter and complete fallacy.
Clinic nurses still are required to use their brains just like hospital nurses.
Patients can be just as rude and demanding in a clinic setting as a hospital setting...sometimes worse.
I work in a clinic that specializes in the care and treatment of patients with chronic pain. This is a probably the hardest type of patient, that I have ever worked with in my nursing career.
Staffing grids were supposed to make you work more efficient--so nurses were told. In reality, these grids wear a nurse or any health care worker into the ground--make you want to leave the health field.
If the people who design these grids, actually had to work within the grid guidelines themselves for just one busy week, maybe things would change?
The bottom line is always money.
When young people ask me if they should go into the nursing field---I discourage them from doing so. I tell them the truth--no sugar coating, what they can expect. If they can see beyond all this and still want to go into the nursing field---God bless them.
I went into nursing, to help people/to educate people on how to live a healthier, safer life. That has not changed after 30 some years. I have helped many people and that is a reward unto itself. My rose colored glasses came off a long time ago though. I like what I do--it just gets so very frustrating, when you can't do your job, because of the restraints of the staffing grid systems that are in place.

I have been an RN for 34 yrs., and from day one always was told of the "Nursing Shortage". Hospitals have ALWAYS worked with "short staffing" on purpose, to save money. Many incidents have ALREADY happened and nothing has changed in 34 yrs.

I've been with one hospital for 23 years. They have recently changed their staffing grid. We get less staff, nursing and auxillary for a certain # of patients. We even send people home for low census. The low census has really been harder on the CNA's and unit secretary's than the nurses.
I do think people are having less elective surgeries. Our census tends to drop in the summer too.
I don't think there was any nursing feedback put into the new grid. It was just for a money saver.
I know times are hard, but my concern is patient safety. They add more work with less nurses and you are putting patient safety on the line.
I hope this is short term and it improves. We'll see.

"The low census has really been harder on the CNA's and unit secretary's than the nurses. "

Just a minor point. Fewer CNA's and Fewer unit secretary's makes things harder on the RN. We all share the pain as to ability to do our jobs. But financially, you're right. It probably would be more cost/production efficient to send the RN home.