Job market- ADN students being warned?

Students ADN/BSN

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MrChicagoRN, RN

2,597 Posts

Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
Call me crazy, but I honestly don't think it's the school's job to warn students about potential job markets years down the road. Nobody knows what the job market will be like 2 or 4 years from now. When selecting an academic pursuit it is up to the individual to do their own research and make a decision based on their own desires, academic goals, financial limits, and research about potential job markets once they graduate. The schools have no control over the job market, nor are they able to predict the future. The same principle applies to education as it does for any large purchase - buyer beware!

Actually, they are required to report current graduate placement rates: http://nces.ed.gov/npec/data/Calculating_Placement_Rates_Background_Paper.pdf

While they cant predict the future, they can report recent history, as well as current trends. I feel that if an institution is asking you to spend several years, and 10's of thousands of dollars, they do have an obligation to be truthful.

PMFB-RN, RN

5,351 Posts

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I predict when interest rates rise, to about 5%'ish, there will be a CRITICAL shortage as many nurses will finally be able to retire. So there is hope. This is good news for students that will graduate in 14' or 15', but very frustrating news for recent grads.

*** Naw, can't happen. I don't disagree that if conditions improve many nurse will retire and there will be more nurse jobs open. Many open jobs will result in nurses pay, benifits and working conditions improving. However that is no indication of a shortage of nurses. My state pumps out enough RN grads every 5-6 years to fill every RN position in the state. That means there are a LOT nurses not working as nurses. There has been, and continues to be, an over production of nurses.

I think an even bigger factor than nurses retirment is the large number of nurses who are working full time who would much prefer to be part time. IN 2008 nearly every open position in my hospital was filled overnight by part timers going full time. Mostly had to do with some larg emolyers in the area laying people off and cutting back hours so the nurse wives picked up the slack.

runsalot

339 Posts

Its a hard place to find a job out there period. I have been laid off 4 times in 4 years..So, and the last couple two jobs I have had have been contract jobs. For any person coming out of college, you need to get experience to be more desirable to become more hireable. Personally, I am entering into this new field with my eyes wide open, and I am networking, and volunteering and trying to get a CNA job to make my self look as good as possible.

My school does not hold my hand and tell me these things, but I have enough LE to know to do these things.

joanna73, BSN, RN

4,767 Posts

Specializes in geriatrics.

Schools are in business for profit. It's the responsibility of the student to do their research and weigh their options. As tight as the job market is for nurses, there are more prospects for nurses than most other professions. The economy is also terrible for teachers, business majors and just about everything else at the moment. Nursing isn't exclusively suffering.

hope3456, ASN, RN

1,263 Posts

Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

You are right Joanna. That is why the accelerated BSN program in my state received 300+ applicants for 20 spots this go around. Based in this thread iT sounds like alot of schools do inform students about job market difficulties and apparently that varies with where you live or are willing to live. I spoke with another girl interested in nursing school last night and I told her to check out this site to come to her own decision if it was right for her.

And for all of you about to start your first job - best of luck. Commonly, a couple months into that is when it is realized "why" hospitals have staffing problems and it is not because there aren't nurses.

NutmeggeRN, BSN

2 Articles; 4,621 Posts

Specializes in kids.

Ha! I guess that makes me a battleaxed crusty old bat!!!! You betcha!!!

mee9mee9

393 Posts

do you get paid more/less working in the community? do you lose/gain skills?

uRNmyway, ASN, RN

1,080 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg.
What states are y'all working in? I'm currently a LVN in TX and am enrolled for courses to complete my ADN. I have some experience and will be working PRN/PT through school so it shouldn't be so hard to find a job when I get done. I feel like starting at LVN is going to work out well IMO because it is much easier to get a job as an LVN (you may have to start out in LTC, but it teaches time management and you get to use a lot of skills depending on the facility). Therefore I will have experience behind me when I start looking for a job as a RN. I think as the Obamacare plan rolls out we will see the demand in nursing increase since they are expecting an influx of new patients who were not previously insured.

Um, I think you might be surprised. The trend I have noticed so far has been to decrease staffing because of the repayment issues. If hospitals are making less money they can afford to hire less staff. I hope you are right, but fear you will be wrong...

hope3456, ASN, RN

1,263 Posts

Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

Elderly patients are going to be allotted fewer medical procedures and hospitalizations under obamacare/Medicare. I suspect demand for "floor nurses" will decrease and most of the demand will be with home health type positions in the near future.

monkeybug

716 Posts

Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.

Hanging on by one good talon? Love it and will have to use it soon. Sometimes I feel like I'm hanging on by a talon.

DoGoodThenGo

4,129 Posts

Elderly patients are going to be allotted fewer medical procedures and hospitalizations under obamacare/Medicare. I suspect demand for "floor nurses" will decrease and most of the demand will be with home health type positions in the near future.

If you dig deep into the latest federal employment/jobs report it seems things are trending that way.

Yes, healthcare is one of the few growth sector in the US economy ATM, however when the numbers are broken down as to where the jobs are it is clear more UAP/tech/home health aid spots are being created than those for nurses. In addition the largest growth areas IIRC are not hospitals but in patient/ambulatory care.

Cannot speak for everywhere but here in NYC most every single hospital/healthcare systems are locked into an arms race to open off site physican affiliated network offices, ambulatory and urgent care offices. For the latter private physican groups are also getting in on the act as well resulting in UC offices opening all over the place. Well at least in Manhattan and or the more wealthier areas of the city where persons either have good insurance and or other means to pay for services.

In the past where healthcare systems here would have opened new hospitals in an area to "poach" patients from an established facility you now see them forgoing that bit and simply opening urgent and or ambulatory care. The most famous (or infamous depending upon which side of the fence you are sitting on) example was the shuttering of Saint Vincent's in The Village to be replaced by (hopefully) an urgent care center on part of the campus run by North Shore-LIJ. Rumor has it when Long Island College Hospital closes the same thing will happen there as well.

For those running healthcare systems the appeal of these sort of places is obvious. First and foremost they require far less staffing of nurses. Depending upon how things are run you can get by with one or maybe two shifts. Or, simply schedule relying upon lots of less than full time staff.

Specializes in FNP, ONP.

We have taken 2 children off to college and a 3rd shopping colleges this spring, while the eldest is shopping graduate schools. Not once has anyone discussed the potential job market for their given proposed majors. Nor frankly, has it occurred to us to ask, lol. I think it is universally understood to be the students' responsibility to investigate such things if they believe them to be important in the decision making process.

I think it is the very definition of entitlement to expect the school to anticipate your questions and provide answers for you, and then to blame them because things didn't turn out the way you had hoped and they failed to anticipate this and somehow warn you that you may not get a fairy tale ending. Astounding really. It is the Universities job to provide the education. The end.

The rest is up to you.

Ever notice when people succeed it is because they worked hard and earned it, but when they fail it is someone else's fault? It is a fascinating cultural phenomenon.

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