Are new grads contributing to the nursing job shortage?

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

Today at clinicals I was speaking to one of the nurses on the floor. I asked her if any new grads had been hired on the floor in the past year. She told me that there were 4-5 new grads, but they all left after their 6-month orientation. Sure, it isn't the greatest hospital and there are better opportunities elsewhere once you're past your precious orientation period. But doesn't this further discourage hospitals from hiring new grads, when they assume all the costs of training them but then don't reap any benefits? Maybe if new grads would commit and stick it out for at least a couple years there would be more openings for new grads.

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Specializes in Surgical Trauma ICU.
Maybe if new grads would commit and stick it out for at least a couple years there would be more openings for new grads

Call me crazy but if they stuck around longer would it do the exact opposite....less openings??

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I think the OP was referring not to the overall number of job openings but to the refusal by many hospitals to hire new grads for those openings.

I worked as a hospital surveyor for my state and CMS for several years, before the recent economic difficulties started, and traveled all over my state and talked with the nursing administration in nearly all the hospitals in the state. A topic that came up frequently in conversation was the diminished quality of nursing education across the board in recent years and how poorly prepared new graduates were to enter practice -- even then, before the economy tanked, many hospitals were becoming increasingly reluctant to hire new graduates; they were tired of having to spend large amounts of time and money to teach them stuff they (the hospitals) felt they should have learned in nursing school, and they were v. tired of spending that time and money only to have the new graduates leave for "greener pastures" shortly after they had finished an expensive orientation program (or, at least, within a year or so of being hired). From my observation/experience (and we were also starting to hear about this here on allnurses before the recession really hit), the recession has only exacerbated and accelerated a process that had already begun -- growing numbers of hospitals refusing to hire new grads.

I don't want to sound like too much of a downer, but I wouldn't necessarily count on that changing even after the economy and general employment situation improve.

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Specializes in Psych, EMS.

Absolutely.

Most jobs require at least one year of experience. Many new grads work wherever they can, and after that one year move onto greener pastures, so to speak. Meanwhile, the hospital or institution that precepted them is lucky if they break even on the investment they made training the new grad. Then, there is hiring to be done which means another shift in the floor's dynamic and more money spent precepting or at least orienting the new hire.

I understand why hospitals are hesitant to hire us. But isn't it also understandable how us new grads want to attain more desirable jobs/hospitals when they come available?

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I understand why hospitals are hesitant to hire us. But isn't it also understandable how us new grads want to attain more desirable jobs/hospitals when they come available?

Of course it's "understandable" -- but that doesn't mean hospitals have to continue to just live with it. In the larger sense, new grads who do this are just hurting themselves and the new grads coming after them, as more and more hospitals are feeling burned by new grads and increasingly reluctant to take a chance on them.

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Specializes in NICU.
From my observation/experience (and we were also starting to hear about this here on allnurses before the recession really hit), the recession has only exacerbated and accelerated a process that had already begun -- growing numbers of hospitals refusing to hire new grads.

I don't want to sound like too much of a downer, but I wouldn't necessarily count on that changing even after the economy and general employment situation improve.

you paint a pretty grim picture...what do you suggest all us new grads do then? We put the time, money and effort into becoming a nurse only to be turned away countless times by hospitals, SNF's, hospice care, clinics, etc. Hospitals complain that they are short staffed, nurses complain that they are overworked. That is something that is said regardless of economic times. If the hospitals were looking towards the future at all, instead of what's right in front of them, they would hire new grads. If they make their hospital an appealing place to work with support for new grads, they won't leave. Instead hospitals are more concerned with saving a few pennies so they refuse to hire new grads to train. Give it a few years when massive numbers of nurses start retiring, then they'll really be in trouble.

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

I wonder when word will hit the street that nursing really isn't so in demand or recession-proof. Then nursing school enrollment will go down, and there won't be that huge backlog of new grads ready to grab up any open position. But that probably won't be for another few years.

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you paint a pretty grim picture...what do you suggest all us new grads do then? We put the time, money and effort into becoming a nurse only to be turned away countless times by hospitals, SNF's, hospice care, clinics, etc. Hospitals complain that they are short staffed, nurses complain that they are overworked. That is something that is said regardless of economic times. If the hospitals were looking towards the future at all, instead of what's right in front of them, they would hire new grads. If they make their hospital an appealing place to work with support for new grads, they won't leave. Instead hospitals are more concerned with saving a few pennies so they refuse to hire new grads to train. Give it a few years when massive numbers of nurses start retiring, then they'll really be in trouble.

It is a grim picture, and I don't have any quick, easy answers. We're not talking "saving a few pennies." It costs a great deal to recruit, hire, and orient a new grad -- I've seen figures rainging from $40,000 to nearly $100,000. And then, in many cases, long before the hospital "breaks even" on the new grad, s/he up and quits. New grads are a financial liability for hospitals -- that has always been the case (although less so back when new grads used to come out of school better prepared to start practicing), and they put up with it for a long time for the "greater good" (and also because the turnover rate used to be a lot lower), but, as times and economic pressures have gotten tougher for hospitals (even before the recent recession -- that was just the final straw in a process that had been going on for a while), they see this more and more as simply being fiscally irresponsible with the facility's limited resources, and are becoming less and less willing to do so.

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Specializes in NICU.

^ I do understand the financial burden hospitals take on when bringing in new grads, however I feel they are doing a greater disservice to themselves by not preparing themselves for the future. We all know that one of the main reasons there are no new jobs popping up is because the nurses who have been working for 30, 40+ years and are ready to retire simply can't due to the current economic conditions. When things pick up (and they will), hospitals will see drastic decreases in their senior nurses because they've been just biting their time to do so. My mom (and all her friends) is in this situation now, she would LOVE to retire after working for 43 years and will do soon once the economy picks up a little more. Hospitals will suddenly be left with huge nursing demands and hire new grads on the spot unless they start recruiting them now to soften the fall.

If hospitals are worried about new grads leaving for "greener pastures", maybe they should look into what those "greener pastures" are. What is it that another hospital is offering that they aren't? Why is that other hospital so much more appealing? Is it simply someone switching to their preferred hospital unit, or is there something deeper going on there..?

who knows, i'm just a lowly new grad..what do i know? :)

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elkpark has hit the nail on the head. It is simply a very costly investment for hospitals to make in hiring new grads. The economy has increased their costs in many ways. Just a few: supplies (lots of disposable single use PLASTIC devices), higher premiums for staff benefits (many hospitals eat these premium increases to retain staff), patients that can't or won't pay their bills, decreased reimbursements from insurance payors...etc... From their financial stance, it just isn't feasable to spend the money on new grads. Any they know that new grads will lie and take whatever job they want for now only to jump ship when that sparkly new job in the area of their dreams open up. Personally, I am so grateful to have found a job as a new grad in my specialty of choice. I feel it is my obligation to "pay them back" for the time/money they've invested in me to grant me the opportunity to start my career, even without being under a contract.

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Specializes in LTC/Skilled Care/Rehab.

I do feel that some new grads are ruining it for the rest of us. I won't apply for jobs that I know I won't like. Several of the people I graduated started working in an area they weren't interested in and then ended up quiting. I can't even get one job offer and I have no plans on leaving any time soon. I don't know what is going to happen when large quantities of experienced nurses quit. I know that may not happen for a while but it may happen one day. I think there needs to be a mix of experienced and new nurses. I could be going on a year of experience but instead I am going on a year of doing nothing (and forgetting everything). Soon I will be an "old" grad without experience :(

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I think they should study why new grads leave, like several of the other posters said. There will always be people who will leave at the drop of a hat for something better, even if it's only trivially better. But for those who leave who are outside of that "drop of a hat" group, why would they leave? Poor working conditions? Better pay? Better management? You can't blame people for doing that. Employers do the same thing to us. The hospitals complaining about this are like the pot calling the kettle black. But since the hospitals are the ones that are in charge, especially in this environment, they are going to have to take the lead in providing better working conditions.

As to the quality of education, I'm coming from the perspective of one who has sat in on several classes at nursing schools I've visited. It seems like all they do is read through powerpoints and then go on. I *hated* classes in my undergraduate degree where they did it. Throw up a PP file w/ 300 slides and that's considered teaching? No it's not. So yes, I have personal issues with PP. I feel it has enabled the degradation of teaching because most professors don't know how to use it properly. Unfortunately, PP seems ubiquitous in nursing schools.

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