CNN article on nurses and job growth

Nurses General Nursing

Published

CNN Money published several nursing articles this morning regarding the job shortage for new grads based on information they got from allnurses members.

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Since the recession, health care has been the single biggest sector for job growth, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get hired.

Registered nurses fresh out of school are coming across thousands of job postings with an impossible requirement: "no new grads."

It's a problem well documented by the nursing industry. About 43% of newly licensed RNs still do not have jobs within 18 months after graduation, according to a survey conducted by the American Society of Registered Nurses.

New grads have taken to posting their frustrations on allnurses.com, a social network for nurses.

FULL ARTICLE: For nursing jobs, new grads need not apply

A slideshow of nurses and their struggles:

  1. Where's this so called shortage?
  2. Nursing jobs post "no new grads"
  3. If only I could get an in-person interview
  4. Dear Obama, Please help the nurses!
  5. Even with experience, I can't find work
  6. I want to make a difference
  7. Online applications are rejected instantly
  8. I can only find part-time work
  9. We're competing with thousands

Thanks for all who took the time to respond. You can make a difference!!!!

The article is the most popular discussion on CNN right now!!

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Original thread requesting for help from CNN reporter can be found at:

New Grad Nurses struggling to find jobs - CNN Reporter wants to hear from you

Specializes in geriatrics.

I moved 2000 miles away for my first nursing job 2.5 years ago. The economy has been terrible since the end of 2007. Very disappointing that little has changed. Some of you may need to relocate, but keep trying.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Oncology, Epic CT.
I recently had 2 FT + 1 per diem RN position open in homecare agency Central intake due to growth and deliberately looked for new BSN grad applications: got turned down by 3 candidates as they wanted hospital experience. I was trying to give someone a foot in the door to a health care system with four hospitals that they could have moved after a year. Jaded over wasting my time and HR resources when they had no intention of accepting the position. Has delayed hiring for last position being filled x 2 months. Please, do not apply for a position you have no intention of taking.

I'll take it once I am done graduating! I worked for a home health agency as a pharmacy tech. It's a great experience and you learn a lot. I think even more so than hospitals because of the one on one care you have with patients in their personal setting.

And don't feel jaded, please, over a couple of students turning up their noses. There are still open minded new grads out there! I guarantee that myself and a few others in my class alone would sign up for that position in no time, since a lot of us are interested of working outside of the hospital setting. Thank you for being so considerate of new grads and opening that door for us. :)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Oncology, Epic CT.
I do read and talk to a lot of MDs. They are feeling threatened for various reasons too. They all say that because of all the changes going on with MDs @50 percent of them actively dissuade those they know from going into medicine. Many find that their residencies were lacking too and often the reaction to that was to just get into yet another fellowship to try and get the training they need to practice safely. They did sell themselves out @10-15 years ago when some began selling out to the big networks to become employees. Now in some areas it is impossible to succeed in private practice due to being totally shut out by the power of these networks. Like I said, I've been reading and conversing for years with certain bloggers, and to one I commented that it sounded like he's got a crappy nursing gig now (LOL).

They also hear all the shortage crap pertaining to a shortage of MDs. This is strangely the same as the "nursing shortage". Yet they hold on and say nobody will go into medicine, and we'll all quit ...I reply that people don't listen, and there will always be plenty who will drink the drank and stumble off that cliff. Lots of people just don't want to hear it. At some point you just have to stop trying to save them, and know that it's their right to jump - just be glad you didn't mix that drank for them.

As a few have stated as well in this forum, the shortage is just not limited to the nurses and doctors in the health care world. It also is impacting other places, like pharmacies. Pharmacy techs and pharmacists are also being graduated by the loads, just like nurses, and when they get out to the real world, they too, are limited with their job opportunities, because pharmacies would prefer those with experience.

But again, there are exceptions. I was one of them. I had a hospital and a home health agency take me under their wing and train me to be the infusion/respiratory pharmacy tech that I am today. Quite proud of that skill set, since I know it's going to help me once I reach my Pharmacology class. ;)

So there is companies willing to hire - look at NRSKarenRN's comment - just have to do the legwork!

Thank you for this article! I had this discussion with friends of mine and no one believed me when I said new nursing graduates could not find work. I am lucky I got a job right out of school but some of my classmates have not been able to get RN jobs. I am glad this is out in the open, thank you!

Specializes in ER, PACU, Med-Surg, Hospice, LTC.

I had to relocate over 12 years ago! The city I use to work/live was only hiring P/T nights-no benefits. From the Nurses I spoke with you could be stuck here for years. Forget it. I moved.

Thanks for the article, unfortunately a depressing one for the thousands like me, who cant get employed but much needed reality isnt something you can run from

Everyone at school was talking about this!! It's so true! I hope to find a job!

Specializes in Addiction / Pain Management.

Nice article, the myth of the Nursing shortage is directly paralleled by myth of the computer programmer/IT worker.

Sad really.

As a few have stated as well in this forum, the shortage is just not limited to the nurses and doctors in the health care world. It also is impacting other places, like pharmacies. Pharmacy techs and pharmacists are also being graduated by the loads, just like nurses, and when they get out to the real world, they too, are limited with their job opportunities, because pharmacies would prefer those with experience.

But again, there are exceptions. I was one of them. I had a hospital and a home health agency take me under their wing and train me to be the infusion/respiratory pharmacy tech that I am today. Quite proud of that skill set, since I know it's going to help me once I reach my Pharmacology class. ;)

So there is companies willing to hire - look at NRSKarenRN's comment - just have to do the legwork!

While picking up a refill script from Duane Read last week (now part of Walgreen's) the young pharmacist and I got to chatting about the healthcare field and he pretty much stated the same thing; the pharmacist/tech field is glutted and it is hard to find work for new graduates. But what about the "shortage" everyone was going on about a few years ago? They were even bringing in phmarcists from other countries, etc... Gone, all gone he said for the most part.

Just as with other areas of healthcare such as nursing factors such as increased enrollment/graduation rates, mergers and closings of pharmacies, more use of techs,etc have allowed places to do more with less.

One thing is certain: in this economy rightly or wrongly persons be they recent high school graduates or persons seeking employment run to the "next big thing" that is supposed to be a high paying and recession proof career. Problem is as noted above it can take several years before they are ready to hit the market and much can change between now and then.

The only growth and actual hiring one sees in many areas are for nursing assistants/home care aides. There often because the pay is so low versus the work load turnover is high.

I do read and talk to a lot of MDs. They are feeling threatened for various reasons too. They all say that because of all the changes going on with MDs @50 percent of them actively dissuade those they know from going into medicine. Many find that their residencies were lacking too and often the reaction to that was to just get into yet another fellowship to try and get the training they need to practice safely. They did sell themselves out @10-15 years ago when some began selling out to the big networks to become employees. Now in some areas it is impossible to succeed in private practice due to being totally shut out by the power of these networks. Like I said, I've been reading and conversing for years with certain bloggers, and to one I commented that it sounded like he's got a crappy nursing gig now (LOL).

They also hear all the shortage crap pertaining to a shortage of MDs. This is strangely the same as the "nursing shortage". Yet they hold on and say nobody will go into medicine, and we'll all quit ...I reply that people don't listen, and there will always be plenty who will drink the drank and stumble off that cliff. Lots of people just don't want to hear it. At some point you just have to stop trying to save them, and know that it's their right to jump - just be glad you didn't mix that drank for them.

In many areas of the USA there is a very real shortage of physicans, however it varies by specaility. GPs, Peds, OB/GYNs, Internists seem to be in demand everywhere, especially in poorer and or rural areas. In many local areas these specalities have a hard time attracting young/new doctors who view them as time consuming, under paid, bothersome, high potential for litigation, etc..

OTHO various surgeons,cardiologists,dermatologists along with "lifestyle" practices are doing quite well by and large. Young physicans are attracted to these areas because of high earning potential, stable "business hours", and so forth. Patients may dither about seeing their GP for a physical or some such, but when we're talking about their heart and or life or death they will spend whatever it takes to get the "best".

To be fair some of the seeds of bias against new hires were sown during the "I didn't go to nursing school for this" attitude not a small number of new grad hires brought with them starting around the early 2000's.

Hospitals did hire new grads and many in the nursing service including educators, floor and staff nurses gave their best to orientate and train. What many were often met with were new nurses with widely varying skills and education including some barely competent in core nursing skills if they were aquainted with them at all. Others still had either no clue or didn't want to know just what the nitty-gritty daily duties of a RN were. When faced with the reality of these expectations you had 1 in 5 if not more new grads either leaving of their own accord before their orientation ended or simply were let go. Such a model was simply not sustainable and it therefore should come as no surprise facilities started to take a look at the quanity and quality of new grad hires.

Happily for hospitals (but not so much for some others) the recent financial/economic crisis upended the healthcare world in ways that are still being felt today.

Hospitals began closing or consolidating staff due to mergers. Experienced nurses who had been quasi or fully retired re-entered the nursing workforce full time. Those thinking about leaving reconsidered out of real or other financial concerns. Bottom line is for many areas of the USA there was a surplus of experienced nurses which decreased the pressure to hire new grads. Couple this with changes in staffing (movement to 12 hour shifts, call offs, etc..) and better utilization of nursing service (fine tuning staff levels to pt census, scheduling nurses to report for duty closer to when needed for certain units such as OR, etc..) and hospitals found they could get by without having to hire many new grads. Remember a bulk of the hiring of nurses was to replace those whom left for various personal reasons: marriage, children, retired, etc.. When any drop off in those levels occurs you have the "clogging up" of the system the CNN article speaks of. In short those wacky nurses aren't behaving the way they ought in theory. Suppose we could put this down to the unstable nature of the female. *LOL*

How long all this will hold together is anyone's guess. But as long as the hiring and orientation of new grads remains a net cost to hospitals they are going to find ways to lessen that exposure.

I know new graduates that are actually looking specifically for home care positions. I think it is a great choice!!! Maybe their resumes just don 't get picked by HR for whatever reason.

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