Everyone seems to be turning to nursing. I remember way back when (5 years ago) when nursing was a calling. There were still other jobs a person could do and make a living--like heating and air conditioning. Now nursing is a lifeboat--a recesion-proof job that anyone and everyone is considering.
I see post after post in here of people who have no experience, no particular desire, and no particular aptitude for nursing inquiring about nursing as a job. They need something to pay the bills. I just went to a restaurant tonight, and two of our waiters are starting nursing school.
Let's face it, with the coming depression, nursing wages are attractive. So here's a prediction, please tell me if you agree or disagree:
Nursing boards will start requiring a 4-year degree to sit for the NCLEX.
The Nursing shortage is going to end in about 3 years; in five there will be a glut of nurses and getting a job will be about like getting a job as an NP is now.
Travel agencies will cease to exist and agency nursing will go the way of the way of the dinosaur.
Without unions, hospitals will force nurses to take about 14 patients a shift and will simply fire those who won't do it.
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
with corps tightening their belts, I see freezes coming....higher pt. loads for those of us working
less entering school if all go to a 4 yr. degree....
no, I don't see a glut of nurses coming, as those new ones arrive, there are plenty of us older ones ready to retire (probably more leaving than entering)
too many other enticing fields for a 4 yr. degree other than nursing...
My hospital has taken measures to "tighten out belt." A hiring freeze, eliminating some positions, ect. It seems that several hospitals in the area are doing the same.
I like going to the various nurse recruiting activities. I like the free food and other giveaways. I'm not having to cut back on this fun little diversion. So a lot of hospitals in this area are "cutting back" others are seriously recruiting. I do think the market is a bit tougher for new grads, and people who can only work for one employer, but it's not dooms day. At least not until I can't get my free food and pens.
too many other enticing fields for a 4 yr. degree other than nursing...
I see this as a major contributor to the nursing shortage. No matter how many new nurses we can train, without the combination of decent pay and a decent work environment, many nurses will seek other options, leaving many crucial nursing roles unfilled.
A nurse is valuable in so many settings - diabetes education, insurance claims review, legal consulting, administration, and much more. Such jobs that often aren't as stressful and physically difficult as floor nursing, offer a more "normal" work schedules and oftentimes offer better pay, too. Such jobs also lure nurses away from the areas of nursing where the greatest needs are.
Finally, how much of the projected demand for nurses in the future is for chronic geriatric care? Such care isn't a money maker so it seems likely that the pay for such nursing care may be lower than most licensed nurses are willing to work for. And since they have other options, again, I imagine the demand for nursing services will continue to outstrip the supply of WILLING nurses.
The depressing alternative is mass producing nurses with minimal preparation for whom a low paid, poorly staffed job is better than their other job options.
Guess I'm feeling cynical tonight :icon_roll... time to get off this darn computer !!
Alternative energy? You must be joking. I have a 2005 F-250 crew cab diesel fully loaded. I pull my RV with it, and anything else I want to pull. With nothing in the bed and no RV. I can hit the gas pedal and after ten minutes or so (a joke all diesel owners will understand) I can accelerate past just about any car on the freeway. It's extremely powerful. And while I understand that trains are actually powered by electric motors, they have to have really big diesel engines to run the generators to make the electricity to run the electric motors. Green will never be an industry. At least not until they outlaw oil.
Of course I'm being deliberately flippant, but my point is that in order to end the economic conditions the market has to produce a product that people must have--or think they must have. I get a gallon of deisel for 2.59. Why would I ever by an electric car?
By the way, my main mode of transport to and from work is a motorcycle that gets 50 miles to the gallon. I love it way more than my truck.
Lesson: make an electric car that can go 400 miles on a charge at 90 miles an hour and hit speeds of 130 miles an hour. Make one that can go 200 miles on a charge and pull a 7000 pound trailer at 70 miles an hour, and make that charge take a mere 15 minutes. Then make the first one sell for 10,000 dollars. Then and only then, will green make the market.
Just my opinion, of course.
People didn't believe we'd ever be able to fly into space and land on the moon either. We will move foward and there will be new things created and technologies will advance, whether people believe it or not. I never say something can't or won't happen. You don't know what the future holds.
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
I see this as a major contributor to the nursing shortage. No matter how many new nurses we can train, without the combination of decent pay and a decent work environment, many nurses will seek other options, leaving many crucial nursing roles unfilled.
A nurse is valuable in so many settings - diabetes education, insurance claims review, legal consulting, administration, and much more. Such jobs that often aren't as stressful and physically difficult as floor nursing, offer a more "normal" work schedules and oftentimes offer better pay, too. Such jobs also lure nurses away from the areas of nursing where the greatest needs are.
Finally, how much of the projected demand for nurses in the future is for chronic geriatric care? Such care isn't a money maker so it seems likely that the pay for such nursing care may be lower than most licensed nurses are willing to work for. And since they have other options, again, I imagine the demand for nursing services will continue to outstrip the supply of WILLING nurses.
The depressing alternative is mass producing nurses with minimal preparation for whom a low paid, poorly staffed job is better than their other job options.
Guess I'm feeling cynical tonight :icon_roll... time to get off this darn computer !!
People didn't believe we'd ever be able to fly into space and land on the moon either. We will move foward and there will be new things created and technologies will advance, whether people believe it or not. I never say something can't or won't happen. You don't know what the future holds.
Yeah, once you've been around long enough....nothing seems impossible. I remember when I thought a 386 was just too fast and more than anyone would need.
I'm sorry but not only is the original post clueless (aging population, aging nurses, not enough schools and so on...) but I wonder why I keep seeing so many people lamenting the fact that so many others are suddenly interested in nursing. So what? So what if there are people considering nursing who would not have considered it before? We need nurses! The shortage is coming, folks. We need to find nurses somehow. I'm sorry but after listening to all of the complaining about under-staffing, etc, you'd think you'd be happy that more people were contemplating the field!
And what's all of this about people choosing not to seek care because they don't have the income, insurance, etc? Where have you been? The baby boomers are getting older...... They are going to need care regardless of income, etc. This is part of the nursing shorting as previously listed. I'm not sure we're living in the same country.
People didn't believe we'd ever be able to fly into space and land on the moon either. We will move foward and there will be new things created and technologies will advance, whether people believe it or not. I never say something can't or won't happen. You don't know what the future holds.
I don't mean this to be argumentative, but look at what you just said: it's a dichotomy. "We will move forward." "You don't know what the future holds."
I say we won't; you say we will, but neither of us actually knows. Nevertheless, I say I can't see anything, and you are, in effect, saying you see something that isn't there.
I'm sorry but not only is the original post clueless (aging population, aging nurses, not enough schools and so on...) but I wonder why I keep seeing so many people lamenting the fact that so many others are suddenly interested in nursing. So what? So what if there are people considering nursing who would not have considered it before? We need nurses! The shortage is coming, folks. We need to find nurses somehow. I'm sorry but after listening to all of the complaining about under-staffing, etc, you'd think you'd be happy that more people were contemplating the field!
And what's all of this about people choosing not to seek care because they don't have the income, insurance, etc? Where have you been? The baby boomers are getting older...... They are going to need care regardless of income, etc. This is part of the nursing shorting as previously listed. I'm not sure we're living in the same country.
You're not even a nurse yet, and you are calling the OP's opnion "clueless"?
I've been a nurse for eighteen years, and I agree with the OP.
Do you think I'm clueless, too?
What about the Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Stats? Another victim of cluelessness?
As for understaffing- Ha. That has nothing to do with how many nurses are available. It is 100% about mgmt staffing short on purpose, because they don't care if they overwork nurses, and risk pts. They don't want to pay for staffing- they send nurses home and pull them to other units all the time, because they always think units are over-staffed.
No offence intended, but from where I stand, you just have no idea what the score is.
I believe there is a maldistribution of nurses, not really a shortage of nurses here in the U.S. Some places are more desireable to live than others, and RN's tend to flock to hospitals in the 'nicer' areas, for example the suburbs with good schools, reasonable living costs, ect. I personally just relocated from such a place b/c it was saturated with nurses - i totally had to 'take what i could get' and couldn't even get a job in what i wanted to do. It is now becoming the 'less desirable' areas onlly with the shortages - such as inner cities and rural areas, or communities where the costs of living are much higher than what the RN pay is (like where I am currently living).
And with all this media hype about not enough nursing instructors.......most nursing schools HAVE increased their enrollment in recent years. The CC I graduated from DOUBLED the numbers of students they take every year. I think it is getting more competitive for new grads now then it used to be and there are fewer options to choose from than there was 5 years ago.
I'm sorry but not only is the original post clueless (aging population, aging nurses, not enough schools and so on...) but I wonder why I keep seeing so many people lamenting the fact that so many others are suddenly interested in nursing. So what? So what if there are people considering nursing who would not have considered it before? We need nurses! The shortage is coming, folks. We need to find nurses somehow. I'm sorry but after listening to all of the complaining about under-staffing, etc, you'd think you'd be happy that more people were contemplating the field!
And what's all of this about people choosing not to seek care because they don't have the income, insurance, etc? Where have you been? The baby boomers are getting older...... They are going to need care regardless of income, etc. This is part of the nursing shorting as previously listed. I'm not sure we're living in the same country.
Maybe you're right, but ask yourself this: Where else right now can you make 30 dollars an hour? Outside of the professions (and there is no shortage of doctors or accountants or lawyers), where can you make 30 dollars an hour?
If we have a sudden turn around in the economy as some of the pie-in-the-sky posters seem to think is going to occur with the amazing inventions that will come as we all go green, then the nursing shortage will persist. But if the economy continues to go south for the next three years and then stabalize at a much lower level of productivity, where will you be able to make 20-30 bucks an hour? The guy who used to cut your grass and collect your garbage will be sitting next to you in class. 75 applicants, half of whom will be from the university, will be competing for a single announcement from a hospital for an RN position that will secretly be held for the tech who just graduated and works on the floor where the vacancy comes open.
You won't even be able to think about a position without a BSN, and the MSN may well become what's needed to compete as it is with dieticians and social workers now. You may actually have to know someone on the inside to get the job. You may have to move to various parts of the country where there are jobs to get.
I really hope I'm wrong. But I started out with this post wondering what would be the thing to pull us out of the next slow-leak depression. And no one has an answer yet. Just like me, no one can see a way out.
Look, the government wants to make it easier for banks to loan money to people so they can buy houses so the prices will go back up and everything will be like it was. But think about how all this began: housing prices got too high and no one could buy them anymore and all the bad loans converted to horrible loans that couldn't be paid. The banks can have all the money in the world: if people wake up and start paying off debt like they should do--like they have to do: depression.
Valerie Salva, I've been working in healthcare for 10 years. Not as a nurse but right along side 'em. My employer doesn't intentionally understaff nurses and neither have the other facilities I've worked in. I'm not sure where you are but it sounds like you're working for Walmart. I recently switched positions and took a HUGE paycut (you want to talk to me about going into this field for the money? I made more than an entry-level nurse before.) to become a nurse TECH. Hmmm.... no ego there!
$30/hr is nice but it isn't exactly a goldmine unless you're used to making very little. Some of us are pursuing nursing for career expansion and better opportunities, not because we're looking for our pie in the sky. Taking care of patients is a learned skill, not just a "calling", and there are many of us, especially those with a little life experience beneath us that just know we can do this job. And yes, it IS a job. No, I would absolutely NOT do this for free, thanks.
aloevera
861 Posts
with corps tightening their belts, I see freezes coming....higher pt. loads for those of us working
less entering school if all go to a 4 yr. degree....
no, I don't see a glut of nurses coming, as those new ones arrive, there are plenty of us older ones ready to retire (probably more leaving than entering)
too many other enticing fields for a 4 yr. degree other than nursing...