No nursing jobs in 2012 ???

Gerry1888RN · Oct 24, 2009

Socialized medicine? Must be watching too much Faux News. I would think it would be better for the RN job market if there was universal healthcare.

californiadreaming · Oct 24, 2009

I think it will be worse. Probably lots of foreign nurses flooding the market happy to accept $10 hr. as RN.

Angel@MyTable, RN · Oct 24, 2009

Socialized medicine? Must be watching too much Faux News. I would think it would be better for the RN job market if there was universal healthcare.

I have to agree, I think that universal healthcare will help improve the job market for RN's.

PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

Press-Gainey may not be so relevant if we had government insurance.

And we won't need to "thank them for choosing our hospital."

No more "customer service/hotel type" influence?

Hmmmmmm.....

belgarion · Oct 24, 2009

Socialized medicine? Must be watching too much Faux News. I would think it would be better for the RN job market if there was universal healthcare.

And of course MSNBC, CNN, CBS, et al offer up only completely unbiased, factual, impartial, impersonal, and totally accurate stories with no thought to any agenda other than the good of the public?

The health care debate hasn't even gotten a good start in Congress and in spite of the President's best efforts to ram something through so quickly it wouldn't have to bear too much scrutiny, this isn't going to be quick and pretty. Plus any bill that eventually gets passed will have to go though a lengthy implementation process before it actually takes effect and then it will probably be phased in one or two provisions at a time. So the job prospects for 2012 are probably going to be more dependent on which way the economy decides to jump. If you can predict that one, please let me know. My 401K can use all the help it can get.

HM2VikingRN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

Socialized medicine? Must be watching too much Faux News. I would think it would be better for the RN job market if there was universal healthcare.

There is a real concern about increased demand for care r/t increased number of insureds. this will lead to a need for providers at all levels....

CherryAmes_RN · Oct 24, 2009

i agree with belgarion... i think that regardless of how the healthcare bill goes,

the job prospects for 2012 are probably going to be more dependent on which way the economy decides to jump.

stephenfnielsen · Oct 24, 2009

At the acute care level I don't see how socialized medicine/universal coverage etc. will change much. People are going to the hospital now if they have coverage or not.

What I have seen in my area is, the more money hospitals have directly correlates with quality of life for nursing, so....

The question that needs to be asked: is there going to be more or less money flowing to hospitals under the proposals floating around congress? There are competing variable at work here;

1) those people we are taking care of who do not have coverage pay on average 5% of their bill.

2) Medicare/Medicaid reimburses hospitals at about 80% compared to private insurance.

We can assume that a large number of the uninsured will move into some kind of a government run program that will reimburse at a similar rate to medicare (=more money to hospitals). At the same time what we are hearing is that the intention is for the government to "compete" with private insurance companies. If this comes to pass we can assume that there will be a number of people that are having a hard time paying for private insurance that will opt for the public insurance option (=less money for hospitals).

Anyone's guess is as good as mine, but my suspicion is that as the government has more of a say in the exchange of health care dollars, the more health care employees will be treated like government employees- for better or for worse.

One thing is for sure- Nursing is a freaking difficult career (think high turnover), and all signs point to there being an increase in the consumption of health care in the coming years which bodes well for nurses looking jobs. Don't listen to what you hear on this board about nurses not finding work. Listen closely - ALMOST everyone can find A nursing job if they are flexible/savvy job hunters.

Also- you will never see a significant nominal decrease in average nursing wages, what we will probably see in the coming years is a decrease in the rate at which wages are increasing- even negative relative to inflation, but this is going to be the case with every profession... never $10/hr as the above poster said!

criticalHP, MSN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

I think it will be worse. Probably lots of foreign nurses flooding the market happy to accept $10 hr. as RN.

That is where a strong union comes in to play;)

roser13, ASN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

"I'm really concerned with socialized medicine and low wages for nurses."

Don't drink the kool-aid. Socialized anything is not on the horizon for this country.

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

Press-Gainey may not be so relevant if we had government insurance.
And we won't need to "thank them for choosing our hospital."
No more "customer service/hotel type" influence?
Hmmmmmm.....

Works both ways. You may not get to choose your hospital either when you're the patient.