Nursing...recession proof??

Nurses General Nursing

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Just venting out my frustrations…LOL! As a new RN grad, the job search sucks! I’ve put in the work and accumulated my fair share in student loans to earn my BSN and the economy won’t allow me to put my training and education to use because I have no “real” experience! Instead they want to over-work their experienced nurses with high nurse-patient ratios, which increases the risk for medical errors and not very cost effective in these events. GRRR!!! :uhoh3:

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Regardless of the times, either a thing is anti-recessionary or not. Selling new luxury cars is not. Selling parts to fix old cars is. Writing shiny new computer programs for booming businesses is not. Nursing is.

Dad was an old, wise engineer. Back in the day, he told me engineering was on an 8-year cycle. There would be a shortage of engineers, and everyone would go to school to be an engineer. 4 years later when they graduated, there'd be a glut, so no one would go to school for engineering, precipitating a shortage 4 years after that.

This isn't really similar except that the widespread moaning about a nursing glut could forseeably lead to a shortage 3 to 4 years from now.

If I were starting all over again, right now I'd be starting in a nursing program.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

amen anonymurse. Nothing is 100% safe. Depends on what the market will bear. But more and more nurses are retiring. Some put it off due to recent recession but it will cycle around again. No help for the new grads of course and I regret that.

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It won't get better in the next couple of years. All the new grads from 2009 and 2010 without jobs will be competing with new grads in 2011 and 2012.

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Is anyone else kid of sick of this 'jobs is not waiting for me, what shall I do' complaints? Are people living in a bubble? Do they not hear the news? There is 10% unemployment in the USA, which pundits now are saying is 'structural.' Structural unemployment means that there are 10% of working age Americans that are , simply put, a human surplus. On the other hand, nurses, even the brand new ones, are still able to find jobs, albeit not as easy as they were able to do a few years ago. And when an RN has had some experience, there are tons of jobs. If there is some other profession like RN, with good work and good pay right out of college, I'd love to know about it.

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I for one don't blame new grads for being a bit put out by the problems they are having. I remember the kind of blitz that was put out about HUGE nursing shortage. I don't blame them for believing it. I believed it and I should have know better because I have been through glut/shortage cycles before. However, about 4 years ago I very tentatively suggested there would be a least one more tight job market before the big shortage hits. I was laughed off the planet. I had absolutely no evidence for suggesting another tight job market other than the fact that I have been a nurse since 1966. I have been through several other tight job markets and figure they occur every 8 to 10 years and one was about due. But it was really considered a crazy idea at the time because all stats indicated an ever worsening shortage of nurses for many years. Even when I said it I only half believed it.

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Is anyone else kid of sick of this 'jobs is not waiting for me, what shall I do' complaints? Are people living in a bubble? Do they not hear the news? There is 10% unemployment in the USA, which pundits now are saying is 'structural.' Structural unemployment means that there are 10% of working age Americans that are , simply put, a human surplus. On the other hand, nurses, even the brand new ones, are still able to find jobs, albeit not as easy as they were able to do a few years ago. And when an RN has had some experience, there are tons of jobs. If there is some other profession like RN, with good work and good pay right out of college, I'd love to know about it.

If you are employed, please be grateful. There are many new graduates who are desperately trying to find jobs who are posting these 'complaints' you speak of.

My two cents regarding nursing and the recession? Nursing HAS been hurt by the economic recession, as have most jobs (with the exception of a few niche markets like dollar/discount stores, pawn shops, etc). Still, I don't think that nursing has been hit 'as bad' as some other fields (like engineering and mot retail shops, etc). To say that nursing is recession proof is exaggerating to the point of misinformation.

So instead of getting annoyed at the people who 'complain' about the recession, either try to empathize or leave them alone. You don't know what they are going through, and it is my sincere hope that you won't be in a position to have to learn.

Be grateful for what you have, and stop hating on others who are trying to better their own situations and come to a forum like this seeking either support or the desire for more information about the field of nursing.

To the OP: good luck with your job search. My best advice to you is :

- don't give up!

- network, network, network, network, network. and did i mention network? this involves emailing recruiters, talking to your instructors from school to see if they know of open positions, attending job fairs etc. Let anyone and everyone know that you are looking for a job.

- don't be picky about specialties/ shifts: in this economy, take what you can get. That being said, inquire about places that seem too good to be true...protect your license first! But if you dream of becoming say a NICU nurse and the only open position is oncology, take what you can get. Any experience is better than none and as a new grad you really don't know what your niche is yet anyway!

- if you don't have any healthcare experience, get some. If you didn't work as an aide/tech or something similar in nursing school, I highly suggest that you start volunteering in a healthcare environment while you are job hunting. It shows initiative to be in the environment, and will give you a semblance of a routine, give you something else to focus your attention on and do some good.

good luck :)

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

For everyone's information, it's no picnic being an out-of-work experienced nurse either. I've got broad-based nursing and management experience plus an excellent reputation in the community, and I can't get a job to save my soul right now....in the meantime, new grads are having NO trouble landing good-paying jobs in the kinds of specialty areas that used to be available only to nurses with at least a couple of years under their belts. Guess it depends on what part of the country one lives in.

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Here in Miami, one of our big community hospitals is in economic crises. Lots of their nurses were let go who then went to the other local hospitals. Home Health...not good. I know nurses with years of experience as an RN but because they do not have "recent" experience, they can't be hired...what about that one!

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I hope it clears up, as I am a recent new RN but it took months to find work. There are 30-50 new Grads per spot at most hospitals and mine is no longer hiring LPNs.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Contrary to popular belief, nursing is surely NOT recession-proof.

During the recession of the early 1990s, some nurses would remain unemployed for 6 months or longer as they looked for jobs. This severe nursing glut continued well into the middle 1990s before easing into a so-called "shortage" in the late 1990s.

During recessions, patients avoid having elective surgeries because they are fearful of taking the time off work that is needed for full recovery, which results in low hospital census. When hospital census is low, less nurses are needed to keep the floor running. When less nurses are needed, the results include hiring freezes and cancellations of new grad RN training programs.

More people become unemployed during these rough times and, as a result, lose their health insurance. Uninsured people are definitely not inclined to seek healthcare unless it is an absolute emergency. In addition, medical bills incurred by uninsured patients tend to go unpaid, which means less money for healthcare facilities. If facilities are raking in less revenue, this results in less money for hiring new employees.

Although it is an accurate statement that nursing jobs can never be outsourced, always remember that nurses can be "insourced" by recruiting foreign nurses to work at US hospitals. These nurses are less likely to whine about working evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays because they are earning more money in America than they ever would in their country of origin.

Masses of part-time nurses accept full-time positions during recessions to keep their households afloat when a breadwinner spouse loses his/her job without notice. Plenty of retired nurses are reactivating their nursing licenses and returning to the nursing workforce due to the effects of rapidly dwindling retirement funds. Many of the nurses who have reached retirement age simply cannot afford to retire because they lost too much money when the banking system collapsed a couple of years ago.

This is just some food for thought. While this phenomenon might not apply to your region, it is certainly happening in many places across the nation.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

What drives me up the wall is the reality that there are thousands of unemployed nurses who's talents are not being utilized, and there are lots of underserved groups and understaffed facilities who could put that talent to use.

Sort of makes me wish a few billion of that stimulus money could have been shaved off to make a nurse version of the CCC or whatever- ahhh wellll that ship has sailed :-(

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