So, what happened to all the nursing jobs?

Nurses General Nursing

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Can anyone tell me. "What happened to all the nursing jobs." For the last few years all you read was that there will be a nursing shortage till, at least 2020. That getting a nursing job was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Articles were saying that even in a recession nursing would be immune because people still need healthcare.

So, what happened. Is it really the economy? Have all the vacancies been filled? What about the huge bonuses nurses were getting to sign with a hospital? Some of my own relatives got these bonuses so I know they were real. Now some of them are seeing their hours and benefits cut. Besides the recession (which is a big thing) are there other factors involved?

The nursing profession is starting to remind me of when they encouraged everyone to become programmers...and then the outsourcing began. You can't really outsource nursing, but it's the same situation. Encourage young people in droves to go into a profession, but then a few short years later the field dries up. It's a shame, really.

Ray

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Oh we have been covering that subject for quite sometime here. My advice would be just keep reading.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Yes. Do a search of this site and you will find many threads on this topic.

Bottom line:

1. Experienced nurses needing to return to the workforce and/or work more hours when their husband's lost their jobs (or got hours reduced) ... and or people's retirement plans lost money and they needed to work more to regain the money lost.

2. People losing jobs in other sectors flooding the nursing schools -- and then the job market.

3. Schools expanding to satisfy the demand from #2.

4. Hospitals losing money because more patients are not paying their full bills due to the economy. Hospitals need to save money ... so they work the nurses they have harder rather than hire new nurses.

Put it all together ... and you have more people entering the nursing workforce and looking for nursing work at the same time employers are trying to cut back on workforce expenses. That produced a very tight job market for a while.

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Specializes in ICU, CVICU, Surgical, LTAC.

lets not forget the expense for hiring new grads. it costs around 100,000 to train a new grad nurse and get them up to speed to perform nursing duties on there own for many places. I'm not sure where you are located but i am seeing improvements in the nursing job market where i live. I'm thinking that the economy is turning around or something because all of a sudden all the hospitals are having recruitment fairs galore. Even for the new grads!

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Okay....so I'm a career changer waiting RIGHT NOW to see if I get accepted into the nursing program at my community college this fall. I am not going into nursing because of the money or the glamour. I was making a lot more money in my previous job than I will make as a new grad, or for that matter, for a few years after. There are still jobs out there for my line of "expertise" but I have always wanted to go into nursing......crazy? I don't know!! :D

As with all things, nursing is also cyclical. There are highs, there are lows. I think the key is to remain positive and flexible. I started taking prerequisites back in 2000 but could not keep up with it because I was working full-time and I just didn't have the time to devote to it. Oh!! how I wish I'd stuck with it as I'd already be a nurse with experience by now. So, here I am 10 years later "waiting" to see if I can even get into the program. It has gotten so competitive, it's ridiculous! :crying2:

For those of you with experience and "looking" for a job, don't give up!! Something will turn up......it may not necessarily be in the area you'd want, but at least you will be working and getting exposure to something new perhaps. You have already done the hard part.....for me, I'm just starting out, and the road seems very long!!!

Good luck to everyone!!

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My daughter is in the San Francisco area and says the jobs have really dried up around there. I think I read too that San Francisco General is laying of all their nurses and then bringing some back with less hours and less pay.

Just goes to show, though that the so-called experts aren't really so expert at all. Nursing demand till 2020 is much different than saying something is "cyclical." Lots of jobs are that way. A lot of young people have gone into nursing because of the promise of "great riches" but I'm afraid they'll find neither the job nor the money will be what they thought it was.

Ray

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Can anyone tell me. "What happened to all the nursing jobs." For the last few years all you read was that there will be a nursing shortage till, at least 2020. That getting a nursing job was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Articles were saying that even in a recession nursing would be immune because people still need healthcare.

So, what happened. Is it really the economy? Have all the vacancies been filled? What about the huge bonuses nurses were getting to sign with a hospital? Some of my own relatives got these bonuses so I know they were real. Now some of them are seeing their hours and benefits cut. Besides the recession (which is a big thing) are there other factors involved?

The nursing profession is starting to remind me of when they encouraged everyone to become programmers...and then the outsourcing began. You can't really outsource nursing, but it's the same situation. Encourage young people in droves to go into a profession, but then a few short years later the field dries up. It's a shame, really.

Ray

Nursing is effectively already being outsourced. Just ask any hospital manager about the decline in elective surgical procedures. Sure, some people are putting them off in this bad economy -- and that in itself costs nursing jobs.

But other folks are, by necessity, taking advantage of medical tourism. Hannaford Bros., a New England-based supermarket chain, will pay 100 percent of the cost of an employee's hip or knee replacement -- provided the employee has the procedure done in Thailand. The offer includes travel expenses for the patient and the companion. That sure doesn't keep nurses employed in the United States. Blue Shield of California will pay for patients to cross the border for treatment at specific hospitals in Mexico. There are already many examples of this, and their numbers are growing.

Kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "buy local," doesn't it?

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Uhm, my hospital here in Canada has fixed more than a few problems caused by "outsourced" surgeries.

Bariatrics in Mexico, hip replacements in Poland, private arthroplasties. Sure you can get it done faster and at a reasonable price overseas BUT when there is an infection guess where they turn to? The very hospital in their hometown that had them on a waistlist. So they come in with an infection that the taxpayer has to fund to heal and the bed is blocked until they can leave. All because they couldn't wait or thought a tummy tuck in the States was a good way to spend a vacation.

TSTL, is definitely true in many cases.

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You're right Freedom42, nursing, to an extent is being outsourced, as well. Who would've thought, not that long ago, that U.S. insurance companies would find it reasonable to send patients off to a third-world country to have surgery done. But now it happens all the time.

I'm constantly amazed at the ingenuity American businesses have to send jobs overseas, no matter the type....

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Freedom42,

Is that right? Companies are encouraging their employees to have surgeries out of the States? What the heck is going on????? That is the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time!!! To save a few bucks, people's lives are being jeopardized? CRAAAAAZZZZYYYY!!!!! :eek:

So....am I attempting to go into the wrong profession???? Wow.....

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Specializes in Army Medic.

I think that as the recession clears up more jobs will begin to open up again.

Anyone getting into the nursing profession - with money and job security at the top of their list - is getting into it for the wrong reasons, in my opinion.

One thing that has not yet happened, but is in our very near future, is the retirement of the baby boomer generation. I think once we see that come to fruition the job market will open up considerably.

By standards in comparison to other jobs in our current economic climate, nursing is still a very good profession to get into. It's just not the gold mine that uneducated people make it out to be - you will not find recruiters heading into colleges and offering up jobs to students about to graduate anymore.

I mainly equate this to the recession, but I haven't looked into it as deeply as others.

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