Everything leads to believe that new nurses are needed. The aging population, the baby boomers, the aging nurses working, longer lives lived, more chronic diseases present etc....
My dilemma and question is, how can hospitals and health care facilities afford not to hire newly graduated nurses. They should be getting the manpower from somewhere. Are they relying only on overworking the experienced staff only. If they rely only on experienced nurses they are using a constant amount of people for a growing population of people with diseases.
This is what I do not understand, either the hospitals are using workers from some obscure source that I am not aware of or there is a mystery going on here.
I think the new grads who are counting on some mass retirement of RN's within the next 5 - 10 years to reduce the bottle-neck of nurses and open up LOTS of jobs will be disappointed. The rationale:
1.) Like someone else said many RN's came 'late to the party'. If one doesn't become an RN until late in life they probably don't plan on retiring.
2.) Life's circumstances have changed for many. How can one retire if they can't afford it? There really aren't many government safeguards that boomers without a good amount of retirement cash saved can count on for food and shelter.
3.) Older RN's are more than keeping up at work. Maybe as a society we need to redefine "old." It's different for different people. Over the yrs I've worked with several over 63 yr old RN's on an acute medical, SNF, LTC and even on a couple on busy med/surgical floors.--These older nurses don't exactly slow things down they more than keep up.
Once I worked in a busy clinic with an smart, fun and energetic older RN, BSN who had been there for 12 yrs. When the company that owned the clinic closed a number of it's national locations they gave us a paper with all former employee's title and age (no names). I found out the RN I had been working with was 73. I wouldn't never have guessed her age because she had a lot of energy, brains and was a valued resource to us all.
What part of the US do you work in? Do you mean that RN's are doing more paper- and aide work? I believe there is a push to get rid of LPN's and unit clerks and aides are also fired to avoid an appearance of discrimination.
I couldn't count how many new grads I've precepted over the years who just as soon as orientation was over were GONE because they heard they could make a dollar more an hour at XYZ hospital or now that they had "experience" wanted to do travel nursing or work in the units. Hospitals can no longer afford to eat the cost of new grads. Plain and simple.
Fair enough, but not all new grads are going to just leave. This perception of new grads is very unfair for those of us who care about our work, and have a genuine interest to learn and contribute. You find dolts in every profession. I worked in hotel and retail mgmt for years, prior to going to nursing school, so I can understand the frustration and hesitancy. Please give some of us a chance... And after a couple years, we, too, will no longer be "new".
Fair enough, but not all new grads are going to just leave. This perception of new grads is very unfair for those of us who care about our work, and have a genuine interest to learn and contribute. You find dolts in every profession. I worked in hotel and retail mgmt for years, prior to going to nursing school, so I can understand the frustration and hesitancy. Please give some of us a chance... And after a couple years, we, too, will no longer be "new".
While it is true that we will find dolts in every profession ... those dolts don't cost their employees a year's salary to replace. If done properly, the orientation of a new grad nurse takes anywhere from 50% to 100% of a year's salary. We're talking tens of thousands of dollars for each new grad hired. It's not surprising that hospitals got squeamish about shelling out that kind of money when so many new grads don't feel enough obligation to stay.
Sure, there are some terrific new grads out there. But read the posts here on allnurses. You see dozens of students and new grads talking about "getting 1 year of hospital experience and then moving on to ..." whatever they REALLY want to do. Most hospitals just can't afford to waste the money it takes to train those people anymore. Unfortunately, some good people get hurt because of the bad reputation new grads have developed over the last few years.
My hospital still hires new grads ... but we are VERY selective about it.
Fair enough, but not all new grads are going to just leave. This perception of new grads is very unfair for those of us who care about our work, and have a genuine interest to learn and contribute. You find dolts in every profession. I worked in hotel and retail mgmt for years, prior to going to nursing school, so I can understand the frustration and hesitancy. Please give some of us a chance... And after a couple years, we, too, will no longer be "new".
It's a shame that a relatively small, I'm sure, number of new grads have loused things up for all of you, but the reality is that many hospitals are v. leary of new grads at this point, feeling that they've had more than enough bad experiences -- and the safest way to avoid future bad experiences is to simply avoid new grads as much as possible. And, as long as the current nursing glut continues and there are plenty of experienced RNs looking for employment, they will be able to do that.
A higher barrier to entry would probably help screen out some of the flakier candidates.
And the hospitals have nobody but themselves to blame. It is they themselves, after all, who are hiring the 1-year folks and permitting them to move on so quickly.
A higher barrier to entry would probably help screen out some of the flakier candidates.
And the hospitals have nobody but themselves to blame. It is they themselves, after all, who are hiring the 1-year folks and permitting them to move on so quickly.
It's the hospitals' fault? How do you figure that?
I don't mean any offense to anyone but I think the times of hiring foreign nurses should be over unless it becomes needed. It does nothing for our economy. The money usually ends up getting sent back home, instead of reinvested in America. At the same time it prevents an American nurse from being employed which strains on unemployment and aide resources.
I kind of take offense to this. I am a foreign born nurse, and your Government begged me to come over with all kinds of incentives because of the "nursing shortage" at the time. I have 20 years experience and in my area (critical care) we are desperate for experienced nurses, so much so, thay my hospital are throwing money at anyone who can bring in experienced staff, foreign or not. As far as I know, all visas for foreign nurses have been on hold for several years due to the current job climate. Also, I don't send money home...I reinvest it in America. Don't tar all with the same brush.
The desire of hospitals to cut costs when and wherever possible is perfectly rational in a free-market, capitalist economy. So it is understandable that given the present large pool of qualified nurses, hospitals do not take on the added financial burden of hiring new grads. This may or may not be in the long-term interest of hospitals but is certainly effective as a short-term, cost reducing strategy.
The reverse is also true in a free-market, capitalist economy: Individuals seek to maximize their revenues, which are of course their salaries. So it should also be perfectly understandable that nurses leave one institution for another when there is a marginal gain for them to do so.
In the past, job hopping was somewhat constrained by the paternalistic behavior of many companies. This was the concept of "lifetime employment" where loyal, hard-working employees were rewarded by the company for this behavior and companies were reluctant to lay off workers during slowdowns. This obviously is no longer the case and it is worth pointing out that this change in was not something that was brought about by the actions of workers. Employers have become very comfortable with the concept of workers as commodities, and manipulate their workforces as required to maintain or even improve their bottom lines. Even though many hospitals are non-profit institutions and so may not be driven to maximize profits, they must seek to minimize their costs in our free-market economy and so operate essentially the same as their corporate brethren.
The concepts of lifetime employment and loyal workers are long gone and unlikely to return.
Everything leads to believe that new nurses are needed. The aging population, the baby boomers, the aging nurses working, longer lives lived, more chronic diseases present etc....
My dilemma and question is, how can hospitals and health care facilities afford not to hire newly graduated nurses. They should be getting the manpower from somewhere. Are they relying only on overworking the experienced staff only. If they rely only on experienced nurses they are using a constant amount of people for a growing population of people with diseases.
This is what I do not understand, either the hospitals are using workers from some obscure source that I am not aware of or there is a mystery going on here.
Let me know what you think or know, Thanks....
Truth is the shortage of nurses is still there but with this economy no hospital wants to spend money to train a new nurse. So how do they solve their staffing needs? Overworking the current staff by increasing the patient-nurse ratio.
I would agree that schools should have more stringent controls regarding the candidates. I went to a good university, with one of the best nursing programs around. Even still, there are people who I graduated with that just barely made the standard. As an employer, I would not want to hire these people either. You only want the best.
Fixit
58 Posts
I think the new grads who are counting on some mass retirement of RN's within the next 5 - 10 years to reduce the bottle-neck of nurses and open up LOTS of jobs will be disappointed. The rationale:
1.) Like someone else said many RN's came 'late to the party'. If one doesn't become an RN until late in life they probably don't plan on retiring.
2.) Life's circumstances have changed for many. How can one retire if they can't afford it? There really aren't many government safeguards that boomers without a good amount of retirement cash saved can count on for food and shelter.
3.) Older RN's are more than keeping up at work. Maybe as a society we need to redefine "old." It's different for different people. Over the yrs I've worked with several over 63 yr old RN's on an acute medical, SNF, LTC and even on a couple on busy med/surgical floors.--These older nurses don't exactly slow things down they more than keep up.
Once I worked in a busy clinic with an smart, fun and energetic older RN, BSN who had been there for 12 yrs. When the company that owned the clinic closed a number of it's national locations they gave us a paper with all former employee's title and age (no names). I found out the RN I had been working with was 73. I wouldn't never have guessed her age because she had a lot of energy, brains and was a valued resource to us all.