I am thinking going for nursing as my career. Yesterday I went to a community college to register for A&P I class. I saw the registry to see the counclor, 9 out of 10 people are for studying nursing. When I saw another counclor, and when I was registering my class, most of people besides me seem to taking nursing major.
It reminds me of IT market 4 years ago. At that time, computer science is a hot major and a lot of people try to get into it. And suddenly, within one year, the job market went down sharply, with many many people with many many years' experience could not find a job, not to mention those new graduates.
It will take me at least 3 years to finish ADN. I was afraid, what will the nursing job market be when I graduate? with so many people switch to nursing in this country, and with so many foreign nurses get into or try to get into this country? will the market be saturated soon? Three years later, can I still find a job? How long will this nursing shortage last?
People already in this field, please give me what you think and advice? Thanks a lot...
I love being a nurse and still am, but just in a different capacity. I may occassionally pick up shifts when I am stateside, but I prefer making a difference in some lives over on this side of the world. And when I went to school, I went because I wanted to help people...............I am but in a different arena and still in nursing. I wouldn't be doing what I am now if it wasn't for all of my years experience as a nurse doing the things that I love.
Whenever the topic of the nursing shortage is brought up, there is always discussion of the number of licensed nurses who are not working in nursing or in some cases not in the health care field at all. While it might be interesting to ponder why, is this necessarily any more significant than any other field? People with degrees in any field you can imagine aren't necessarily working in that field. Career changing is common these days. And many degrees are broad enough that the career path of any two people with that degree can be radically different.
Just to follow up on that point, I do think people like to focus on those 500,000 RNs so they can say, "See, I'm not the only one who's fed up, look at how many RNs have quit because of lousy working conditions. There is no shortage."
Of course, that's not the whole story, but it's probably more gratifying to vent about working conditions, rather than talk about high nursing school failure rates, or aging demographics in both the RN and general populations, when they're discussing the shortage.
However, I have no doubt that working conditions are a major part of the problem. I just posted an article about two-thirds of California nursing home staff quitting their jobs in 2002. And LTC, as well as home health, are the projected job growth areas with aging baby boomers, more so than hospitals, etc.
So, in the end, they do have a point about working conditions, even if it's somewhat exaggerated. There are probably many people who have or will quit, especially in elder care, unless working conditions improve.
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
I love being a nurse and still am, but just in a different capacity. I may occassionally pick up shifts when I am stateside, but I prefer making a difference in some lives over on this side of the world. And when I went to school, I went because I wanted to help people...............I am but in a different arena and still in nursing. I wouldn't be doing what I am now if it wasn't for all of my years experience as a nurse doing the things that I love.
:balloons: