Is it just nurses or........

Nurses General Nursing

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I read the posts on this site often and I always seem to see threads related to nurses not being able to obtain jobs. My question is whether or not nurses are the only major HEALTH profession facing this issue. The reason why I asked is because I have friends who have graduated pharmacy school and all of them were able to obtain jobs. As a matter of fact, they all had multiple job offers. Also, my neighbor's daughter graduated school and is an occupational therapist and she said that she and all of the others who graduated as occupational therapists from her school were also able to obtain jobs w/o any issues. So, in healthcare is it just nurses who are having a hard time finding employment? If so, what makes it easier for a pharmacist, occupational therapist or any other health profession to get a job? I mean after all, we all experienced the same recession right?

Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

wait, I am confused. All the PA's I know have at minimum a bachelors degree and most with a Masters. My sister in law is a PA in the ED and she took a bridge program at university-got her Bachelors in 3 years and finished up her Masters course work and PA clinicals during her last two years, for a total of 5 years training. I hope we are not thinking of medical assistants, who do require far less education and training.

also, there are in fact direct entry routes to get your PA now as well for second degree students, just as their is in nursing. There is one in my city.

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Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.
Supply and demand. How many applicants for how many positions.

absolutely. That coupled with the vast amount of ways for one to enter the nursing field. There are diploma programs, ADN, BSN, direct entry BSN or MSN-all just to become a RN. Not to mention that there are LPN/LVN programs as well. This creates a huge pool of applicants all fighting for a limited amount of jobs. Its no wonder that in many areas new grads are struggling.

It was glossed over a bit earlier, but some other health care professions have a more standardized way of entering the field. PAs, PTs, OTs and Pharmacists all have to have a Bachelors in order to sit for their boards and enter practice. And many of these professions, especially depending on which state you practice in, require graduate work/Masters in order to be licensed/maintain their license. Overall, these programs require a much more rigorous academic training than nursing, and because of that, the ratio of applicants to available jobs is more favorable than that of nursing.

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ok thanks for clearing that up. i was confused by what you were meaning and that clears it up better. i would personally think that i would want to "push" more to people in the disadvantages areas in hopes that they can break out of the cycle and start a better cycle for their family. so i wasn't sure what you were getting at. anyway i fully support going for something you would enjoy but i would push for something that would give one the ability to be able to be self supportive.

i have 4 kids. my oldest unfortunately didn't have the same early on advantage his younger siblings had. because of this unfortunately he seems to struggle more in school. (i think it has more to do with this then other factors because the other kids seem to be brainiacs and not in the sense that they love school per-say, but they have always been very intelligent and score very high on the state testing. they seem to naturally get really good grades.) anyway, my older sons struggles in school a lot more. some of it are things he does but things just don't come to him as naturally. freshman year has been a tremendous struggle and at this point i am trying to help him succeed and stay afloat at passing levels.

of course i want my kids to go on in school and go to college and be successful in life but i am starting to see that doesn't have to mean jumping right into a university. my oldest son really wants to join the marines. (i am really trying to persuade him to go navy but he isn't budging) he wants to make a career of it he is saying, although that might change. once he is in he thinks after a few years he will consider college and have them pay for it but most likely still stay in the service. he would like to go to a university for the whole college experience but it's not a likely option at this point with what's going on in hs.

anyway, after really going through things with him i am fulling supportive of him wanting to enlist. still want it to be navy but it is what it is. although it's no going straight into college, it's doing something productive and successful with his life.

i am guessing this is what you were getting at but summing it up in a few sentences opposed to my novel?? lol

hey loca,

i am with you girl !!

did you see the post a few days back about the girl in florida that hates nursing school and wants to quit,she is doing it and went into it for the wrong reasons..here is the post https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/thinking-quitting-nursing-578669.html

navy for the win !!!!! my dad was a navy man!! something about those uniforms!!!:redpinkhe:redpinkhe

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Specializes in critical care.
Increasing the educational requirements would drastically reduce the number of applicants to nursing programs. They should also do away with the popular, second degree nursing programs.

There are no "second degree" medical schools for physicians assistants, dental asistants, for dental school, or paralegals for law school. These programs are adding to the glut of nurses in the community fighting for jobs.

I'm not sure I understand your rationale. You say we should raise the educational standards for entry to practice. Second-degree students are generally the MOST educated nurses at the BSN level. These programs simply eliminate the general education requirements of the traditional BSN program while retaining the same nursing curriculum. It's essentially like graduating with a double-major.

Students in second-degree BSN programs have no prior nursing education, unlike PAs who would have significant medical training upon entry into med school. Apples to oranges. As for dental assistants and paralegals, no second-degree programs exist because they would need a FIRST degree, first. Again, apples to oranges.

As far as unionizing... yes, absolutely.

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Watching the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" with my 8-year-old made me think a great deal about the way the nursing shortage was handled and subsequently turned into a rather monstrous glut.

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In regards to the "shortage" have you researched your own states plan thru 2020 on how many new grads per year goal they have committed to??? They will be needing to pull Nurses off the floor or straight from school to put in the classrooms.(from the numbers I am talking about from my state)

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Specializes in ED, Telemetry,Hospice, ICU, Supervisor.
One thing that having a higher degree would do is cut down the supply of RN's.

:D

For those entering the profession now, or planning to in the near future the higher degree will be of enormous value over your 3 to 4 decades of your potential working career.

The current dearth in hiring is simply a supply demand imbalance caused by the current economic state. When the demand for nursing increases the jobs will follow. Unfortunately, I don't see the economy improving very fast.

When the over supply of new nurse production decreases there will be a a demand for nurses as well. Nurses in general are over produced time frame for building a CNA is like 6 weeks ( my C.C has an 8 week course), LVN 12-18 months, RN 2-4 years. Market gets flooded, demand drops.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/DOU/Ortho/Onc/Rehab/ER/.

I totally agree with lindarn

As far as the academic portion, I was explaining to my fiancee that in a 60 mile radius there are like 17 ADN programs, but only 4 BSN programs....now who looks more unique the BSN or the ADN nurse?

Do away with the diploma, and associates degree nursing programs

Make BSN REQUIRED (no offense guys)

&&&& Definitely do away with the whole ABSN/EL-MSN thing.

Is there fast track teaching degrees? Fast track lawyer degrees? Can you teach high school with an associates? Uh-no

Nursing is the only profession that has like so many freaking ways to be a nurse, even the entry-level masters programs which now, as a floor RN, you are totally overqualified because you have a masters....

SO flooding happens when there are so many people who opened more schools (and more programs open to the school that already HAS a program) then you get the "nursing shortage" hype (yea, if you live in the boondocks) And you get a recipe for disaster, aka....no jobs for new grads

just my opinion.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/DOU/Ortho/Onc/Rehab/ER/.
//

And, PA's, dental assistants, and paralegals don't require a bachelors degree, like you want all RN's to have. And dental and medical school is in addition to a bachelors. Your examples aren't analogous.

Are you kidding me?

dental ASSISTANTS (like Nursing assistants...dont need even an associates) PA's DO NEED A BACHELORS, you need a masters for a PA too...

and Paralegals do req a bachelor degree.

you need to check your logic....

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Specializes in ER, Pediatric Transplant, PICU.

On a similar subject...

I wonder why there's this huge push to make NP's a doctorate degree, but there is almost no push to make entry level RN's a BSN?

I am doing my RN-BSN bridge now (so I am by no means an ADN program hater!), but I am one of those people who want to do the NP route but may not make that 2015 "cut-off" when they want them to be DNP, so it's always something that's on my mind.

From what I understand, the logic is the same that most of you are saying about making BSN the new entry level - because they want the profession to be more highly respected with a doctorate degree.

it's all a headache. yikes

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in regards to the "shortage" have you researched your own states plan thru 2020 on how many new grads per year goal they have committed to??? they will be needing to pull nurses off the floor or straight from school to put in the classrooms.(from the numbers i am talking about from my state)

]in regards to the "shortage" have you researched your own states plan thru 2020 on how many new grads per year goal they have committed to??? they will be needing to pull nurses off the floor or straight from school to put in the classrooms.(from the numbers i am talking about from my state)

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I totally agree with lindarn

As far as the academic portion, I was explaining to my fiancee that in a 60 mile radius there are like 17 ADN programs, but only 4 BSN programs....now who looks more unique the BSN or the ADN nurse?

Do away with the diploma, and associates degree nursing programs

Make BSN REQUIRED (no offense guys)

&&&& Definitely do away with the whole ABSN/EL-MSN thing.

Is there fast track teaching degrees? Fast track lawyer degrees? Can you teach high school with an associates? Uh-no

Nursing is the only profession that has like so many freaking ways to be a nurse, even the entry-level masters programs which now, as a floor RN, you are totally overqualified because you have a masters....

SO flooding happens when there are so many people who opened more schools (and more programs open to the school that already HAS a program) then you get the "nursing shortage" hype (yea, if you live in the boondocks) And you get a recipe for disaster, aka....no jobs for new grads

just my opinion.

Sorry but I disagree ...once again ADN-RN vs BSN-RN..... I get the feeling that your post seems to have a negative meaning to the ADN RN ... that it is just dumb luck to go get one of those ..

Have you worked professionally in the corporate world for 15+ years?? People are position and title hungry and how they get there still is a mystery, once they get there and tout their education degree -the objective of the job needs never gets met.

The point is can you do the job once you get it ??

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