hello all,
i'm a nursing student. i've been alerted by a few articles, blogs, and forums from which it appears that new grads rns have trouble finding jobs. since i only want to trust reliable sources
i've been doing research all night, and here is information (shocking, unless i'm counting wrong) i've found.
this is from ncsbn satistics, which can be found on their website: https://www.ncsbn.org/1236.htm
statistics by year:
2000
there were 3,103,981 active rn licences in the us
there were 151,982 total new rns(this includes rns getting a license by endorsement,
so let's say about half are new grads)
2005
3,338,888 active licenses in the us
87,864 by nclex (new grads)
77,011 by endorsement
and in 2008 (the most recent year posted):
there were 3,733,299 active licenses
94,321by nclex (new grads)
81,834 by endorsement
now, the bureau of labor statistics at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm newest 2010-11 edition states that
"registered nurses (rns) constitute the largest healthcare occupation, with 2.6 million jobs".
with active license being active for 2 years in most states, we can safely assume that an active license means a person who intends to get a job as a nurse. let's do some math here.
there were 3,733,299 active rn licenses in the us in 2008, and 2,618,700 jobs.
so, there were 1,114,599 nurses without jobs.
this number will be higher in 2018, since about 90,000 persons pass nclex each year.
so in 8 years years there will be 4.5 million licensed rns, and how many jobs, according to bls projections? --
3,200,200
now, i'm a nursing student, i've pretty much put my life on the line to get this degree,
so obviously i don't want to scare myself, or anybody else.
am i reading these numbers incorrectly? are they suggesting that over 1 million people got or renewed their licenses and then
within two years married some rich guys and decided not to work, or that over 1 million people were not looking for work?
or have we been duped? into thinking that there's shortage and high demand, and we are guaranteed to find jobs?
who's going to be responsible for this if this is true and there is a shortage of nursing jobs, not nurses? and if this is true,
what are we going to do about it? demonstrations, protests? or quietly complaining on online forums?
please, share your opinions. i'm extremely concerned about this. i hope that i just don't know how these things are calculated
and my suspicions are all wrong. thank you
Leonardo Del Toro, RN
1 Article; 730 Posts
Wow...everybody is going crazy over this whole issue. If you try to understand how it all work out on the numbers you'll get nowhere and drive yourself insane in the process. Someone said very well when we must see that this is a very complex situation. Yes it is unfortunate that we can't get the job we want right out of school as we all believed to be possible and even easy. Life is unpredictable. Let me try to breathe some fresh air into this deluge of sorrow out there:
Let's remember that nursing is a profession and a carer, and with any good profession it takes time to develop; it is only because nursing is a high demand profession we have seen in the past an amazing growth and stability and plenty of jobs, however these times are nothing but unstable and so is nursing at this moment. Yes it suck to have a huge debt on our back and not know if we'll be able to pay. But if we have some patience the pendulum will swing again and you'll find yourself in a different place and what was up is now down and what was down is up, that's how life works it's way mysteriously. In the mean while try to use this as an opportunity to reflect and digest all you've learned and to also think about others. Think about the people who are your clients, and your business. They are mostly patients who suffer and die, let's think about them as people with feeling and not only as a way for us to make money and than go buy all that crap we see for sale. If we focus on what is really going on and not what we would like to see we learn and grow.
Thank you and good luck