Is there REALLY a nursing shortage?

Nurses General Nursing

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This is an interesting article guys/gals...

Here's the letter I wrote to the President, Vice-President, U.S. Congress Rep. and Senator:

"I'm an R.N. and I recently started working as an agency nurse because the pay is so much better and the hours are very flexible. The hospital system in my area that uses most of the agency nurses is in the process of hiring foreign labor to cut costs and fill positions. I read an article, "Is there REALLY a nursing shortage?" by Richard Armstrong and what he said really concerned me. It is true that American jobs are going overseas and there are over 8 million Americans out of work. People who go to school for certain professions do not have jobs when they graduate. Where is the AMERICAN DREAM going??? I realize our country is a melting pot and all, but what about OUR JOBS for US HERE???!!!

Please abolish the H-1B program. Americans need to demand that employers not be allowed to replace American workers with foreigners... I'm finally not living paycheck to paycheck as a nurse and I'm finally able to get ahead... But now there is this big black cloud looming over my head and it's full of foreign nurses trying to get out of THEIR country to take MY job. :( Why are you letting this happen to your fellow Americans???

Sincerely,

Marie L. Schultz

Shreveport, Louisiana"

I don't know if it will help or not, but I figured it was worth a try. Nurses from India, Africa and Thailand (among others) are coming to the Shreveport area to fill gaps of this so-called nursing shortage so that the hospital system I work at won't have to use agency nurses. Instead of paying American nurses better... this is what is happening. Nice. Very nice.

Do you see this happening where YOU are??? I just started working agency and that's all I'm doing right now. I love it. I just started April 19th, 2004 and here it is... not one month later and 15 foreigners are starting in the next week or so as a "pilot" for the other 3 hospitals of this hospital chain. This hospital chain uses most agency nurses here in Shreveport. They're trying to get rid of agency nurses all together by using these other nurses.

Again I ask: Do you see this happening where YOU are???

Thanks in advance. :o :angryfire

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Who the hell do you have to kill around the OC to find a decent job anymore? Cuz i'm all out of ideas...:icon_roll
I completed a Los Angeles area LVN program about 16 months ago and, at the same time, numerous other schools in Southern California were churning out new LVN grads every few months. Jobs in your area will continue to be sporifice for LVNs unless these schools were to finally stop flooding the market with new nurses.

This is just my $0.02 on the issue at hand. :twocents:

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.

Yeah I hear ya' Commuter... it's simply ridiculous... I sort of feel like I wasted a year of my life, could have been doing this in an RN program and just bypassing my LVN altogether. However I wouldn't give up the experiences I've had a as a nurse for anything, it's just plain flat disgusting.

Wayne.

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Bruce Williams on late night talk radio made a profound observation one night. If there is a "shortage" in any field, then the wages and benefits increase accordingly. Nurses have been loosing benefits for the last 15 years and more so in the last 5. Our salaries are stagnant when inflation is taken into consideration. So, based on that------there is no shortage.

In some areas like the one I live in, there are so many nurses graduating from the local colleges, that you can't find a job and when you do, the pay is pitiful. There is a job in town for an LPN for home health care. The job has been available now for 5 months and they run an ad every week in the local paper. The starting pay is $9 hr. They are now advertising that they have a new benefits package. It is 40 hrs a week and you are on call for one week every month 24/7. Where I work now, a year ago the starting salary was $15 hr and now the new hires are getting $12.50 hr and we have 20-30 applicants for every posting.

You know whose fault this is??? OURS. For being doormats and actually doing this type of work for that little money. SHAME ON US!!! I am embarressed to be a member of the nursing profession because of this very mentality. Why are we not standing up and demanding better wages, benefits and working conditions? This is not going to change until we all start shouting. Think about it. We deserve what we get because of our stupidity. How long would these big corporate money generators stay open if all of us suddenly left the bedside. Let the chiefs work the bedside for a change. Sorry but I'm tired of the worthless pitiful profession.

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Specializes in Certified Diabetes Educator.
You know whose fault this is??? OURS. For being doormats and actually doing this type of work for that little money. SHAME ON US!!! I am embarressed to be a member of the nursing profession because of this very mentality. Why are we not standing up and demanding better wages, benefits and working conditions? This is not going to change until we all start shouting. Think about it. We deserve what we get because of our stupidity. How long would these big corporate money generators stay open if all of us suddenly left the bedside. Let the chiefs work the bedside for a change. Sorry but I'm tired of the worthless pitiful profession.

Most states are right to work states and therefore no union can ever get a foothold. You go on strike and they just fire you and move on. As long as nurses have to work to put food on the table and pay the rent, and jobs are scarce, then wages will be low and get lower.

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.
Most states are right to work states and therefore no union can ever get a foothold. You go on strike and they just fire you and move on. As long as nurses have to work to put food on the table and pay the rent, and jobs are scarce, then wages will be low and get lower.

Duely notable Mud, and there's not a whole lot we can do about it either. I'd love to see a true union come to california, one that will actually do something more than just be a figure for the public and actually be a voice of working nurses.

Wayne.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Duely notable Mud, and there's not a whole lot we can do about it either. I'd love to see a true union come to california, one that will actually do something more than just be a figure for the public and actually be a voice of working nurses.
Actually, California does have a powerful nurses union. However, they protect the interests and freedoms of RNs. California LVNs are not even on the radar screen for unionization or protection, which is possibly the reason why you were unaware that such a union existed for nurses.
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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.
Actually, California does have a powerful nurses union. However, they protect the interests and freedoms of RNs. California LVNs are not even on the radar screen for unionization or protection, which is possibly the reason why you were unaware that such a union existed for nurses.

Yeah that helps doesn't it???

Wayne.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I am so shocked to see that any nurse, LPN or RN would have difficulty finding work...I guess it really does depend on where you live. New York has jobs left and right. Private hospitals have not hired LPNs as in the past, but city hospitals do, corrections, assisted living, home care and other agencies take them in a heart beat. However, it is also true that our unions are not as strong and we take a beating in salary and respect depending on where you go. At times, the LPN may be looked upon as a 'scab' so to speak, in the eyes of an RN because if we get to do the job for cheap, it diminishes the professional career of the RN. I hope things look up, Wayne. Out of curiousity, Wayne, what agency did you work for as a flu nurse?

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

There is no nursing shortage. There are over 2.5 million registered nurses in America in addition to the 700,000 licensed practical/vocational nurses. Therefore, there are more than enough currently licensed nurses in this country to solve the so-called 'nursing shortage'.

Finally someone has the courage to say it like it is! AMEN and thank you!:balloons:

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Specializes in Geriatrics.
Actually, California does have a powerful nurses union. However, they protect the interests and freedoms of RNs. California LVNs are not even on the radar screen for unionization or protection, which is possibly the reason why you were unaware that such a union existed for nurses.

Is there a Union for LPN's??? If not WHY?? And how do we go about forming one NATION-WIDE??!!

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Specializes in Knuckle Dragging Nurse aka MTA.
I completed a Los Angeles area LVN program about 16 months ago and, at the same time, numerous other schools in Southern California were churning out new LVN grads every few months. Jobs in your area will continue to be sporifice for LVNs unless these schools were to finally stop flooding the market with new nurses.

This is just my $0.02 on the issue at hand. :twocents:

I think its a california thing. There are just tons of LVN schools with graduates coming out of the woodworks. It seems the jobs here are becoming hard to find.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Med-Surg..

You know Big B, I think you are right about the schools churning out too many LPN's. This is also a problem in certain areas here in Ontario, Canada. Some underserviced areas have a big need for LVN's. In areas that are not underserviced, it is very difficult to find full time work that is permanent that isn't putting your licence on the line. Of our two local hospitals, one hires no LPN's and the other hires very few. This of course crowds up other areas, LTC facilities, etc. I will tell anyone I know not to pursue being an LVN in the area I live in, just go straight for the RN so that you won't starve. I am going for my RN because I need to work. I would love to stary an LVN but I just can't afford to. So, no I would say that there is no nursing shortage here, only a shortage of nurses who will not work in facilities that staff in very unsafe ratios.

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