Is there really a nursing shortage?

Nurses Activism

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Wondering if any areas of the country are really experiencing a nursing shortage. It is a topic from my online RN-BSN class that got me wondering. From my personal experiences, I'd say no but I've also only worked in hospitals around big cities (Nashville & Dallas). Wondering what other folks might say.

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Considering I can't find a job no but that is just me. Some areas of the US and some areas of nursing may have more of a shortage.

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Type in "nursing shortage" on the AN search engine. This is one topic that's been beaten to death on these boards, especially recently. There was a thread going for a while that tracked specific locations where nurses were in demand/being hired.

There is a shortage in certain areas (specific cities or small regions, for example), but a national shortage? No way.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

simple answer....NO!

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Specializes in CVICU.

The general idea is that the only areas where nurses are in demand are places no one wants to live.

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Specializes in nursing education.

There are recent threads about how entire regions are not hiring. I saw one new grad looking for a job anywhere near Las Vegas and one for Florida. As in, no nursing jobs in those regions. It is one thing to not have a shortage, quite another to have so many new grads unable to find work. In the past, it would have been unthinkable to relocate for a med-surg job.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I'd say that it really depends upon what kind of nursing you're referring to. There easily could be (and probably is) a shortage of experienced nurses in some areas of nursing. There generally isn't a shortage of jobs for new grads though. This leads to the classic Catch-22 of need experience to get a job and there's no jobs to get experience...

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Seriously? Oh wait, this is your 4th post, clearly you've not seen the 100 previous threads on this myth....

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Not only is there not a shortage, there hasn't been one, at least there hasn't been in the 18 years or so I have been in nursing. True there where periods of time where there plentiful nursing jobs and hospitals had difficulty hiring nurses. That however is not an indication of a shortage of nurses.

The "nursing shortage" is deliberately created propaganda. It was created in order to create a the current glut of nurses so that employers of nurses could leverage the many unemployed nurses to reduce pay and benefits, and working conditions of their nurses without fear they would vote with their feet. The nursing education lobby jumped on board when they saw the opportunity to make a lot of money off people who were desperate for a stable job. Many of these people would have never considered nursing were it not for the false propaganda that lead them to believe they would have their choice of jobs.

When you hear talk of the so called "nursing shortage" you are hearing propaganda.

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In general or a national shortage - No way. In many areas there is a nursing glut. I think that certain regional areas *may* have shortages, not sure where those are though because my area (upstate NY) is very saturated.

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There are still some areas of the country where the nursing job market is not completely saturated, but, shortage?? No.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

1. National shortage in raw numbers? No

2. Specific shortages in some regions? ... Yes (mostly in places people don't want to live or in facilities people don't want to work for.)

3. Shortage of specific types of nurses? ... Yes (As workforce needs change, there is not necessarily a group of group of people with the specific set of skills and knowledge available to fill the needs. You can't just replace one nurse with another -- less so than you could 50 years ago. It used to be easier to replace one nurse with another back when nursing was less specialized -- with each specialty requiring a specific skill set.)

4. Potential of a significant general shortage within the next 15 years? Yes (People over the age of 50 make up a large share of the nursing workforce -- and eventually, we retire. Before we retire, we will cut back our hours. As that process happens, there is a very real possibility that there will be a shortage.)

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