Is it True About Florida?

RedhairedNurse, BSN, RN · Nov 17, 2009

ADNs too?

babe48076 · Nov 17, 2009

I am a PCT here in Florida and also have heard some rumors. There are a lot of RN's that do not have their BSN and January is around the corner. All healthcare facilities will be understaffed. The LPN programs are still going strong also. If it happens it will not be this soon.

Cherybaby · Nov 17, 2009

I hear this rumor every few years or so. Nothing has ever come of it. Haven't heard anything from the Florida Board of Nursing to confirm any such thing.

I wouldn't worry about it.

PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN · Nov 17, 2009

There are no LPNS where I work. =(

Boog'sCRRN246, RN · Nov 17, 2009

Well, if they were really trying to implement this, I would hope they would give us more than 2.5 months to get things in order. :icon_roll While some hospitals have eliminated LPN postions, it's not a general thing. LPNs still exist in LTC, home health, etc.

asherms · Nov 17, 2009

I do not know about state wide. I live in NE Florida, graduated ADN in Dec 2008, passed NCLEX in Feb 09. Every hospital within an hour drive requires a BSN for an interview, for new hire. For the ADNs already employed, they have to be enrolled in a BSN program to stay employed. A few classmates got hired at a community hospital, no BSN requirement. A few went to Shands, Gainesville - once hired you have four years to attain BSN.

We were told by the dean of our school during the orientation of the nursing program, "you will be employed when you wall across the stage to receive your pin". When we walked across the stage, all hospitals were in a hiring freeze.

One hospital, I know, has discontinued the use of PCTs. LPN have been very limited in the hospital setting here for a long time. LPNs find employment in long term care or home health.

I'm in a BSN program to graduate in August.

readytoroll · Nov 17, 2009

Rumors, Rumors, Rumors. IF you want to know the truth Contact the Florida Board of Nursing. I graduated from an LPN program in NE Florida in July 09 and everyone who has tested from my class has found employment.

It has been rumored that LPN's would be eliminated from the moment the first LPN was licensed. LOL

The hospital where your secretary friend works may be doing this, but each hospital makes their own rules.

jessiern, BSN, RN · Nov 17, 2009

Even if a state decides to go to "only BSN" nurses, they would most likely do like every other profession and grandfather in ADN's. My husband conts to practices as a physical therapist with a master's degree and his sister with a bachelors because they were practicing before the field advanced to a doctorate level. Same with many pharmacists I know. Also know a RT that was grandfathered into the profession with just on the job training from the days when that was accepatable.

mcpkin · Nov 17, 2009

I don't think this is true. I haven't heard of any talk, where I work. I do not have a BSN, and I am a Charge Nurse. I don't think very many nurses even have their BSN, where I work. I would like to think that answer would be "not true" since January is right around the corner. They would have to hire alot of agency nurses or close this hospital. Since this is the only hospital for over 50 miles in any direction, I do not see that happening.

PedsDrNurseTheo, ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, EMT-P, NP · Nov 17, 2009

A few went to Shands, Gainesville - once hired you have four years to attain BSN.

I know of no such requirement at any Shands facility. It is nowhere in policy, my manager is not aware of any such policy, and nowhere on the HR information site is it mentioned.

According to the Florida Center of Nursing's White Paper of April 2009:

"The Florida Center for Nursing (Center) projected in 2008 that the shortage of Registered Nurses

(RNs) would grow to more than 18,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by 2010 and 52,000

FTEs by 2020 if no new actions are taken to resolve the shortage.1 The nursing shortage is driven

by an aging Baby Boom cohort requiring more health care and simultaneous retirements from the

nurse workforce. Complicating this demographic shift are limitations in the ability to expand

nursing education programs and problems retaining nurses in the Florida nurse workforce."

"Nursing education programs have the potential to help resolve the shortage by increasing their

output of new graduate nurses, but evidence indicates that our supply pipeline suffers from a

"bottleneck" that limits nursing program expansion. Our 2008 Annual Report and Workforce

Survey of Nursing programs found that Florida nursing programs declined a total of 12,563

qualified applicants in Academic Year (AY) 2007-2008.9 Pre-licensure RN associate's degree

programs (ADN) and Baccalaureate degree programs (BSN) turned away more than half of

qualified applicants. LPN programs turned away nearly one-third.

Graduates from pre-licensure programs increased by an impressive 24 percent between AY

2006-2007 and AY 2007-2008, but almost all of this growth occurred in ADN programs (Figure

4). BSN programs were essentially stagnant in both number of graduates and total enrollment,

while ADN programs increased total enrollment by 13 percent. Evidence from our survey

suggests, however, that the growth experienced by ADN programs is not sustainable. The

number of full-time faculty members in ADN programs actually decreased over the past AY,

and the number of students per full-time faculty member increased by three."

What all that means is that the nursing shortage is still here, it's still real, and in 2-3 years will be a real crunch. What that means is that the ADN training programs are here to stay - as is the place of the ADN. Ditto LPN's.

Economies cycle - employers tighten "controllables" to make numbers look better for fiscal year reporting. The projections all look scary in terms of the nursing shortage. Breathe ... the jobs are there, and there will be lots more of them.

It's just really really tough times right now.

PedsDrNurseTheo, ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, EMT-P, NP · Nov 17, 2009

Oh, and another note - continuing one's education is strongly encouraged at Shands - it's a Magnet facility attached to a major university, hello - but nowhere is advanced degree pursuit mandatory.