Job Outlook

[EMEddie]

I have the possibility of starting a nursing program in the Spring of 2011, which will prompt me to be done by 2013.

I have a few friends and heard from several people that have graduated since 8 months ago and still have not heard year from anywhere. I live in Central California, so expanding from Bakersfield to the Turlock/Stockton area it seem that no one is hiring.

It is said that there is a huge shortage, how come no one is hiring? It makes me really nervous and scared at the same time if I end up going through the program and by the time I am out, I might have to wait a whole year or more before getting my first job.

Is this job shortage going to get any better, will it stay the same or turn worse?

What do you guys think?

Thanks

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

Can't predict the future.

Hopefully it will get better.

But what they have said is true. I graduated 01/09 and was lucky enough to get a job. But many of my classmates took anywhere between 6 months and a year to find a job, and most of these jobs were not in hospitals.

I know in my new grad class of 8 at the hospital we worked at, most of us had similar stories to compare of most of our classmates not having jobs and often calling us to see if where we worked was hiring.

[orange juice]

I hope it gets better. Im jobless and cranky about it. ;( I really like nursing and its unfortunate for many of us who really do like it and cant find jobs. Good luck to you thou if its really what you want to do. Maybe try and get in a hospital as a patient rep, Unit Secretary or CNA and work part time while you are pursuing nursing. I wish I did that the only people in my graduating class who had jobs were people who already worked in their facilities and did not quit while in school. Several who volunteered during school for several months also do not have jobs. Many hospitals realized how desperate people are getting (at least in CA) and the volunteer work doesnt help land a job.

I worked in a medical office for 2 years but quit when school started and had 3 different volunteer positions. Having that experience doesnt seem to help my job search. Havent been contacted for a single interview and Im looking local and out of state. I do not know any one without previous medical exp that has a job. 4.0 GPA is trumped by the work exp. by any employer so get that medical experience started before nursing school!

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

First, there has not ever been a "real" nursing shortage in the last 20 years.

Second, no one, no one, NO ONE!!! can predict the economy/effects of health care reform , and ability to get a job in advance, or whether demand for nurses will increase.

Please review the literal thousands of posts on this BB regarding these issues. There is no reason to put repeated duplicate posts merely to illicit the same responses that have been repeated over and over again.

Nursing students, much like students in virtually every profession, take a risk when they go to school....like MDs, social workers, IT professionals, MBAs, finance.....that one cannot predict demand when you leave school.... no different. This is why it is best to like Nursing and not be going into because someone said it was a surefire employment opportunity.

[caliotter3]

What do you think your chances would be if you prepared for a different career? You have to do something with yourself and it might as well be nursing. When you get your license you will just have to make up your mind to do whatever it takes to get and keep that first job. Same as with any other line of work.

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

The "Nursing Shortage" in California is a Hospital Association created myth in responce to the Nurse-Patient Ratio Act. When in compliance with it, hospitals covered by this Act are, for the most part, only hiring part-time employees and, with RN's competing from AROUND THE WORLD to work here, facilities are only choosing those with the MOST current experience in the particular field they are hiring for.

It is surprising how many physicians in non-administrative practice know this. They will soon learn as they, too, will eventually be relegated to "supervisory" positions of Nurse Practicioners and PA's and will have bitter competition to get/keep jobs. What most non-administrative medical professionals don't seem to understand is that "administration" considers us (physicians, RN's, RT's, RD's, OT's, ect.) to be overpaid technicians and their goal is to cut costs by delivering the lowest common denominator of care balanced by pushing the edge of liability and advertising the opposite. As "Standards of Care" are lowered, lower standards of care will dictate liability. As the economy spirals ever downward, regulatory agencies become less responsive and, if you weren't already aware of this, they only discipline the WORST offenders as their job is to collect fees, not put their source of income/jobs out of business.

Bitter? Discouraged? Frightened of the future? Tired of reading the same old "pie in the sky" rhetoric in the nursing journals by RN's that are employed full time in positions of administration or with their jobs secure? You bet. Doesn't mean you can't be all that you can be... but we still have to face the facts as they REALLY are and take off the rose colored glasses.