Let's talk: Nursing Shortage?

[Yellow90]

Nursing Shortage Start in the Classroom

Nursing Shortage: Cal State System

What's going on? I did not know there was a nursing shortage *sarcasm*. I graduated in June 2013 and find it extremely difficult to get a hospital job. Currently, I do work in a surgery center and love it, however, I want to do inpatient. With that said, I have my associate's degree in nursing and am enrolled in an RN-BSN program.

The problem with this propaganda of "Nursing Shortage" does not seem relevant at this time. Most hospitals require 1 year of experience or preferred, BSN preferred. It makes it hard for ADN's to get a job although they are also an RN.

Let me just say, I have heard many times for every new grad position a hospital receives over 500 applicants. Some places receive so many applicants they state they will only consider the first 25 or the for a new grad position the first 100, 200, etc.... You get the point.

There are many nurses out there and California has thousands of new nurses. Hospitals just do not want to train new nurses because it costs $40,000 to train a new nurse. And if you are wondering where I found this information it's just what I hear on other forums.

In this article Nursing Shortage: Cal State System, it states CS San Bernardino accepts 108 a year. The article is making it seem like that is a small amount.

There is a Facebook group called New Grad RN in California which I am part of. There you can find many unemployed nurses looking for a job.

THERE IS NO NURSING SHORTAGE at least in California. There are plenty of community colleges and universities that graduate hundred of nurses a twice a year. Yes twice a year because You have your nurses that graduate in Fall and Spring. It is so hard for new nurses to get a job ADN or BSN, in all honesty harder for ADN's, that colleges are now starting externships post- nursing school when you are an RN to help you gain experience and make you more competitive. Let me name a few schools, College of the Canyons, Saddleback College. There are also programs being created by hospitals such as one in Fairfield, CA that YOU pay for the training. New graduate RN's are willing to work as CNA's if it means it will land them an RN job in the future.

There are plenty of nurses to fill open positions who are smart and worth the training.

I believe it is safer to say that it is a market of supply and demand. There is plenty of supply (nurses) but the demand (jobs) is very competitive.

It is just a shame that people, not in healthcare, believe there is this current "Nursing Shortage."

[Yellow90]

There is not a shortage of unskilled, inexperienced, unspecialized nurses.

There is however a grievous shortage of skilled, experienced, specialists. My specialty is in Infusion Therapy and Vascular Access and all three of my

employers can never find enough nurses to fill the positions simply because we cannot find anyone qualified. All we get are new grad applications or those looking for a change in specialty.

My specialties are not the only fields lacking qualified individuals, look at how many listings for the ED and OR you see!

And how does the inexperienced gain experience... By getting eXperience... Every nurse gets training in a specialty. New grad programs weren't always around. Nurses didn't always have orientation with didactic classes for 3-6 months. I'm a new grad and trained in pre, post and OR.

[bradons]

Its going to get worse.

Education in my workplace is last on the list. Keeping managers happy is on the top of the list.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Unfortunately, with all the nurses out there that are looking for work, facilities have realized that they don't need to spend the time and money on training a new grad...especially if they are tired of being burned by new grads after a year (or sooner!) for another specialty, another facility or for NP/CRNA school. Please note that I did not say ALL new grads do/will do this...but let's also be honest: a lot of them do.

So in the employer's mind, it's easier, faster and cheaper to go for the experienced nurse that would only need a brief orientation, instead of putting in the time and effort on a new grad who's likely to bolt soon after passing day 366.

But as you said, the inexperienced can't gain experience without actually getting experience. The current situation is not particulary fair to new grads, but with the job market the way it is...I don't know if/when it'll change.

[MunoRN, RN]

I think we confuse 'nursing shortage' with 'vacancy rate'. There is a low vacancy rate in nursing, but yes there is a substantial nursing shortage.

How large the nursing shortage is depends on how you measure it. The forecasts of nursing shortage are based on the how many additional nurses will be needed in the future based on the staffing standards at the time. If you take the nursing shortage predictions of ten years ago as an example, they looked at the expected increase in acuity and number of patients, and then calculated how many additional nurses would be needed if we maintained what the acuity to staffing ratios were at the time. As it turns out they were actually very accurate, although the vacancy rate never materialized because the nursing profession lacks a backbone and allowed our acuity to staffing ratios change drastically over that time.

So in terms of how many nurses we should have now compared to what our standards would have required at the time the prediction was made, yes there is a huge nursing shortage, but that doesn't mean there is a high vacancy rate.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

There is not a shortage of unskilled, inexperienced, unspecialized nurses.

There is however a grievous shortage of skilled, experienced, specialists. My specialty is in Infusion Therapy and Vascular Access and all three of my employers can never find enough nurses to fill the positions simply because we cannot find anyone qualified. All we get are new grad applications or those looking for a change in specialty.

Why is that a bad thing? What is stopping your employer from training new grads or experienced non-infusion nurses?

[TU RN, DNP, CRNA]

"capitalism - an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth"

One example of a "private individual" might be colleges/universities and hospitals. Colleges stand to gain wealth from the idea of a nursing shortage as the idea can be manipulated into attracting students (i.e. tuition dollars) and an "exchange of wealth" so to speak. This is their prerogative as business owners in a fundamentally capitalist free market such as the one we enjoy in the United States. The phrase "caveat emptor" ("let the buyer beware") comes to mind.

Another "private individual" might be a hospital or healthcare organization. These groups stand to gain from the idea of a nursing shortage because the influx of new nurses (as mentioned above) provide a labor surplus - effectively giving the business advantage to those in the position to hire/manage staffing. Forget retention of seasoned staff who cost more with their raises and specialties, or dissatisfied/burnt out staff who present resistance to an otherwise "well-oiled machine" with their complaints, call-outs, and latenesses. You could even press that advantage by reducing staffing and reducing labor costs furthermore. If anybody has a problem with it and complains or gets burnt out, supplant them with the myriad unemployed, mostly-college-degreed graduates who have flooded the market.

If I was in the business administration area of a college or healthcare organization in charge of maximizing profit, the last thing I would want is the idea of a nursing shortage to go away. This is why it's important for nurses to support and stay in touch with their state nursing associations so laws can be passed to ensure safe staffing, but I'm a hypocrite because I don't do this. Unions are a good answer to many of these problems, but in my city only one of the many major hospitals has done this. I'm not fully sure why, but it probably has something to do with the nursing labor surplus. Many nurses are also in such financial situations that they can't afford to strike or have their position go to a scab.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I had to double check the date of the op to make sure this thread wasn't a few years old :-/ It's been rough for a while now. I remember stressing over it a ton when I was in school.

[Asystole RN]

Why is that a bad thing? What is stopping your employer from training new grads or experienced non-infusion nurses?

It is an extremely expensive and difficult process with a high failure rate to train new grads or experienced non-specialists. In all the reality the shortage is not a bad thing for me personally because it drives my wages up but it is not easy finding people to work with.

I am in the process of leaving two of my jobs and at the one job where I only provide vascular access services they have not been able to find someone for over 6 months now. That employer does not have the ability to train a novice nurse, it simply takes too long and the volume isn't high enough to train someone. In the hospital to orientate into vascular access is a minimum 6 month process to be considered minimally competent.

At the hospital I am also leaving it takes months to be fully competent in infusion therapy. Just putting someone through to get their chemo card, learn how to give biologics and enzymes etc takes a while. It is rather an expensive process to train a new grad who may or may not stay with the unit. They will train experienced nurses sometimes but generally will only pull from the oncology, crit care, ED units.

[nursel56]

So what we have are people who stand to benefit financially keeping the shortage propaganda alive with stories such as those posted by Yellow90 attempting to actually increase the number of new grads they know are struggling to get their first job and employers not hiring new grads because they feel they will take a hit financially if they train new nurses. This is a train wreck waiting to happen that will surpass anything we've seen so far, with greed and selfishness apparently at the core of both sides of the problem.

Not sure how there's any way around that, and I really do feel the moral compass has been tossed aside compared to what things were like when I was a new nurse, even though many financial crises have hit us since those days, and "job hopping" if anything was more common then when there was greater ease and little risk involved in getting another position in the dream unit of one's choosing.

[vanessaem, BSN, RN]

The only shortage I see is the amount of hospitals willing to hire new grad nurses.

[MikeyBSN]

There is no "nursing shortage"; my guess is that this is some myth that some educational institution told you before plunging you into tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

[inshallamiami]

There is not a shortage of unskilled, inexperienced, unspecialized nurses.

There is however a grievous shortage of skilled, experienced, specialists. My specialty is in Infusion Therapy and Vascular Access and all three of my employers can never find enough nurses to fill the positions simply because we cannot find anyone qualified. All we get are new grad applications or those looking for a change in specialty.

My specialties are not the only fields lacking qualified individuals, look at how many listings for the ED and OR you see!

well I can MAYBE see why they wouldn't hire a new grad but if you won't hire someone changing a specialty then of course there is going to be a diminishing pool of applicants. Hell, the existing specialists will eventually die of old age. Nurses have to be trained in a specialty. And if ya don't want to train new blood of course you have a shortage in specialties.

But trust me hospital administrator types know this, and like the shortage...the current, trained nurses do the work of two!