I’m questioning if there is really a nursing shortage? More specifically, I question if there is anything being done to solve the nursing shortage? I’m pretty sure it is real, my triage wait times have increased, sometimes it’s over an hour wait. So yes, I answered my first question, it’s yes! However, I wonder what’s being done to address it? I have applied to over 50 listings for nursing positions and received only 3 callbacks by recruiters. The phone interviews led mostly nowhere. I’ve had only one in person interview, which was actually an interview day that one recruiter invited me to attend, this led to a second interview a few days later with a floor manager and an offer of employment. After the hiring process being delayed on their end with little to no communication, I decided to rescind my offer to work for them. All this being said, where is the supposed emergency for nurses to fill vacancies?
Not to blow smoke up my own ***, I realize I have no “real” bedside nursing experience. However, I’ve been a paramedic in a busy area for 17 years. I’m a licensed RN with bcls and ACLS credentials, as well as many other ems specific credentials. I also have experience as a transplant coordinator. If there were such a shortage, wouldn’t these facilities be looking to fill these vacancies any way possible?
Are there any management/hr folks that could shed some light on this? Is there really a crisis? Wouldn’t you be better off training a part time nurse willing to work for the long term as opposed to a traveler getting triple pay on a 12 week contract? Am I deluded or does nothing make sense any more, post covid?
I’m questioning if there is really a nursing shortage? More specifically, I question if there is anything being done to solve the nursing shortage? I’m pretty sure it is real, my triage wait times have increased, sometimes it’s over an hour wait. So yes, I answered my first question, it’s yes! However, I wonder what’s being done to address it? I have applied to over 50 listings for nursing positions and received only 3 callbacks by recruiters. The phone interviews led mostly nowhere. I’ve had only one in person interview, which was actually an interview day that one recruiter invited me to attend, this led to a second interview a few days later with a floor manager and an offer of employment. After the hiring process being delayed on their end with little to no communication, I decided to rescind my offer to work for them. All this being said, where is the supposed emergency for nurses to fill vacancies?
Not to blow smoke up my own ***, I realize I have no “real” bedside nursing experience. However, I’ve been a paramedic in a busy area for 17 years. I’m a licensed RN with bcls and ACLS credentials, as well as many other ems specific credentials. I also have experience as a transplant coordinator. If there were such a shortage, wouldn’t these facilities be looking to fill these vacancies any way possible?
Are there any management/hr folks that could shed some light on this? Is there really a crisis? Wouldn’t you be better off training a part time nurse willing to work for the long term as opposed to a traveler getting triple pay on a 12 week contract? Am I deluded or does nothing make sense any more, post covid?
Not sure why the media keeps saying there is a nursing shortage or healthcare crisis. To me the real issue is administration being up front with your workload and whether it is safe or not. I don't care if it's covid, or if I work with 20 covid patients, my concern is the safety of the patients.
No one wants to work where there is 12 hours worth of work to be done in 8 hours - No nurse can humanly possible do admissions, dealing with a crashing patient (covid positive) and then have to administered care to the non covids and be OK with that. Jumping from isolation to non isolation, it's not safe.
There is no Nursing shortage there has never been a nursing shortage, there Nurses that had enough of the corporate BS and gaslighting that they just quit! Under paid, under appreciated, bullying by family and patients, and corporations continue to add and add more and more policies like it’s a piece of cake! All we do now is click our lives away there is no actual nursing care. Nurses speak up and corporate makes up some BS management thinks is OK to bring food to compensate for the excessive workload. A stupid slice of pizza is not going to make it OK that I am getting double the work for the same pay! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH corporations need to realize that instead of paying their CEOs 50x more than a median employee they should decrease that pay and give more to the nurses stop treating the hospitals like a hotel or retail store this “the customer is always right BS is how we got here to begin with!” We are working with lives actual human beings we are not their personal maids and our title RN does not stand for refreshments and Narcotics! Going into specialties gives more money so nurses are going back to school to get their specialties and get paid more, then you have travel Nurses that make 3xmore per week than a regular employee and still you are over worked and exhausted and the pay is ridiculous. But No there is no nursing shortage
There is a shortage of nurses who are willing to put up with the very hard under appreciated and underpaid workload. There may well be enough people with nursing licenses, but they don’t want to stay in acute care.
On another note, most hospital managers I know won’t hire someone without acute care beside experience part-time because that person would essentially be a new grad. Some places have programs they call “transition to acute care RN” because it’s a rigorous educational program for those who have been working in long-term care, home care, and clinics etc. Nothing at all wrong with that experience, you’d just most likely need to commit to a full-time job for now for them to make the investment in training. Best of luck to you!
There is a shortage of very experienced nurses willing to work in acute care. Our education system has failed us. In the USA, the vast majority of new nurses *cannot* hit the ground running and working independently in acute care fresh out of school. We graduate nursing school needing more hand holding, training, support, and guidance to safely practice independently despite having spent tens of thousands of dollars and going into debt for our education. The burden of completing our training falls onto employers, who have to train us now just on the ins and outs of a new job, but how to safely and independently practice. There is higher liability and risk because it's our license on the line and the employer has to invest money into us. The best hospitals with the best training programs can only hire a few people, and the rest of us have to compete (and still compete hard) for toxic and lower paying opportunities. Those who survive the brutal 1st year in acute care get more pick with where to go once they feel comfortable looking for a new position. But once a nurse gets maybe 5, 10, or 15 years of experience (enough to do more complex work with minimal training and assistance), they either secure a position in a hospital that treats their employees well, where they are happy, and pays well, get into something lucrative, go to school, or they leave acute care.
There are very few nurses with extensive experience that are willing and eager to take on a job at a low paying and toxic environment They are the creme de la creme in terms of getting jobs, and they are highly sought after.
But for nurses who don't have extensive acute care work experience (or any at all), it's a different story. The job market is very competitive. No one wants to train us to do things that an experienced RN can do without training. Pay is lower.
If schools trained us better, we would not be in this situation. If we could graduate school without having to go through a new grad program just to feel marginally safe working on the floor, employers would want to hire us. Remember that our educations are not cheap. There is no reason why we should not be trained better.
There is no Nursing shortage there has never been a nursing shortage, there Nurses that had enough of the corporate BS and gaslighting that they just quit!
Nurses are quitting now without even giving a two weeks notice, they decide it is no longer worth it even if they're without a job. There is no more interest in giving a two weeks anymore, the doubling up on work is not worth it when the MD won't even send out the patient for better quality care. Get this, you get a call asking to come in to work and they don't tell you why. A nurse quit so you can work the short staffed shift!
This is very much a thing. I have applied to over 200 new grad specific positions with no callbacks. No interviews, and not even an email stating they declined to interview.
I was speaking with a recruiter and she told me that my best bet as a new grad in california is to do the following:
- become a patient care assistant (CNA) and gain experience first. This is a huge slap in the face to the degree I have just obtained. CNA is a real job with real qualifications and I have experience in this position. The fact that I was told to work as a CNA with an RN license was insulting.
- start work out of the state and come back. Im sorry, but not everyone can have the luxury to move out of state to get a job and come back to their home state. Another slap in the face.
As a veteran, with both search and rescue experience in the coast guard for 7 years, 4 years at a non profit, a CNA, and an RN, I am unable to obtain work. The "shortage" is fake and hospitals are not hiring despite the job postings.
This is very much a thing. I have applied to over 200 new grad specific positions with no callbacks. No interviews, and not even an email stating they declined to interview.
I was speaking with a recruiter and she told me that my best bet as a new grad in california is to do the following:
- become a patient care assistant (CNA) and gain experience first. This is a huge slap in the face to the degree I have just obtained. CNA is a real job with real qualifications and I have experience in this position. The fact that I was told to work as a CNA with an RN license was insulting.
- start work out of the state and come back. Im sorry, but not everyone can have the luxury to move out of state to get a job and come back to their home state. Another slap in the face.
As a veteran, with both search and rescue experience in the coast guard for 7 years, 4 years at a non profit, a CNA, and an RN, I am unable to obtain work. The "shortage" is fake and hospitals are not hiring despite the job postings.
Erin, rural Texas is BEGGING for nurses. If you need a job, I can give you 50 facilities off hand (LTC mostly) that will hire you or at least give you an interview. And if they are so saying that you can work as a 'CNA', you can work as a hospitality aide (not that you want that) but you don't even have to be certified, and some facilities will even train you to be a medication aide (not a nurse). Not that that is desirable but that can give required experience & money in your pocket. Those are the lax requirements here in Texas.
I am taking you live in So Cal? So cal is not a friendly place for a job if you are there. I think once in Cali, it is hard to move.
There is a terrible nursing shortage. Many hospitals and organizations have empty beds because there are not enough nurses to staff them. There have been records amounts of nurses and other medical professionals retiring and many leaving bedside nursing and traditional roles. SO yes, the shortage is VERY real.
There have been records amounts of nurses and other medical professionals retiring
yes, this so true. So many nurses I graduated with in the 1970s have retired .. I have 5 cousins that were educated in a diploma program that have retired now...In fact the many nurses I have worked with are now retiring. An entire generation who completed their career with their diploma/college educational program as a hospital nurse have aged out. This was predestined and predicted. The retirement rate and lack of new RNs willing to be hospital based was predicted at least a decade ago.
There is a terrible nursing shortage. Many hospitals and organizations have empty beds because there are not enough nurses to staff them. There have been records amounts of nurses and other medical professionals retiring and many leaving bedside nursing and traditional roles. SO yes, the shortage is VERY real.
The shortage is totally man made created by the health corporations themselves due to their endless pursuit of profit at all cost resulting in unsafe working conditions! Covid tipped the pyramid scheme over as the nurses voted with their feet to leave unsafe and abusive work environments.
The shortage is totally man made created by the health corporations themselves due to their endless pursuit of profit at all cost resulting in unsafe working conditions! Covid tipped the pyramid scheme over as the nurses voted with their feet to leave unsafe and abusive work environments.
I think we can agree that we don't have enough nurses working right now.
Part of that is the Boomers who are retiring in greater numbers each year. And part of it is that many nurses have simply had too much stress/overtime/working short/lack of support/lack of supplies/lack of PPE/etc..
It is likely that there actually are enough nurses who might come back if they had better working conditions.
summertx
186 Posts
Not sure why the media keeps saying there is a nursing shortage or healthcare crisis. To me the real issue is administration being up front with your workload and whether it is safe or not. I don't care if it's covid, or if I work with 20 covid patients, my concern is the safety of the patients.
No one wants to work where there is 12 hours worth of work to be done in 8 hours - No nurse can humanly possible do admissions, dealing with a crashing patient (covid positive) and then have to administered care to the non covids and be OK with that. Jumping from isolation to non isolation, it's not safe.