Nursing Jobs - Excess or Shortage?

[potatoz, RN]

I'm in a point of my life where I would like financial stability. I'm also very interested in the field of nursing because you get to help make people's life better.

I've done research and many websites says that there's a shortage of nurses.

Then there are plenty of other websites says there is an excess of nurses.

So how was finding a job for you? Was it hard with alot of competition? Were you jobless for many months or even have to relocate to another state? I want a piece of realism to know what it's like before I commit to nursing.:)

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

The answer is "yes" and "yes". The demand for nursing is entirely based on local conditions. There may be an area with waay too many nurses and too few jobs - and another area only a hundred miles away with a huge demand for nurses. Other than CA, there is no mandated ratio for nursing staff, so there is even a high degree of variability among healthcare organizations in the same location.

As a nurse, you already know the value of ALWAYS examining the source data when you're judging the accuracy of any information. This applies to any information about the employment market for nurses. There are some sites, such as Wallethub that produce (seemingly) decent analytics that can provide some guidance, but many others are just parroting the erroneous "nursing is a wonderful career, with jobs for everyone" message that has been hyped for the last decade. Another source of accurate data is HRSA... they are predicting a nursing surplus in most states by 2025 - HERE's that research report.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Many of those reports about nursing shortages were based on the assumption that the baby boomer nurses would reach retirement age by 20XX. The problem is the recession hit in 2008-2009 and their retirement savings took a hit and needed to work longer. Another factor are nurses that were working part-time prior to the recession and their spouse lost their job which meant they needed to go full-time. Another issue is the nursing schools touting the impending nursing shortage and pump out way too many graduates than the market can use causing a surplus in those areas.