Nursing "Shift"

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Specializes in LTC/Sub Acute Rehab.

Hey everybody!,

I was wondering if anyone noticed (especially LPN/LVN) a "shift" in the job availability. I'm currently PRN at a facility while I'm in school and I believe that in a couple of days, they are going to announce that they are going to go with an all RN staff; regardless if they are new grads or not. They've been hiring A LOT of RN'S lately (they don't stay but that's a whole 'nother topic). The Unit Manager said to me that they are trying to keep their 5 star rating which is a crock, because you don't a full RN staff to do so but, they are free to run their facility as they choose.

I also have notice on the major employment boards for at least 2 weeks straight now, that the MAJORITY of the available jobs advertised are for RN'S. I'm currently in Ohio but will be going back home to GA when I finish school; but this is having an effect on me at the moment. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else was seeing this where they are in the country as well.

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I've seen this shift at times where I am; in particular, more job opportunities, then less job opportunities, whether for LVN (LPN) or RN. Have also noted a shift downward in wage rates. There has consistently been more opportunities for RNs over LVNs over the years.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I have been in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas since 2005. I should mention that I was an LVN from 2006 until I received my RN licensure in 2010.

In this area, the nursing employment tide started changing for the worse in late 2008 and early 2009, soon after the financial market meltdown of September '08. Prior to this time, LVN positions were abundant in a myriad of areas such as specialty hospitals, psychiatric facilities, jails, prisons, nursing homes, clinics, assisted living, insurance companies, hospice, home health, and group homes for intellectually disabled clients.

Nowadays, nursing homes are the major employers of LVNs in this area. In addition, if an LVN and an RN apply for the same nursing home position, the job offer will be extended to the RN because the facility doesn't have to pay them much more than the LVN.

Many new grad RNs in this area have been accepting jobs in nursing homes because getting hired at the major acute care hospitals has become fiercely competitive over the past few years. Since so many new RNs are simply happy to be gainfully employed, the nursing home administrators know this, so they keep the RN wage grids low because they can get away without paying more.

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Specializes in LTC/Sub Acute Rehab.

It just "feels" like there is a tide turning; trying to phase out the LPN in nursing homes (since the hospital is either not hiring ADN'S or not hiring new grad ADN'S OR BSN'S) forcing them to work in home health, which isn't a bad thing if you like it!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

I just had this same discussion with a potential nursing student/current PCT. She was considering going to LPN school so that she could get a job in LTC. Apparently, I entered the room and caught the tail-end of a conversation between her and a nursing instructor who was there with her students. As soon as I immediately brought her up-to-speed with the current BSN trends and my personal experiences with transitioning from LPN-to-ASN-to-BSN, with the injection of new grad ASN RNs being forced into LTC thereby pushing quite a few LPNs into the unemployment lines, the instructor jumped up, pointed to me, and yelled 'poster child' as her evidence of that portion of the conversation that I missed. I didn't have to return to LTC but about 3 times in one week, I heard the RN version of 'you're just an LPN; we want an RN'. Only this time, it was ASN versus BSN. Four months later, I was sitting in my first two BSN courses and beginning my casual pursuit.

My timeline for LPN-RN transitioning and the reason for it was IDENTICAL to that mentioned by TheCommuter. I was employed by a hospital when economic changes caused a marked decrease in the number of shifts that I was given. Not being able to find any supplemental income, I found it time to abandon a title (LPN) that was ultimately abandoning me. That title and I had a long 24-year relationship, but it was time to move on.

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When I started nursing school at a community college, I was told that the LPN program had closed the year before. The teacher said that the job market for LPNs in the area was so dismal that there was no point continuing the program.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.
When I started nursing school at a community college, I was told that the LPN program had closed the year before. The teacher said that the job market for LPNs in the area was so dismal that there was no point continuing the program.

Seeing this through current trends, I believe a lot more institutions should follow suit rather than sell pipe dreams to nursing hopefuls.

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We barely have any at my hospital

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Seeing this through current trends, I believe a lot more institutions should follow suit rather than sell pipe dreams to nursing hopefuls.

Back when I was enrolled in a Los Angeles area LVN program in 2004/2005, instructors and admissions representatives were telling students that they could be travel nurses or work in L&D, the ER or ICU upon graduation.

Since California's LVN scope of practice is one of the most restrictive in the US, I haven't met an LVN in CA who currently works in L&D or critical care. The number of LPNs/LVNs who work as travel nurses is trivially small, also due to scope of practice issues.

I agree: school officials must start telling the truth instead of filling student's head space with dreams that may never turn into realities. However, telling the truth may interfere with the school's profit margin, so I suspect it is easier to feed the dreamers.

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Specializes in LTC/Sub Acute Rehab.

I wish you all could've seen the enormous class of incoming LPN students at the start of the new quarter 4 weeks ago, IT WAS MASSIVE. All I could think to myself was that they had no clue that their job prospects are next to nil (especially here); and how they collectively made the school hundreds of thousands of dollars only to get licensed and have to re-enroll into the bridge program (because of not being able to find a job) unnecessarily; the school offers a RN traditional tract just like a community college. I just wonder why (besides money)they don't close the LPN program altogether because it's time. Unfortunately, it appears the nursing world is evolving and it's time for all of us to evolve with it or get left behind.

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