Nursing shortage no more?

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I graduate nursing school in August of this year and now I am worried. I have several friends that have already graduated nursing school and many of them are having a hard time finding a job. I already work at a level 1 trauma center in Va but there is only one floor hiring that will even consider new grads. Is this something that is happening all over the country or is there still a nursing shortage? Where are the states that are still hiring?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

There's still jobs available here for new grads in West Central Florida, but they definitely aren't as abundant as they once were. Right now the facility where I work is fully staffed. This changes from week to week. New grads were hired from the January graduating class.

They says it's a cycle that should end in the near future with shortages to remain and become more acute with the aging population. Some parts of the country are worse than others.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Home care, Surgical care, Research.

May be! I was convinced by my parents and relatives to join the nursing profession with reasons that i would secure a job as quickly after graduation to help my father eliminate the poverty plaqueing my family when i travel abroad to work as a nurse. It is three years today i graduated as a nurse with two years home experience as a community nurse and surgical nurse. However to assist my family I had to travel abroad to the UAE given the fact that i could not meet up with the financial requirements to travel to Europe or the USA. To my greatest disappointment, nurses graduates from my home country (Cameroon) are not recognised in this country. What do I do? I tried online application to my countries to noavail. So i sometime ask myself are the number of nurses requried in the world sufficient or did i join the profession for the wrong reason?. Presently am still in UAE working as a hospital receptionist with pienuts for salary. Is this what i signed for in my four years of university studies. What if i did Computer Engineering i had always dreamed of as a child

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there hasn't been a national nursing shortage for a while now. there is a stockpile of newbie rn's with no exp that is continuing to build (many can't find a job), it's going to take time to absorb them all and the none stop flow of new grads being pumped out in the meantime.

the long term picture looks good compared to other jobs though, obama care (still in it's infancy) will only increase the demand for nurses as will a more stable economy (we ain't there yet).

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good to know that there is a light at the end of this tunnel because I was really starting to get worried that I wouldnt be able to do what I really want to do

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You apparently haven’t been on allnurses much over the last year and a half. This website and others are flooded with people talking about this. It’s gotten so old now that it unfortunately doesn’t seem to be getting as much interest here lately as it did in the past. Some of the more recent threads started on this subject, just generating only a few responses. So let me briefly bring you up to speed.

Hospitals by and large stopped hiring new nurses nation wide during the summer of 2008 and the situation hasn’t improved much. I would suggest you read the threads I have started on this board regarding this subject. I think you would find them interesting. By this point, your nursing professors must undoubtedly be well aware of the situation. If they have chose to remain silent regarding the situation with you and you school mates, I wouldn’t be too happy about if I were you.

As far as what states are hiring, let’s talk about that. For a while there were hospitals in Texas and Oklahoma still hiring new nurses. The problem is now those hospitals are being overwhelmed by applicants from all over the country. You may find a new grad internship program pop-up at certain hospitals (maybe in your area) usually once every six months. But be prepared to be one of hundreds of applicants for maybe 10 to 30 available positions.

I know this probably isn’t what you wanted to hear, but it is the reality of the situation. I do have one piece of good news for you and some advice as well. The good news is that having a position in the hospital may serve you well in landing a job. I hope you like your hospital because it is probably your best chance at getting a job. Having said that, I would strongly suggest you keep that job for now. Infact, if I were you I don’t think I would work as a GN while preparing for the NCLEX. I’ve read where some nursing school faculties are telling their students to don’t even bother applying for hospital positions until they actually have their RN licenses. I would agree with them. Your friends that will graduate without having hospital positions already will likely be in for a surprise if they have been relying on a nursing shortage.

And lastly, I wouldn’t remain silent about the issue if I were you either. Suppose you are the one in need of care in a hospital that is grossly understaffed. Do thorough research about this issue.

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I'm also like you, i'm planning on becoming a nurse but I'm unsure about finding a job after I graduate because I already have a BBA in something else and haven't found anything so I don't want to waste my time again with nursing even though I like this profession

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there is a difference between a shortage of staff and a shortage of funds to pay staff. With a country that is now around 10% unemployed, business holding off on hiring, and consumers holding off on buying we are at an net zero area.

Finding your first job is going to be hard, yea, well its hard for anyone graduating college in general.

Maybe in comparison to the last ten years it is going to be tougher and you have to be competitive as well as willing to relocate, but a job is a job!

go check out indeed.com and start looking for entry level nurse positions.

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Specializes in ICU, Float RN , Quality & PI.

Come to WV. we r short! Need nurses!!!

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also, just because a hospital is advertising/listing jobs doesn't mean it's actually hiring (there are discussions @ allnurses about this too). the hospital i work at has been listing new grad positions for a long time, but hasn't hired one in over a year.

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also, just because a hospital is advertising/listing jobs doesn't mean it's actually hiring (there are discussions @ allnurses about this too).

This is true, although I'm not savvy enough about management/administration stuff to understand the point. The main hospital in the "healthecare system" in which I'm currently employed always has soooo many RN positions posted on the website that, if they were really short that many nurses, it would be impossible to keep the hospital open and operating. And there are always huge number of positions posted -- surely some of them must get filled once in a while, if they're really trying to fill them??? I don't get it.

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For all the new grads worried about jobs: nursing is still a recession proof job. I have just met tree new nurses, who all graduated in December and got their first job in area of their choice. I'm from Northwest Ohio, and we've been hit very hard by recession, but it seems like hospitals started hiring again. They are from different schools, but it seems most of their classmates found jobs already. One thing these new nurses told me was that they had worked as part-timers in the hospital during school, and they feel that definitely helped them. They told me, though, that some of their friends were hired by departments they percepted at, in the last semester of school, having had no previous healthcare experience. I'm thinking there still may be bumps ahead, but I don't think new nurses should be afraid for their future.

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