Nursing Shortage: Yea or Nay?

[BabyRN2Be]

Yes, yes, I know. Another thread about the tired discussion of said topic. We all know that the bottom feel out of the nursing bucket roughly 2008 when Bad Things were happening to the US economy. It just seemed as if there was not a job to be had for new grads and some of the most loyal nurses were cut from the institutions they had labored at for 30 years.

Well, at a pool get-together today, a woman just about back-handed me today when I said there was NOT a nursing shortage. She said her son was about ready to graduate from nursing school and he could go anywhere he wanted, claim his area of field, and he'd be taking in the $$$.

I tried to correct her gently that the scenario may have been true about 10 years ago, but that in metropolitan areas, the job market for nursing loss a lot like the central US in places: bogged down and flooded.

This woman talked over me and the others in the group who wouldn't know what the NCLEX was if it came out and bit them, whole-heartedly agreed with the woman, laughing at such a notion that there ever has or ever will be a nursing shortage.

So, let me hear it from you all. Have things changed recently? Has the shortage gone the way of the dodo? If LOVE to hear it as this is one of the reasons why I didn't continue after my baby was born. I didn't want to take out loans if there were no jobs.

What's up everyone? The good, bad, and the ugly.

[AutumnApple]

Overall I'd vote Nay.

I'll point out though, the term "shortage" is subjective. We don't have a true, actual line we cross that says there is or isn't. What data would you use? It varies too much from place to place, person to person.

If you're looking at nothing else but the ability to bring home a paycheck and call yourself "employed" then, I guess you could say there is a shortage. All the jobs aren't filled in a lot of facilities.

On the other hand, if you disregard the silly jobs that......hmph.....well, there is a reason they're not filled.........then there really isn't a shortage. What I mean by this is, there are a great many jobs, asking for nurses, that anyone with any common sense would say "no" to. Even if you're "tapped out" financially, the job is such a danger to your license, you'd still say "no" to it.

I once interviewed for a behavioral health position that would have had me working "blocks". You pretty much live there over the course of a few days, then have four or five days off.......so on, so forth. So, in three days you're with the patients all day with small breaks, then end the day with an 8 hr. resting period. Problem was, I was still responsible for things during my 8 hour rest period. I'd have been the only RN there at night, so anything a CNA can't handle comes to me. Yeah.......sounds perfectly safe: Get woken up for a new admit or someone has to go to the hospital, handle the situation half asleep and probably end up rushing through it because you want to go back to be. Not to mention, you don't punch in on the clock when these things come up. Three days straight of restless nights and you're delivering nursing care........unsafe. No thank you.

I declined the position when they offered it. I watched the paper after that and the position was always being advertised, as though it were never filled. Now, years later, I've returned home and I was job seeking. Guess what position was open..............

A friend once had the opportunity to make it into the ICU like he always wanted. One of the selling points in the job posting was "every Saturday off". Sound too good to be true? It was.

They wanted him to work a fixed schedule, two 12hr shifts and two 8hr shifts. Here is why he had Saturdays off though: Every week, he'd have been working Friday night, twelve hour shift (7p-7a). So, he gets home Saturday morning and sleeps till whenever. His next work day was Sunday, an eight hour daylight shift. So, he'd wake up Saturday evening ish, then have to be at work early Sunday. Not much of a day off really. That's not the end of it though.........that process repeated itself. Tuesday twelve hour night shift, Thursday daylight. He had one legitimate day off all week, that was Monday. The schedule was set up that way because all the nurses who had been there had worked out sweet schedules for themselves. Most of them wanted to avoid Sundays and Thursday daylight for some reason, I don't recall why.

These are ridiculous examples, but I have worse believe it or not. Point is, if you simply open up the paper and so "Oh my, look at all the unfilled nursing jobs" you are bound to believe there is a shortage.

Me, I tend to think there is a shortage of respectable employers, not well deserving nurses. Again, some jobs stay unfilled for a good reason. My job search ended last week and I'm very pleased with what I found. I turned down two positions before finding it though, and for good reason.

[meadow71]

No more nurse shortage? Surplus projected for 2025

[Jay37]

Nursing shortages are cyclical .I don't have a crystal ball..but..when the crusty old bats finally retire... a new shortage will begin.

YEssss, so true, especially here in Atlanta, there are still jobs for nurses here, but in places you would never want to work. But i noticed there are nurses in there 60s trying to hold on for dear life, like retire already!! New grads coming out daily!