Nursing shortages? Not in my area!

bridgetbsn · Jan 30, 2006

Nursing shortage is in my area. I work in an ICU and recently had a change of administation. We had several seasoned nurses leave and go to a different area or new hospital. I have been an ICU nurse for a year and a a half. Our unit is working as much overtime as anyone wants and still begging for help. We have to have agency nurses come and help us out. It is a very trying time right now. Our charge nurse has to take patients and some of the nurses are having to take 3 patients. Our ideal day would be an free charge nurse and each staff nurse with just 2 patients. We have some new graduates coming out of school soon and a few are hired but we still have to orient them to the ICU for several weeks so we will be short for a little while longer, but hopefully not long.

Marylou1102 · Jan 30, 2006

I live in a medium size city and we have 5 nursing schools in town. 3 RN / BSN schools (with a 4th one in the works), and 2 for LPNs. We also have 2 Paramedic programs and 2 CNA programs. Then we also offer Nurse Practioner and Pre-Med degrees.

We are so glutted with nursing staff that the medical community can offer whatever they want and we have no choice but to accept it. I have been looking for a job since last October. There just isn't any to be found.

smilin_gp · Jan 31, 2006

Scary post for me, as I am in the middle of interviewing for jobs in Oregon. Hope you find a wonderful job that works out for you!

NO1_2NV · Jan 31, 2006

What area of Oregon are you looking in? You stated Metro which makes me think you might be located in the Portland area.

I left Oregon a few years back to go to school. I will be finishing up in Dec. and had planned on moving back. Is the market that flooded? Maybe I better start looking for a position this summer.

Sheesh things move fast. I am a native oregonian and my family all live there. My mum stated that there were tons of people moving there. It must be true?

colter517 · Jan 31, 2006

We're short here in Massachusetts.

QuilterLPN · Jan 31, 2006

Come to the Gorge! The hospital in The Dalles has several openings. Hood River probably has too, but housing is cheaper in The Dalles.

Good Luck!

Rio, ASN, RN · Jan 31, 2006

In those areas where there is not a shortage; are there no jobs even on evenings and nights ?

In many areas 8 hour day jobs are scarce, even with alternate weekend rotation. 12 hour shifts can be hard to fill and evening and nights are very short staffed.

gerry79 · Jan 31, 2006

Seems to be a ton of jobs here in Mass. Went to a job fair yesterday and was wooed like a rock star even though I dont graduate until December.

hope3456, ASN, RN · Jan 31, 2006

[so the other day, when I was feeling very low about not working...I went to the grocery store to get a few needed items (with just enough money to get those and nothing else!), when I talked to two check out people that are in nursing school. This seems to happen where ever I go! "Ohhhhhh your a nurse, I am in nursing school!".

You aren't alone!

I am living in northern colorado....no shortage here, but EVERYONE I meet wants to go to nursing school!

I went to get my hair cut a couple weeks ago and 2 of the beauticians were doing prenursing. The one next to me was telling her client all about how she was going to be a trauma nurse...I'm sorry, but it pretty much sounded like miss hair dresser had watched one to many episodes of ER.

Then a couple days later I go to a BBQ for my husbands work and a lady there is into the same thing, going on and on about how she is going to be a RN (but isn't even in a program yet) and make all this money and there were so many jobs, ect. I tried to tell her that wasn't really the case, but I didnt really want to be rude about it since there were so many people around, but she just had no idea what I was even talking about - "oh yes there is, have you ever looked at ABC's hosp. website?" (Yes I have, but those jobs aren't open to anyone who doesn't have 2 years experience and many of them are PRN, anyway).

So yeah, I graduated in May and found there weren't many jobs open to new grads...contrary to what the news media says. Oh, and the local CC has MORE than doubled the number of admissions to the program over the past couple years....

An article in the Denver Post recently stated that colorado has a vacancy rate of 11% of RN jobs - something like twice the nat'l average. Seriously, I would be much appreciative if someone could tell WHERE these jobs are in Colorado?

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Jan 31, 2006

It is true that there are areas that don't need nurses! Believe it or not, nurses will tend to migrate to areas and jobs they find desirable. Seems like I've heard of many job protections and wanted benefits in Oregon (probably not true everywhere, just trying to figure this out), this has probably led to many nurses moving there/sticking around.

I can assure you that in the 3 different cities & States I've lived in have always needed nurses. When the first city I was living in started changing the job position dramatically and cutting nursing positions (don't you love consultants?) I took a travel nurse position and let it help me move to an area of the country in need. Ok, yes, I know not everyone can pick up and move but if it's a choice of working or not working this may soften some people's positions. I could move because I was single, didn't own property and didn't mind starting over away from family.

As for the area I live in, we've been actively recruiting for my unit for all 3 years I've been there; GN, experienced, whatever. We hire nursing students as techs so maybe they'll want to stay when they graduate. This is a large urban area (DFW metroplex) with multiple nursing schools, we can't graduate nurses fast enough to fill the new beds being built at various hospitals.

Point being; if they aren't hiring in your immediate area I can assure you it's a local fluke, there really are nursing jobs out there, even for GN's. My husband was a GN 3 years ago, picked his choice job (NICU) and couldn't finish his first interview before he was hired (and they hadn't even confirmed his GN status yet).

smkiya, BSN, RN · Jan 31, 2006

There are tons of openings in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area. In fact some hospitals, and LTC will offer 5-10k bonuses.