Nursing Student with a few questions

Sour Lemon · Jul 31, 2016

Hello,
1. One of my friends in nursing is saying the nursing field is beginning to become flooded. She says there are more students going into nursing than ever before and it is going to drive down the nurse's wage in the coming years. Have and of you found that to be true as well?
Also what is a good beginning wage for a fresh graduate with a bachelors degree?

The answers to those questions will vary greatly depending on your region.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2016

Graduate programs outside of nursing that nurses have taken include; education, MBA, ethics, law, interdisciplinary studies, rehabilitation, human resources, communication, health policy, it all depends on the type of career path a nurse chooses to follow.

roser13, ASN, RN · Jul 31, 2016

The answers to those questions will vary greatly depending on your region.

But yes, most populated regions of the country are flooded with new grads. There is no nursing shortage in most areas.

ArtClassRN, ADN, RN · Jul 31, 2016

1. One of my friends in nursing is saying the nursing field is beginning to become flooded. She says there are more students going into nursing than ever before and it is going to drive down the nurse's wage in the coming years. Have and of you found that to be true as well?

No, but it depends on the geographical area and type of nursing. Coveted new grad positions have always been very competitive.

Also what is a good beginning wage for a fresh graduate with a bachelors degree?

Again, research salaries in the area you are looking at. (Check out the salary threads).

"Right now I am looking into Nurse Practitioner or a Nurse Anesthetist....."

Yeah, yeah, you and everybody else, buddy.

Just out curiosity, what are some graduate programs outside of nursing I could apply for with a BSN

Anything your little heart desires.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Aug 1, 2016

Right now I am looking into Nurse Practitioner or a Nurse Anesthetist, and hopefully one day I can attend a graduate program of some sort.

Nurse anesthetist (CRNA) programs are competitive and require specific critical care experience prior to admission.

However, nurse practitioner programs are a dime a dozen and ridiculously easy to secure admission. I have never met a nurse who was unable to find at least one nurse practitioner program to admit him/her. There's a proliferation of NP programs that only require a 2.6 GPA and no GRE scores.

SkyDrift · Aug 1, 2016

I read an article that by 2020 the nursing field will become very saturated. There's too many new grads looking for jobs. But at the same time, the baby boomers will have to retire soon and someone has to take care of them. It really depends on your location. In Southern California, it's pretty impacted and it's very competitive to get a job as a new grad, unless you have connections with a manager/supervisor from a hospital.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Aug 1, 2016

Here comes the wet blanket.

All those "projections" about the dramatic increase in the nursing jobs is based upon: 1) traditional patient care models and 2) extrapolation of historical use-of-service data. Both of those assumptions are faulty. Population Health models of care are very different -- and that's what will determine the future employment for all health professions. People are healthier than ever. Increases in service are going to be in the area of chronic disease management - factor in newly emerging technology to support distance and self-care & its pretty much a "who the heck knows???" scenario.

It's an exciting time to be a nurse, right?

IGOTMYBSN28 · Aug 1, 2016

Just focus on getting into nursing school and passing the nclex. If you accomplish that, then think about graduate school.

Zooey72 · Aug 5, 2016

Depressed nursing wages has not happened, and is not going to happen. Anyone here can google and find out that the median income of a nurse (as in 1 person) is 67k a year. The median HOUSEHOLD income in this country is 52k. So a median income nurse on their own makes more than a household does.

As to whether there will be a flood of nurses coming in and depressing wages; perhaps to a small extent. The truth is even if supply does increase it will not match demand. Baby boomers are getting older, and they will/do need care. The only way I can see any person with a medical degree losing money is if the government steps in and says "Dr. X, and nurse Y are driving up the cost of medical care, we need to take their wages down some".

As far as region goes, it has been covered already. But I would add that if you are looking to the future I would consider states that have a low/no inheritince tax. Older people will move to those states and that will drive up demand (Tennessee and Florida are good examples). You may not make 120k a year (if you lived in S. Cali.) as a nurse, but a 1 bedroom apartment won't cost you 3k a month either.

bgxyrnf, MSN, RN · Aug 5, 2016

There continues to be a huge influx of people into nursing because of the low barrier to entry and the outstanding compensation that can be found.

Economics 101 indicates that this will inevitably drive down compensation, particularly if union busting continues unabated by the right wing politicos.

Zooey72 · Aug 5, 2016

There continues to be a huge influx of people into nursing because of the low barrier to entry and the outstanding compensation that can be found.
Economics 101 indicates that this will inevitably drive down compensation, particularly if union busting continues unabated by the right wing politicos.

Economics 101 is supply and demand. There continues to be much more demand than there is supply; that increases wages. "Union busting" is more of a political statement than anything else. Others could say that unions interfere with wages because the union gets "their cut", which otherwise should have gone to the nurses.

Also if you look at the statistics nursing is growing more than twice as fast in demand compared to the rest of the job market. The "low barrier entry", is not that low. I have yet to hear anyone say on this board or in life in general "Oh ya, go to nursing school; it's easy!" What you are stating about nurses is more true about school teachers. Their degrees outside teaching in most cases would not make them any meaningful money. I have a degree in history and I did not want to teach. After college I got a job installing cable. "Union busting" does effect teachers because w/o a union they would get paid what their degrees are worth, which would be considerably less than what they do get paid.

Edited to add this from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Quick Facts: Registered Nurses2015 Median Pay$67,490 per year

$32.45 per hourTypical Entry-Level EducationBachelor's degreeWork Experience in a Related OccupationNoneOn-the-job TrainingNoneNumber of Jobs, 20142,751,000Job Outlook, 2014-2416% (Much faster than average)Employment Change, 2014-24439,300

The average job outlook in this country is 7%, the nursing job outlook is 16% That says it all.