Nursing Student with a few questions

Nursing Students Male Students

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Hello,

I am a male nursing student going into my sophomore year. I recently started a job as a CNA in a nursing home and am enjoying it. I am pretty confident in my decision to go into nursing, but I have a few questions.

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?

2. My second question is about graduate school. With large amount of nurses in the world I expect advanced practice nursing programs to be super competitive and maybe hard to find a job if you are accepted into the program. I have been able to maintain a 4.0 so far, but I am still worried. 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. Just out curiosity, what are some graduate programs outside of nursing I could apply for with a BSN?

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.

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.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
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.

Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.

My initial response is a generalization so it may not fit for your situation. I suspect that the glut of students being trained will fill the vacancies that will eventually occur en masse as baby boomers retire. However, we are living longer and working longer, so who knows, that vacancy may be a while in coming.

As far as advanced practice, that is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Read the advanced practice forums for the varied and many schools of thought on quality of program offerings and competitiveness of entry.

Specializes in Med Surg.

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.

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

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.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

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?

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

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.

Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

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.

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