None of you will like what I have to say. But let me kick the hard truth to you. Honestly about 50% of people I talk to are in nursing school or are taking pre-reqs for nursing school. This is a major red flag for several reasons. If you have not noticed, nursing wages/benefits have been on the down trend.
Pension?? goodbye.
Crud 401k 403b plans hello. Raise? LOL "sorry hospital is working out financial issues, maybe next year".
Nevermind if you work for a community/SNF agency. Yet insurance companies, medicare derived/gov agencies, and anyone else from the top 1% will continue to blast the RN as "shortage" in order to drive drones of students into nursing schools pulling each others hair out on the way to land a seat. Proof of this is, let's see (ABSN ***** ADN, BSN, diploma, LPN/LVN bridge to RN programs, RN to BSN) Why do these different routes exist? To flood the RN market as fast as possible to drive the wage, need, and profession into the ground.
Let's look at our oh so loyal CNA's. If you can find one that isn't in nursing school to be a nurse, ask them how much they make?
Look at LPN's 20-30 years ago and look at them today??
Surely the ANA and other organizations treated them with respect. The RN is next, so make sure to support your local nursing agency so they can do nothing for you. So they can be paid off by organizations so powerful that no one can say no and "not have the power to stop a bill". So they can continue to cry nursing shortage when this is not true.
RNs today are treated like children and are required to demonstrate fundamental task and other skills in inservices which were designed for nothing else but cut throat. To place blame of UTI's and poor patient satisfaction on the nurse.
If you are an RN today, your only safety net is to become an APRN if you want to live comfortably but in several decades the APRN will be under attack just like the LPN had been an RNs currently are. "OH the aging population is going to need nurses" You really think so?
Nursing homes are shutting down and now elderly people live at home with "24 hour care takers" that get paid **** wages and do things only an RN should be doing. You don't think so? Wake up.
None of this is to say that I hate nursing. I love helping people who are mentally ill, suffering from dementia, sick, or on their death beds. It is when we do great things for them that my love for nursing shines. There aren't other people standing around to reward you for your great deeds.
When the family comes in the next day complaining about everything, they never had a chance to see how well their dying loved one was cared for. Your good deeds will never be rewarded, but in a safe place in your heart.
I am just here to open the eyes of people who are intelligent and looking for a new career. I think you may find better job security else where. Invest your time in classes and money else where. Nursing is honestly under great attack right now and the future is black.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Passing the NCLEX is a vetting process allowing graduate nurses to enter into nurse practice. It's not enough to graduate a nursing program; you must show you have a basic understanding of a broad set of concepts essential to safe practice.
Think about it: Prospective lawyers don't get 6 or 10 or more tries to pass the Bar. They have standards. So should nursing.
So... let me get this straight, some of you are choosing nursing not because you have the heart of a nurse and want to care for people, but because it seemed like the best choice out of the bad choices. Wow. I predict you will be unhappy nurses who will leave a path of unhappy patients.
Do you really have the right to question anyone else's reasons or motivations in their choice of career? Who granted you the moral authority to do so?
I'm shocked that someone with "the heart of a nurse" could be so judgmental and presumptuous.
.....There would be a shortage if they staffed the hospitals appropriately.
That's what Governor Arnold predicted would happen if the ratios passed in Calif- he said it would make the "shortage" so bad that hospitals would close. The opposite happened.
Many people came from all over to work in CA, and many nurses who might have otherwise left nursing stayed because of the ratios. CA used to have the biggest so-called shortage of nursing in the US, but many say it now has the biggest surplus.
It use to be that a nurse graduate only had 3 attempts to pass boards, when did the NCLEX allow infinite tries?? No other profession allows this so why would NCLEX?
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
It use to be that a nurse graduate only had 3 attempts to pass boards, when did the NCLEX allow infinite tries?? No other profession allows this so why would NCLEX?
It's not NCLEX that's allowing multiple attempts. It the state boards of nursing that are granting candidates multiple attempts until they pass.
In addition, the state BONs and Pearson Vue both generate plenty of money via these multiple attempts because candidates must pay to play. The candidate who takes NCLEX 7 times before finally passing is profitable because Pearson Vue made $1,400 off this poor soul ($200 per attempt multiplied by 7 attempts).
I have been regularly browsing on allnurses and posting, mainly on my state site for the past year or so. I was recently accepted into an ADN/BSN concurrent program (state college partnership with the community college). I decided last year to pursue a career change after working in the field of education for 9 years. Nursing was always an interest of mine, actually the medical field in general was but I really wanted to be able to work one-on-one with patients so nursing really felt like a good fit for me.
Working in education is rewarding in many many ways and I will forever be grateful that I had the opportunity to work in this field, but it is time to move on. For many of these 9 years I have taken countless hours of work home, unpaid, because there wasn't enough time in the day to complete it. Late night runs to Target or the craft store to stock up on supplies that I know we don't have and the school won't buy because it's not in the budget is a common occurrence. Looking at your little sad paycheck month after month, year after year despite having a master's degree and wondering what it was all for when you don't have enough money to pay down your student loans or go on a nice family vacation. Commuting an hour plus ONE way to work because the local "good" school district near your house is impossible to get into. Yes, all these reasons and more make it hard to love what you do after a while when there is little reward for you or your family.
So to the original poster who said people really need to stop going into nursing...I wish teaching were in such demand. Maybe it would have brought that profession to the level it should be held at and I would have stayed. As a future RN I can tell you I can't wait to work bedside, comfort a patient, their family, and make a difference for them. I know it won't be all roses, there will be complaining, poop, mean doctors, long hours, and death. What I do know is that when I received that acceptance letter into the BSN program I knew it was a PRIVILEGE that is not given to many. Working with low income/poor inner city students for 9 years has definitely taught me that. I really hope the RNs I meet will accept this second career future nurse and know that I realize how special this profession is. Don't misjudge us all... many of us have our heart in the right place :)
Specializes in Ambulatory Care, LTC, OB, CCU, Occ Hth.
Guys, we're all nurses here. Regardless of why we chose the profession, we're here in it; the other option is to choose not be in the profession.
I get uncomfortable with the older nurse vs younger nurse/new grad mentality. We are all on the same team with hopefully the same goal of providing the safest care possible. Sometimes people have to get in the thick of it to realize its not for them, and that's unfortunate, but it happens.
A previous poster does have a point, many replies are dripping with bitterness, and that's a shame because nursing is such a noble calling; it shouldn't take our souls and pound them. We have the power to affect our profession and workplaces. Is anyone active in professional organizations like ANA? I encourage students and new grads to make the investment and get involved as much as you can. The collective voice of nurses is powerful and we can make it heard.
I'm discouraged by the job prospects myself, and I'm three years in. I was laid off from my job in a clinic back in November and have been actively searching for work in any facility that is hiring ever since and only just got a promising lead a week ago. And this is in an area deemed "short of healthcare workers." Newspaper articles churned out with frequency about how dire the need for nurses is, and yet a fully qualified nurse goes unemployed. I have experience in L&D; one hospital told me they couldn't hire me for a L&D position because they had a policy that men couldn't be alone in rooms with women in the hospital. That's the kind of thing that irks me, and I hate that so many people are being duped into thinking that nursing is the professional equivalent of the land of milk and honey with endless prospects because it isn't. I've never had to work so hard to find a job in my life, and I am grateful for what I can get.
Specializes in Tele/Interventional/Non-Invasive Cardiology.
Guys, we're all nurses here. Regardless of why we chose the profession, we're here in it; the other option is to choose not be in the profession.
I get uncomfortable with the older nurse vs younger nurse/new grad mentality. We are all on the same team with hopefully the same goal of providing the safest care possible. Sometimes people have to get in the thick of it to realize its not for them, and that's unfortunate, but it happens.
A previous poster does have a point, many replies are dripping with bitterness, and that's a shame because nursing is such a noble calling; it shouldn't take our souls and pound them. We have the power to affect our profession and workplaces. Is anyone active in professional organizations like ANA? I encourage students and new grads to make the investment and get involved as much as you can. The collective voice of nurses is powerful and we can make it heard.
I'm discouraged by the job prospects myself, and I'm three years in. I was laid off from my job in a clinic back in November and have been actively searching for work in any facility that is hiring ever since and only just got a promising lead a week ago. And this is in an area deemed "short of healthcare workers." Newspaper articles churned out with frequency about how dire the need for nurses is, and yet a fully qualified nurse goes unemployed. I have experience in L&D; one hospital told me they couldn't hire me for a L&D position because they had a policy that men couldn't be alone in rooms with women in the hospital. That's the kind of thing that irks me, and I hate that so many people are being duped into thinking that nursing is the professional equivalent of the land of milk and honey with endless prospects because it isn't. I've never had to work so hard to find a job in my life, and I am grateful for what I can get.
Tell it like it is. I have been an RN 30 years and have seen great changes in the profession and it is not good. Older nurses are being nudged out of the profession to make room for new nurses who can be molded to the business model hospitals are projecting. The new ones are so glad to have a job they will go along with anything administration says because they dont know any better. Nursing is not what it was and has been.. I am lucky to be able to walk away from unsafe jobs because the managers really dont care about the nurses..just satisfying their bosses, keep the QA numbers up, the patients happy and the revenue rolling in. Dont spend the time and money going into nursing, pursue something less physical and mentally taxing. I am done.
Here are my thoughts on this hotly contested issue.
1. The lowest-quality nursing programs need to be closed.
2. Nursing needs to do a better job of controlling the numbers of new entrants into this profession. Other health professions such as medicine, physical therapy and speech language pathology maintain tight control over the number of people who enter those occupations.
3. Nursing needs to implement slightly higher barriers to entry. Moreover, entry requirements should be standardized and consistent across the country.
4. Nursing needs to adopt limits on the number of times that candidates are allowed to repeatedly take NCLEX. You cannot pass after 10 attempts? Step aside, please. Aspiring attorneys are not permitted to keep retaking the bar exam as many times as they want, and I think nursing needs to follow that model.
5. Nursing is one of the few professions that produces large numbers of graduates who feel entitled to employment in their hometowns. Meanwhile, graduates who enter other professions keenly expect to relocate to land their first jobs.
Overall, I predict the glut will continue to worsen. The powers that be expect all 'older' nurses to drop out of the workforce in the next decade, but real life simply does not unfold in that manner.
THIS!! Nursing is absolutely horrible in controlling numbers. If you look at the numbers of students in nursing school, it has nearly doubled in the last ten years alone. For nurse practitioners, it has gone up 132% in the last FIVE years. With schools for both professions popping up on every corner and online, it's impossible to keep the numbers in line. I'm sick and tired of ANA and other organizations crying nursing shortage. There's no shortage anymore; we're in a surplus right now. It just seems like it because the hospitals refuse to hire more in order to keep in budget. In order to be considered professional, the nursing profession should act professional and get their act together. It's a hot mess right now.
Allowed to take the NCLEX 10 times? Would never happen in a lifetime for a lawyer or engineer.
Leonardo Del Toro, RN
1 Article; 730 Posts
Passing the NCLEX only means that you are good at one thing: passing the NCLEX. That would be cruel