People really need to stop coming into nursing

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 13, 2015

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.

WOW! You said what I meant to have said, and you said it so much better!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 13, 2015

I agreed with everything else that you wrote but find this to be an odd statement. I would say that none of my friends who graduated with teaching degrees, or went into law enforcement, or any of those other dwindling middle class jobs expected to have to relocate. Why should I expect to uproot my life for a job making around 50k a year? Most of the ARNPs and CRNAs that I know graduate with the expectation that they may have to move, and that makes sense. But as a bedside nurse?

YUP. As a bedside nurse. If there aren't jobs in your hometown, you might have to move (or make a hellacious commute) to get a job. And there aren't jobs in a lot of hometowns right now.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 13, 2015

About 80% of the BSN students I teach have grand plans of getting away from the bedside before they ever reach it.

And when they DO reach the bedside they don't understand why they have to work weekends. Surely the manager didn't really expect them to work NIGHTS (even though that offer letter specified night shift). And they can't possibly work CHRISTMAS! They have seven weddings to attend over the summer, so they can't be expected to work every other weekend. And what do you MEAN I can't have every Sunday off?

dcwang · Feb 13, 2015

@Ruby Vee, personally I don't even celebrate christmas or thanksgiving. i'd be happy to work then after i graduate from nursing school. what's more, there's extra pay.

night shift? i can do what I want daytime

nkgreen1210 · Feb 13, 2015

This may be true in urban areas. There is an actual nursing shortage and the demand on health care will only increase as baby boomers age, especially with about 8,000 turning 65 per day for the next 15 years or so. Many U.S. hospitals recruit nurses from overseas to fill shortages in many geographical areas that have shortages.

Baby Boomers Turning 65 - AARP

nkgreen1210 · Feb 13, 2015

Who are you to say they are not good nurses? I've worked with many for profit college nursing graduates who actually work harder because they get bullied in the work place because of where they got their education.

whofan, ADN, BSN, RN · Feb 13, 2015

Some newer nurses, even the ones I went to school with are trying to get away from the bedside. Being a bedside nurse is hard work, and it is rewarding, and not everything should be about easy money. People in general need to learn that they don't need a new phone every year or more often and that if the car runs then maybe you don't need to upgrade everything. Nursing is being advertised as the answer for everyone. There may be shortages of nurses some places but not all the trendy places that younger people want to live. And it would be really nice to even get a cost of living increase after 3+ years.

Leonardo Del Toro, RN · Feb 13, 2015

There is a perceived notion that ounce you become a nurse you have a guaranteed job. Young people flock to nursing school because they feel it is a safe bet. Although for the moment this is no longer true, nursing still produces a better wage then a lot of other jobs, even if the wages are low. Eventually there will be more jobs and younger people only have to remain interested in nursing. Older people entering the profession (i.e. me) are having more trouble. But with time and patience you begin to build your skills and make a name for yourself, like in any other profession. In the end you should be focusing on others and not only on your needs. That is pretty much a part of becoming a nurse (in my opinion)

b29918 · Feb 13, 2015

The overabundance of nursing schools pumping out new grads is not confined to nursing school. The universities as a whole have been campaigning for decdes that if you don't get a college degree, then you can't be successful while the trades have been hurting for workers. A big trucking company last year had to sell many of their semi trucks, not because of lack of business but because they had too many trucks sitting unused because of the lack of drivers. Then you have Obama pushing a bill for free 2 yrs of college. How about funneling the money towards encouraging high school grads into trade schools? There are too many highly educated college graduates working at Wal-Mart and Starbucks. I am sorry to say that Billy, who barely graduated high school, doesn't want to want to work and just wants to party, should not be getting grants and student loans to go to college for a year to party just so the universities can collect more tuition money.

What in the tarnation does President Obama have to do with any of this??? I am so sick and tired of people blaming the President for every and anything bad that is currently happening. If people even had the smallest clue as to how the government truly works knows that the President doesn't have the power to do all the things people accuse him of. It is very interesting how your manufactured scenario above leaves out key details of the so-called 2 free years of college bill. I am afraid that if anything it is people that post stuff like this the give the profession a bad name and are the cause of any chaos or downfall that goes on. People who post stuff like this are truly mean and hateful at heart, they are the ones who have strong opinions and won't say anything in public or at the workplace but behind closed doors and behind the computer have plenty to say. Just leave The President out of this discussion, geesh!

AspiringNurseMW · Feb 13, 2015

I'm a prenursing student now and I'm oh so glad I found this website. I'm actually going to nursing school with the intention of being a midwife, eventually. I'm dually glad that I found this website AND I moved to North East Pennsylvania where nursing jobs are still available for new grads, even in hospitals. If I had stayed in NYC, I'm not sure what I would have done.

However I do sincerely wish my CC ADN program was more selective, there is an illusion that the program is really hard to get into, but I think it's because almost anyone can apply because the requirements are so lax. 2.5 GPA, only need to pass the entrance exam (no higher score required to apply), the only prerequisite truly required is Math 101, technically everything else, including sciences, can be taking concurrently.

enkwanta · Feb 13, 2015

Good to vent. However, where is your statistics? You should be able to backup all those statements (allegations) with stats. For e.g., nurses salary going down, there is no shortage in nursing. I have friends who make six figure income. Nursing is still a great and noble profession. Do you know that 80% of the healthcare workforce is made up of nurses? Do you know what is predicted to happen in the workforce by 2020 if we continue down the same path? Please look at some stats to support your argument.

Farawyn · Feb 13, 2015

I'm a first semester nursing student. I'm well aware that there is no real shortage, but I can't think of any other field that's doing any better. When I first went to school, it was 2005 and everyone did their song and dance saying everyone should go to college and ANY degree was a good thing to have. Well I graduated after the 08 crash and that was no longer true, if it ever was.
I had a degree in animal science with an equine option, intending to train and breed, but by this point many people had gotten rid of their horses or at least cut way back in their expenses. No more shows means no more training needed and certainly no need to breed when quality horses could be found at half the cost they'd been a few years ago.
So I weighed my options. I would have enjoyed being an elementary teacher, but my sister and husband are teachers and I know all too well what budget cuts have done in that field. Thought about business, but that is a vague field and who knows what you'll actually do with it and it probably won't be very fulfilling.
I love art and photography but again, who is purchasing fine art? And I already earned turning a hobby into a job can ruin the hobby.
So I turned to nursing. Thanks in part to this forum, I have pretty realistic expectations and have an overall feeling of foreboding as to what my first couple years will be like. Still my best option.
Though I look at my class of 70, knowing there are many other schools with classes of similar size, and wonder how the instructors can promise we will all find jobs at graduation?

So, nursing is your 5th option?