PPACA and Nursing

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Hello everyone,

I'm sure a question of this sort has been tossed around on this website a million times, so forgive me for asking. I just would love someone to reiterate the information in 2014 vs 2012, so I feel like it's still accurate. (Weird, I know)

Anyways,

I'm starting my first year of college in a September. I've always wanted to go into the field of medicine and recently decided nursing was a better fit for me over becoming a doctor.

However, I see all sorts of news stories talking about the PPACA's effect on the field of medicine and I start to ask the following questions:

-Is nursing a decent field to get into? I know that NO job offers 100% job security, but is nursing a better bet than something like...a marketing degree?

-How will the PPACA effect nursing in regards to compensation? (If you have links to articles, yay!)

-From an economical perspective, is getting a BSN better than trudging it out to get a MD in light of the PPACA being active?

Any information for a naive pre-nursing student is much appreciated. :)

I'm extremely lucky to be going to school where there nursing program is tied #1 with a few others. I just want to make the most of my college experience!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

First lesson - the only people in the 'field of medicine' are physicians. The rest of us work in the healthcare industry. LOL Oh, and we refer to those guys as "physicians", because the title "doctor" is not limited to doctors of medicine... there are a lot of us with doctorates.

Anyhooo - as for as the economic impact of ACA - who the heck knows? There are just too many unknowns to factor in. All of those pundits that are claiming that there will be a ton of new nursing jobs??? Don't believe them. We do know that ACA is going to increase demand in preventative (primary care) services and hopefully this will actually decrease hospital admissions in the long run.

So - all of those new jobs are going to be in clinics and community health - traditionally lower paying and frequently filled with non-licensed medical assistant-type staff rather than RNs or LVNs. NPs needed because of the shortage of primary care docs?? That is a likely scenario, but those jobs will be clinic based, and certainly not a road to riches. I just saw a (July 2014) report by the Brookings Institute - their analysis shows that RN salaries increased only 5% from 2009-20012 - & it paints a pretty bleak picture in terms of wages for many different types of health care jobs.

Is nursing a 'decent field'? That depends upon who you talk to & what their expectations & goals are. If it's what you really want to do - it will be great. If it doesn't jibe with your expectations it will be awful. Whatever your decision, please do not incur huge student loans to become a nurse - the financial ROI is simply not there.

Best wishes on your educational pathway - whatever you choose.

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