Press Release - allnurses Survey Says Nurses are Bullish on the Industry Outlook

What do nurses think about the outlook of the nursing profession? What they wish the public knew about their job? We wanted to find the answers to these and other questions. Thanks to our members who participated in a survey, we now have the latest results of what real nurses think. Read to see what you think about the first results to be published. Nurses General Nursing Article

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New Survey Says Nurses Are Bullish on the Industry Outlook and Encourage People to Enter the Field

EXCELSIOR, Minn., Aug. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A survey from allnurses.com, the largest online networking and support site for nurses, reveals that the majority of nurses (74 percent) think the job outlook for the nursing industry is positive. Nearly three quarters of respondents (72 percent) would recommend that a person go into the nursing field, and the overwhelming majority (82 percent) believe that the nursing industry has a positive perception in society today.

"There are many misperceptions about nurses, the role they play, and the industry overall," said Brian Short, Founder of allnurses.com, and a registered nurse himself. "These survey results - which are quite positive - provide a more accurate and up to date look into what nurses think, and indicate areas where patients and nurses can work more closely together."

Of particular importance, said Short, is the critical role that nurses play in serving as the patient's advocate. He encourages patients and their families to talk to their nurses as they are the closest to the patient and work hand in hand with doctors to deliver the best and most appropriate care.

Forty percent of nurses said the single biggest challenge they face today is the nurse-to-patient ratio. Nurses want to spend more time at the bedside, but administrative duties and having too many patients can keep them from doing so. Nurses also believe that patients and their families are confused when it comes to knowing the role nurses play vs. that of physicians, with less than 10 percent of nurses thinking that patients understand the difference.

When asked what makes an ideal nurse, respondents ranked knowledgeable, compassionate and patient advocate as the most important characteristics. Gallup polls show that nurses are consistently ranked the highest among other professions for trustworthiness and credibility.1 When nurses were asked to weigh in on which hospital TV shows most closely resemble "real life," it was a close race among the long-running ER and Grey's Anatomy hospital dramas and the more recently launched documentary-style program, NY Med.

More than 1,600 nurses and registered members of allnurses.com completed the survey, with the majority of them (47 percent) working in hospital settings. Recent estimates show that between 2008 and 2010 there were approximately 2.8 million registered nurses (RNs) and 690,000 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in the United States.2 Registered nurses are the largest sector of employees in the healthcare industry.3

 

ABOUT ALLNURSES

Founded by Minnesota Registered Nurse, Brian Short, allnurses.com is the leading networking site for nurses and nursing students. For nearly 20 years, allnurses.com has been the collective voice of the nursing community, supporting the profession by providing a place where nurses can network, share, and learn from each other. With an ever-growing community of more than 825,000 registered members, allnurses.com is the go-to place to communicate and discuss nursing, jobs, schools, NCLEX, careers, and so much more. For more information, visit allnurses.com.

1Honesty/Ethics in Professions. Gallup. Honesty/Ethics in Professions | Gallup Historical Trends. Accessed August 8, 2014.

2The US Nursing Workforce: Trends in Supply and Education. Health Resources and Services Administration. National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, April 2013. Accessed August 8, 2014

3Occupational Employment Statistics. Employment and earnings in selected healthcare practitioner and technical occupations and healthcare support occupations, May 2008. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed August 8, 2014 Health Care: BLS Spotlight on Statistics

Official Press Release: New Survey Says Nurses Are Bullish on the Industry Outlook and Encourage People to Enter the Field

Many thanks to all of you who participated in the survey!! What do you think about the results? Are you surprised? How did your answers compare with the results?

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

For those of you who have given constructive comments, it is noted that although more than 1600 members participated in this survey, perhaps email is not the best way to contact everyone. I am sorry you were unable to participate.

Also....as most people are aware, not only from posts on allnurses, but in life in general.....you can't please everyone....and not everyone is going to agree. And...... those allnurses members who participated in this survey are not dumb.......just because they happen to have a different opinion and outlook. Some folks are more optimistic than others.......who are notedly pessimistic.

Although I may personally be surprised by some of the results, I am thankful that people were willing to develop, administer, and analyze this survey.

Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, PCU.

After reading many threads on this website about negative perceptions of nursing, burnout, inability to find work, workplace issues, understaffing, lack of respect, et cetera -- and the numerous posts that follow in discussion -- I find it hard to believe that 72% of this community would recommend it as a job. Lies, damn lies, then statistics.

I think using the word "bullish" may have been a bit much.

in the survey, participants were given a choice between "good" or "poor" when asked to rate the job outlook for nurses.

I don't necessarily equate "good" with " bullish". And perhaps some other options like "decent" or "improving" or "not what I expected" would have painted a more nuanced image of how members feel about job outlook.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
After reading many threads on this website about negative perceptions of nursing, burnout, inability to find work, workplace issues, understaffing, lack of respect, et cetera -- and the numerous posts that follow in discussion -- I find it hard to believe that 72% of this community would recommend it as a job. Lies, damn lies, then statistics.
I think that there are many nurses that may be unhappy with certain aspect of the job but I don['t think it's a stretch that a majority would recommend people being a nurse after a fair warning about the realities of nursing.

I think there are a few that went into nursing with expectations that were not realistic. There has been a lot of propaganda out there about the nursing shortage, "make your schedule", and that nursing is a path paved with gold. When in reality it is a hard back breaking job with very little control but being responsible for everything.

For me...sure beats the food service industry and the hourly pay is better.

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

While I think several of the questions could have been better worded or at least have more realistic options (as Brandon suggested above). I personally did not take the survey seriously when asked to chose the tv series that most accurately reflects nurses. Greys Anatomy rarely shows working nurses, if anything they are seen and not heard. Private Practice had a APN/CNM who was killed off tragically. I think I saw a nurse once on House. I've never seen Nurse Jackie as I don't subscribe to Showtime. None are accurate depictions of nurses or medicine as they are fantastical tv shows designed to entertain.

Even with 1600 responses the questions steered toward creating bias, especially with limited options to choose from. Nothing in life is all or nothing. Apparently even death can be dead but not really dead as evidenced by the brain death cases in the news over the past year.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
While I think several of the questions could have been better worded or at least have more realistic options (as Brandon suggested above). I personally did not take the survey seriously when asked to chose the tv series that most accurately reflects nurses. Greys Anatomy rarely shows working nurses, if anything they are seen and not heard. Private Practice had a APN/CNM who was killed off tragically. I think I saw a nurse once on House. I've never seen Nurse Jackie as I don't subscribe to Showtime. None are accurate depictions of nurses or medicine as they are fantastical tv shows designed to entertain.

Even with 1600 responses the questions steered toward creating bias, especially with limited options to choose from. Nothing in life is all or nothing. Apparently even death can be dead but not really dead as evidenced by the brain death cases in the news over the past year.

TV shows are fantasy. Nursing is reality. It scares me that so many people don't get this and that there are some who are willing to perpetrate the myth that real-world nursing is just like Grey's, ER, Nurse Jackie, ​etc.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

That question alone (about the TV shows) made me feel like the whole survey went from trying to be professional to becoming simply a caricature - I can't imagine a professional survey (and subsequent article) given to physicians would have such questions that would make you think it's something out of People magazine.

Why should we expect the general public to take us seriously as professionals if members own profession would think that Scrubs or Nurse Jackie (sorry, not even going to deign to mention Grey's Anatomy or House - there aren't even any nurses depicted on that show!) is an accurate depiction of our profession.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
That question alone (about the TV shows) made me feel like the whole survey went from trying to be professional to becoming simply a caricature - I can't imagine a professional survey (and subsequent article) given to physicians would have such questions that would make you think it's something out of People magazine.

Why should we expect the general public to take us seriously as professionals if members own profession would think that Scrubs or Nurse Jackie (sorry, not even going to deign to mention Grey's Anatomy or House - there aren't even any nurses depicted on that show!) is an accurate depiction of our profession.

What Klone said. I do remember a survey that I started to answer, but upon being asked about TV shows, I ditched it. I thought that any survey that made reference to nursing and television shows could not possibly be a serious effort or a valid instrument of measurement of nursing satisfaction/opinion.

S.I.G.H. It's out there now, poised for Yahoo's feed and all those for-profit nursing "schools" to use in their publicity blitzes. Just like the nursing "shortage"......

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
What Klone said. I do remember a survey that I started to answer, but upon being asked about TV shows, I ditched it.

That's exactly the same thing that happened to me. I started completing it, and then I got to that question, and I thought "What the what?" I don't even watch most of those shows anyway, and how the heck am I supposed to answer that? And then I just exited out of it.

Specializes in critical care.

TLC's next reality series: Nurses.

Lately, I feel like my unit might have enough drama on it to pull this off.

Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

I value my privacy and anonymity on this site. For that reason, I can not list the hospitals that I know of that have positions for new grads and experienced RNs.

I would like to suggest that a moderator or administrator open a thread called Employment Opportunities from Our Members.

We submit the facility name and location and information about

the position or positions available, new grads or experience preferred, nurse patient ratio, working conditions etc. to the moderator via a private

message and that person posts it for job seekers. Perhaps limit submissions to active memmbers in good standing.

Fellow nurses, what do you think? Could this work?

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I value my privacy and anonymity on this site. For that reason, I can not list the hospitals that I know of that have positions for new grads and experienced RNs.

I would like to suggest that a moderator or administrator open a thread called Employment Opportunities from Our Members.

We submit the facility name and location and information about

the position or positions available, new grads or experience preferred, nurse patient ratio, working conditions etc. to the moderator via a private

message and that person posts it for job seekers. Perhaps limit submissions to active memmbers in good standing.

Fellow nurses, what do you think? Could this work?

That is an excellent idea!

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