RN shortage

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Really, do you think there is a shortage of RNs where you live. Have all of the RNs recently graduated found jobs? Is it a ploy to bring in more immigrant nurses???

Yes, my class fell victim of the nearly impossible task of landing something after passing NCLEX in 2011/2012. I'm lived and graduated in Los Angeles. I was fortunate to find a outpatient perioperative job immediately after passing however I was still applying to what felt like every major hospital in LA. Not one call back. I eventually went to Oregon to get the experience I wanted on a Surgical unit.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

There will be a shortage of NP opportunities soon......not of RN ones. And they will have to fight for positions and decent pay. I will stay an RN. Not worth the debt of going to NP school only to find no one is going to hire me and have to work as a staff nurse, anyhow. It's coming....and soon. It's already happening where I live. New NPs not able to find full-time work. (lots of part time jobs with not as many benefits and the pay is not that great to make it worth it) A shame after all that work and debt.

There is nothing wrong with staying an RN. The money can be very decent and I would like to retire in my young 60s without the debt of school (6 figures between the BSN and MSN-NP in many cases) to have to work to pay off til I am over 70.

Someone needs to enlighten these new nurses of these facts before they find out the hard way. There will be lot of RN jobs in the future as folks retire. The profession stands to be rather top-heavy.

Also if they think it will be "easier" work---physically, that may be true but--- NPs I know are putting in 12+ hour days, seeing patients every 15 minutes for 9 hours, only to have to chart for several hours after the office is closed. They are salaried so they work a LOT of hours for a basic salary. Hospital-based NPs have to take call and work very long hours in many cases.

No thanks. When I am done, I am done. I like that.

Life is too short. Being an RN has served me well.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
The biggest shortage here is for surgery RN's, most hospitals are offering bonuses. I had one in the mail last week for $15,000 for surgical RN's...if only.

If only I wanted to move to TX... but my mother would kill me. She had a hard enough time with me moving 1 hour away.

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I've seen 2 different articles w/maps and or bar charts stating that many states have a shortage, but many have a surplus. And my state wasn't rated the same in the 2 charts, so go figure.

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Specializes in Neuro.

The way the schools in my local county are cranking out nurses every semester, I highly doubt we have a shortage around here. I could not help and lol at your immigrant comment, c'mon!

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Depends of many factors.

-There is a shortage of Bsn educated nurses that want to work in acute care in this area.

-There is a shortage of nurses of all levels that want to work in LTC,and this will get even worse as time goes on.

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Rather, many geographical areas have a shortage of RNs who would willingly work in undesirable conditions for noncompetitive pay.

:yes:

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"To me, the problem is unrealistic expectations for floor nurses, short staffing, customer service mentality, high nurse to patient ratios where increasing patient acuity is not taken into consideration"

:up:

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There is no shortage of nurses, only a sometimes shortage of nurses willing to work as nurses. I know all kinds of nurses who don't work as nurses by choice.

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Specializes in Psych/Mental Health.

No shortage, but the job market isn't as bleak as several years ago. I graduated in December in one of the most competitive areas with tons of new grads. Many of my classmates found jobs before or soon after passing the boards in acute care hospitals. If you're willing to work outside of acute care hospitals, there're even more opportunities. I work in inpatient psych and I got a full-time job 2 weeks after I passed the boards, and got 4 offers in total. A coworker of mine has 6 months of RN experience and told me that she gets calls from nursing homes begging for her to work, and said she can easily find jobs in LTC, rehab, SNF, and VNA.

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I think it's really just that nurses don't stay. There seems to be a really high turnover rate. Most of the nurses I work with are young and have only been nurses for a year or so. Most already have plans to leave.

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Specializes in Psych, Peds, Education, Infection Control.
I think that there is a shortage of retention and new grads really knowing what they're getting themselves into...too many Indians wanting to be chiefs...

OMG, if I had a dollar for every time a tech told me, "I could totally do your job," I'd have retired by now, and I'm only in my thirties. Some of them would make good nurses, but I know many more who'd run screaming at the first code brown.

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