RN shortage

[lee1]

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???

[Ellie G]

Coming out of nursing school with $200K in student loans is just ridiculous. Totally not necessary for a quality education. Work through school. Yes it is possible. I worked full-time out of necessity and graduated with a 3.9. Would I want to do it again? Heck no but I paid off the small amount of loans I had by working another part time job for a year. Every cent of the money I made from that job was paid on my loans. I worked with so many nurses paying $800 per month on loan payments. No wonder they were stressed.

[Psychtrish39, BSN, RN]

Exactly.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I came out of nursing school-ADN with less than $10K, I got tuition reimbursement when I got hired and then I did my RN-BSN at a state school that cost less $5k and am now getting tuition help with my masters AND they will help with DNP. I am going all the way to a DNP with way less than $200K in loans. And this is a top tier teaching hosp/university.

[dvrn49]

I don't really know if there is a nursing shortage but I know that senior nurses are losing their jobs. I have been a nurse for over 35 years of experience,but was forced out. Medicine today is all about money. Why pay a nurse with seniority when you can pay a new grad half of what an experienced nurse gets paid?

I had been with the hospital for over 28 years. My life at work was made so miserable that I agreed to retire. Would love to work again,but at my age I'm sure that it will be difficult to obtain a job.

Anyone else experience this or know someone who has.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[lindahartford]

I loved my job in the trenches for 53 years. I'm not sure you know what you are missing. When I turned 70 Social Security gave me a hefty raise I didn't know anything about. Nice but I still had a couple more years in me. After 2 years of retirement (it was great, I read every book I hadn't had time for in the previous half a century) Now I'm back in the conversation. I've written my first book

and heading for the second. Try the trenches, you might like them.

[lindahartford]

Yes. They deliberately short the staff on every unit and tell you to "Do the best you can."

How many times have you heard that?

[klone, MSN, RN]

The "shortage" is a fake mantra. My daughter's friends could not find work even with an MSN

She had to move to find something.

Well, yes. There's work, but you may need to move. So sounds like she did find something?

[klone, MSN, RN]

I also think that many nursing schools (including my daughters) live the lie by telling people there are jobs

They charge $50,000 a year

The average kid gets out of there with 200k in loans

There are many nursing programs that aren't from private universities, at which tuition is $20,000 or less per year. I would say that if someone is graduating from nursing school with $200k in student loans, they're doing something wrong.

[IrishCMSRN, BSN, RN]

All I know is that new grads cant get jobs and they are laying off experienced nurses left and right here in PA....

[PANYNP]

In 2012, Peter Buerhaus and colleagues published an article in NEJM on nurse staffing and the "nursing bubble".

Their premise was that there is not a shortage of nurses, as Thecommuter, not.done.yet, Deeangel, and others have noted, but rather there is a shortage of nurses who are willing to work as nurses.

An example Buerhaus et al. use relates to regional circumstances in which a major employer has layoffs or shuts down. The head of household may become unemployed for a while (or longer), and the spouse, who is a nurse, returns to full-time work for an interval to support the family. When the main breadwinner's employment situation is restored or improves, then the nurse spouse leaves full-time employment and quietly blends back into the previous household and family role.

My students here in Western New York understand this by considering situations of work furloughs at Kodak or Xerox, which may create regional economic upheaval (food and gas prices; slumping car sales) for a period of time until nurse spouses are up and running in hospital and clinic jobs.

What also had been observed in our region is that a percentage of these furloughed workers apply to associate degree nursing programs or accelerated BSN programs, based on their prior educational background. We often encounter former chemist, engineer, and manager applicants to our accelerated program.

Anyway.

On another note, we do see a wave of immigrant nurses every few years from Ukraine, Germany, Ireland, and the Philippines. This does seem to be more prevalent downstate, though, in NYC hospitals.

[PANYNP]

I guess it depends on where you are; I have seen jobs posted for months and longer, that people applied for, that qualified for, but somehow, no one ever hired.

Suspicious to me.

My hospital, a large academic medical center, actually does not post all the available nursing opportunities.

Nurse Recruitment operates under the assumption that it "looks bad" or "unsafe" if the population in the surrounding metro area can perceive that the hospital is short-staffed of nurses. (Which it is, chronically).

Safe to say that it is a good idea to call or email Nurse Recruitment at a hospital where you're interested in working. Availabilities seem to be fluid and change on a daily/weekly basis.

[fezz]

Yes everybody I went t school with found jobs quickly. There seem to be a flow of jobs. Not sure I'd call it a shortage here where I live but no one should worry about getting a job. May not be the dream job at first. What we do have is a shortage of doctors