U.S.A. California
Published Feb 22, 2009
scootersuz, ASN
20 Posts
I just spoke to the woman in charge of the wait list for the Shasta College Nursing program in Redding and they now have over 260 people on the wait list on their program. She said it was a four year wait and had jumped from 2.5 years to 4 years in the last six month plus it will be longer in about two weeks when they add the new applicants. I asked if this was a realistic wait length based on the fact that many of these people may get accepted elsewhere and she said it was pretty accurate based on their past rate of enrolling students on the wait list.
I then called the area hospitals in Redding and they are no longer hiring new nurses and will may start laying off people. I dont get it. Its not as though fewer people are needing medical care.
It really seems as though the nursing shortage is over. My brother whom has been a nurse along with his wife who is a Nursing Manager said that the nursing shortage was over long ago and that it is all hype so that there is no where near the shortage they once had and with a glut of nurses looking for work they could better control pay rates.. I did not believe him but is sure seems that is the way things are going. As a Pre nursing student it seems that every other person at my local community college is a pre nursing student.
MBA2RN, BSN, RN
95 Posts
I think the only people still hyping the nursing shortage are the nursing school administrators collecting tuition checks from the hordes of students reaching for the brass "RN" ring.
Quel19
26 Posts
Yeah the waitlists to get into nursing school is pretty ridiculous. Last month I emailed a lady at the Yuba college nursing department to make sure they received my nursing app. She told me that she did and that there was also an anticipated four year wait.
I talked to a counselor at my school who helps with the nursing apps for sac city, she said they received over 800 applicants for fall 09.
Just two days ago I also turned in an app for sf city and I was the 485 person to turn it in. I also went to napa recently for an orientation to obtain an application. OMG the room was filled up! People were lining up all around the room shoulder to shoulder I could easiy say there was about 200 ppl there.
I have to admit the process of getting into nursing school is so discouraging and depressing. It's like all I can depend on is getting into a school with lottery. Even with that most people say it takes them about 2 yrs to get in.
gerry79
594 Posts
The nursing schools are trying to cash in before people realize there is no nursing shortage, and there are no nursing jobs available. The nursing shortage ended about 2 years ago. now there is a nursing glut that will get worse becuase of the illusion of plentiful nursing jobs. I live in Boston and there are 5 city hospitals and about 15 nursing programs in a 15 mile radius of those said hospitals graduating hundreds of new grads a year. There are just not enough jobs to support all of the new grads coming out twice a year. Nursing was the "recession proof" profession every one flocked to, now it is just like the other jobs devistated by the bad economy.
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
There are nursing shortages in other states, such as Wisconsin and Iowa and they are hiring new grads.
What many of you do not realize is that CA actually put quite a bit of money towards training new nurses with the anticipation that the Baby Boomers would soon be retiring, but with things that have happened with the economy; that just is not happening. And with the unemployment numbers hitting hard, those that were working just their regular hours or even part-time went to full time to cover expenses when their spouse got laid off.
It cost considerable amount of money to train a new grad; there is the expense of the nurse educator at the facility, the preceptor who also gets premium pay for the preceptor role. As well as all of the time that the new nurse is on the payroll until they can count in the numbers and be on their own. You are talking of well over the $15,000 range in most cases, if not even more.
If a hospital has a need and can bring in a nurse with several years of experience they are going to do that and save the extra money. Medicare is a large payor to hospitals and we are expecting to see more cuts come. This will again change things.
People lose their insurance if they lose their job. So they are not going to go to see a doctor until things get that bad. Numbers are just down in many hospitals as well. Next issue is that even the Bay Area has a very large number of nursing schools and a large number of graduates that cannot find work as well. It is not just the North Bay that is being affected. We are also seeing new grad programs that were supposed to start the beginning of this month of the beginning of March already get cancelled; and there were new nurses expecting to begin working.
If you are willing to go to other regions out of state, there is work. In-state is going to be another story. Many thought that nursing would always be recession proof and it is not. It is better than many other fields, but not infallible.