Too many nurses not enough jobs

[DONN]

Where I live, in the Northwest corner of the state we have a problem. There are too many nursing schools pumping out grads that we are now at a market saturation point, and as they say "that aint good". We have 3 schools: with LPN

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

I'm in Northern Colorado, and it's the same story. The local CC has doubled their admissions in the past 3 years. What is ironic, is since they have done that, the waitlist has almost doubled. For example, when I got on the waitlist, my number was 160. I talked to a girl the other day who just got on it and her (waitlist) number is in the 300's! I made a comment that the job market isn't that great for nurses but she says, 'oh, there are tons of jobs (at the local hosp).' Clearly, she is misled because there aren't. There are new nursing programs popping up all over the state, as well. The local hospitals aren't hiring many new grads - it is very competitive. I even worked at the hospital as a tech for 2.5 years through nsg school and when I finished, there were no openings on my unit - they wouldn't hire me even after them telling me they would. I took a job at a LTC and I am glad I did - it may have taken me quite a while to find a position. Even the LTC's don't have that many positions open. The hosp. in the neighboring town has jobs posted - but with each one, it clearly states 'new grads not eligble.' You hear about the 'nsg shortage' but I just don't see it - not where I live, anyway.

[PAStaff06]

I'm sorry to hear about the cost cutting going on up in the Erie area but I can tell you that this is the only part of PA that I've heard of a nursing surplus. Pretty much everywhere else, wages are rising and various incentives are available because there are not enough nurses. Your "problem" appears to be an isolated one. The Governor's taskforce on nurse recruitment and retention says that there will be a need for tens of thousands more nurses in PA over the next few years.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

My mother was telling me the other night that by the year 2009 that there is an estimated 1 million nurse shortage for the US as a whole. (MN is short 79 nurse educators.)

I think that in many ways the increase in the number of nursing students is being driven by the outsourcing of the middle class to China and India. With other types of middle class jobs disappearing people are looking for jobs that can't be outsourced. Health Care jobs fit the bill.

[cshell1964]

Come to Michigan!!!! We never seem to have enough nurses. You can pretty much work whereever you want with loan forgiveness, tuition reimbursement, etc.

[CraigB-RN, MSN, RN]

Hmm. And I was going to ask about ER jobs for an experienced ER Nurse.

[Rexie68]

Hi!

I know this was originally posted a while ago, but thought I'd give my $.02 worth. I think it's sad that the LPN schools are marketing so aggressively and charging outrageous prices. My DON said that the market is flooded and some LTC facilities are using LPN's as CNA's. What a slap in the face to have all that training, owe all that money, and not be able to find a job. However, she said that we're still hurting for RN's. Perhaps acute care is fully staffed, but there are other options. Maybe if some facilities had more RNs on staff, the quality of care would improve?? Anyway, my advice to any prospective student would be to skip the LPN now-a-days....it's just isn't worth the money!:)

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

There seems to be a nursing school on every street corner in Pittsburgh, but there are tons of jobs in the help wanted adds. We haven't reached the oversaturation level yet.

[NJNursing, ASN, RN]

Even if you look in the new grad or first year thread, there's a lot of posts of new grads who can't get hired or are interviewing for months and not finding a job.

My hospital (between Philly and NYC) had 70+ RN jobs about 6 months ago. We're now down to the 40's but more than 25 are per diem, float or part time.

[mummer43, BSN, RN]

I work in the Lehigh Valley, and there are tons of jobs for new grads. I was able to get a job on the unit I wanted without any trouble. I think the pay is too low, however, and isn't keeping up with the cost of living.

[TRAMA1RN]

Problem number 1, many nurses out there who ONLY have diploma or AD degrees would make much better educators than many that have BSN and MSN. All my nursing instructors 10 years ago had no real hospital experience all were degree nurses. I have worked with some terrific super experienced nurses that due to circumstances in life may have only acheived diploma or AD level education, that are wonderful teachers in the field. Sad very sad that a dgree defines you. Some of the nuew nurses coming out have no idea about professional behavior or professional appearance. Nurses are being pumped out at such a high rate with standards consistantly dropping.