What nursing shortage? Not around here...they don't need nurses.

Published

hmmm, is there a nursing shortage?

not around here.

the hospitals around here don't have any openings...

.....of course that might be because they staff bare bones.

i don't know how they get away with it. :uhoh21:

Specializes in Medical-Surgical.
Rep:

Do you know which states do they recruit nurses from your country?

And Steak, which state are you in that there is no new hirings? I heard Minnesota has too mnay nurses now.

I am only taking pre-requisites but after I graduate I certainly will move to any place where I can find a job, no matter which state in US (not Hawaii or Alaska though).

RPH123,

Most recruiters would place them in the east and southern states. In the ads here, most of the states mentioned are in that locations. :)

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Specializes in Cardiac ICU, Med/Surg, Ob/Gyn Onc.

I work in southwest Virginia and the hospital here recruits nurses from the Philippines, Korea and Africa.

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Blamed part of the shortage on the fact that Nursing programs can not hire enough professors to fill the classes. think about it...you go to nursing school...work...get your MSN...work some more...Get your PhD...Now you have two choices...work as an instructor at say $50,000 a year or go into mangament at any hospital at over $125,000...Graduating nurses are making more than the PhD professors that taught them almost right out of school in most areas...

It really comes down to your love of teaching or of nursing. Nursing as it has been mentioned throughout this board is stressful and can burn some out. They go into teaching at any cost. If however you are career (money) oriented you stay in management and make to bucks. Persoanl preference.

As for the shortage. All the research I have done and it was extensive for myself and I helped my wife do a research paper for her MSN led to several facts. Yes the shortage is geographical in nature. In big cities there is a terrible shortage. In NYC for example, right out of nursing school, guarenteeing 2 years of employment you can make $34/hr and get a $7500 sign on bonus. And that is the norm not the extreme.

The big shortage has yet to hit. Research shows that the average age of the nursing professional today is around 50, quite old in comparison to other industries. With the expected increase of need for more nurses with the largest portion of our population "the baby boomer" getting older and needing care along with the large number of nurses retiring in 10 years or less is quite concerning to the powers that be, whoever they are.:)

If you live in rural America, there may not be a shortage but Nationwide the numbers show there is...

And now back to your regularly scheduled program :chuckle

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Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.

I was going through some of my grandmother's nursing alumni books from back in the 40's and they were saying there was a shortage back then, too!

Most hospitals today are a business. They aren't taking care of nurses. I live in NC. The pay is very low. Health insurance cost for me at one hospital is outrageous! There are NO openings in my specialty at that hospital. Turnover at the hospital where I currently work is high because it is a military town and many come and go due to their military status. There is a difference in pay between these two hospitals of $8.00/hr! Competition is stiff. I want to get into Lactation Consulting, but there are no positions currently in either hospital.

I took a 5-year sabbitical from nursing for health and personal reasons and really enjoyed the different jobs I had during that time. However, there was no way I could continue working for such low wages. Right now, I am in nursing for the money (such as it is). I didn't start out that way. It is a real shame that nursing is the way it is.

I really can't afford to move to another area that pays more. Hospitals spend a lot of money to recruit nurses from other areas. Ideally, if hospitals would give incentives for their current staff such as a ladder for CNA's to advance to LPN status and onward to RN status, they may be able to retain staff and thus lessen the "nursing shortage".

Nursing is hard work. We have a lot of responsibilities placed upon us. Unfortunately, God first, family second, and work third does not seem to apply anymore.

Nursing schools are full and have 2-4 year waiting lists. Hospitals are limiting how many new grads they will take in. The only hospital in the city where I work places "ghost" positions to entice nurses from other states, even though there these positions are not available. Hospitals limit how many FTE's they will hire.

In short, there is NOT a nursing shortage. There are plenty of nurses who want to work!

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Not to hijack this thread but: It's always good to include the area so that you can get some comments from others that are in that area, as well as giving others geographical perspective. I know there are many posts like these when I am always curious as to city/state, etc.

Alex

I can also understand folks who do not wish to put personal information of ANY kind on the internet. Some may not wish to be identified. City/State can narrow things down tremendously for those in smaller towns. Information posted can pinpoint a person (or give their coworkers &/or employers a pretty good idea of who they are). This could cause them problems, potentially. Especially if someone disagrees with something they post and decides to make a thing out of it. Those that are comfortable - go for it. Those that are not - Totally understandable.

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I believe a few hospitals are using the nursing shortage as a justification to staff short. "Oh, we would hire more staff if only we could find them."

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I think that crying SHORTAGE, SHORTAGE, SHORTAGE!!! gives hospitals a convenient excuse to recruit foreign nurses to be brought in at a lower rate of pay. It also serves as an attempt to flood the market with new nurses in an effort to make supply larger than demand - which legitimates keeping salaries low. Health care is notorious for manipulating public perception for their own advantage. Remember when antitrust laws were relaxed "for the greater good" (HA!) to allow pharmaceutical companies to merge (Smith, Glaxo, and Kline become SmithGlaxoKline) so that research funds could be combined, new drugs could be developed faster, and the companies could work together rather than against each other, blah, blah, blah. What really came of that? Exactly what the antitrust laws were designed to prevent: rather than having Smith, Glaxo, and Kline competing for business with drug prices, SmithGlaxoKline decides what the price of the med is going to be and that is the end of it. Hence, all the furor over people getting their Rx meds from Canada, where they are cheaper. The big conglomerate is all upset over losing its (illegally obtained if the law had not been relaxed for it) millions of dollars.

I think TPTB are trying to do the same thing to nursing. Just my thoughts, though.

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I believe a few hospitals are using the nursing shortage as a justification to staff short. "Oh, we would hire more staff if only we could find them."

This plays into the equation as well. Everything is about the almighty dollar. Next, they will be trying to dodge culpability in malpractice and negligence lawsuits due to "not enough nurses available" to staff units adequately. It's hooey and they know it. Even if there was an actual shortage in the area (and one must then consider why THAT might be) there are still agency and travel nurses out there. However, you have to offer a competitive rate of pay, or they will go elsewhere. Those places that cry "NO NURSES" are reaping what they sow, IMO. They are just trying to salvage their reputations, and make people think that it is because there really are no nurses out there, rather than that these hospitals are just money mongering.

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I can also understand folks who do not wish to put personal information of ANY kind on the internet. Some may not wish to be identified. City/State can narrow things down tremendously for those in smaller towns. Information posted can pinpoint a person (or give their coworkers &/or employers a pretty good idea of who they are). This could cause them problems, potentially. Especially if someone disagrees with something they post and decides to make a thing out of it. Those that are comfortable - go for it. Those that are not - Totally understandable.

Agreed. Maybe the state would be good enough? I can understand the need for anonymity for some people.

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Agreed. Maybe the state would be good enough? I can understand the need for anonymity for some people.

I'm in Tennessee. At any given time you can look in the paper and see some kind of job for RN's. About the only time you will see ads for LPN positions is when the nursing home places an ad (basically the nursing homes ALWAYS need help and only advertise when they are REALLY strapped for nurses)

Nursing homes here have the best pay by far (start at $13.25/hr) and hospitals are the lowest paying ($10.56/hr to start). Hospitals here are now phasing out LPN's in all areas (except the med. surg floors) and again, the pay is terrible.

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for all you younger nurses, if you are below batcherlors get on the stick and advance yourself...at some point you may be bone tired and want to get off floor nursing no matter how satisfiying you may find it now...as for the phasing out of cna/lpn it comes around in cycles but sometimes there are not enough nurses to staff a hospital...

you are right about the baby boomers nurses are going to be retiring just when their fellow bb's are in the most need of experienced nursing staffs...maybe the smart things for us to do is learn to speak spanish/french or what ever language our caregivers can understand....hate to be screaming chest pain and they give me an enema

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:) Many of the hospitals in north Texas are offering hiring bonuses and there are 3 hospitals in the area that are either being built from the ground up or are adding significant wings. (one is opening an 8 floor tower next year) I don't know how they plan to staff them all but if anyone wants to work in the north part (newest )of the Dallas Ft Worth area there are definitely jobs here.

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