I was looking into University of Portland's nursing program, and came across a video about how their nursing school and others in the Portland area are especially difficult to get into because there is no nursing shortage in Portland. Here's the video if you want to check it out:
Where exactly is the nursing shortage? Would these locations be relatively easier to get into? Does the location of where you get your degree matter after graduation?
I agree accelBSN, the nursing shortage is around the corner in terms of time. Give it 2-5 years depending on where in the country one is (average age greatly varies such is true here in the Phoenix area where the average age is much higher than many areas). With the average age of nurses being 44.5 and 50% of nurses stating they wanted to retire 2011-2020 it's only looking upward.
"With the average age of RNs projected to 44.5 years by 2012, nurses in their 50s are expected to become the largest segment of the nursing workforce, accounting for almost one quarter of the RN population. www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763756840" source: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
As you would do when researching any topic, especially one as important as your education and future career, go to a wide variety of sources, and consider carefully whether any one source is qualified to give you a useful opinion. Ask yourself if an institution or association stands to benefit financially based on their interpretation of statistics.
This article is one of the most balanced out there despite the depressing title:
Not necessarily. Many the places with the least nursing shortages have been very, very low on my list of places I would want to live and a lot of the places with shortages were near the top of my list... even when it was only about where my husband would apply for a job because I was staying home with the kids full time anyway.
In my opinion, there is a nursing shortage. It is just simply, not now. It is coming. Given that there are relatively large numbers of nurses that are advanced in age, who are probably considering retiring as soon as they feel comfortable, as soon as they go, there's going to be lots of openings for nurses. That is where the problem lies. In a normal economy, I would imagine that many of the nurses that are currently working and are advanced in age would have retired already. Clearly we are not in a normal economy, so there is probably a relatively large number of nurses that are still hanging on to work because they do not feel comfortable retiring right now. That has the effect of essentially putting a stopper in the normal work process of hiring, career, and retiring.
Once those nurses feel like they are comfortable with retiring, I have a sneaking suspicion that the stopper is going to become uncorked and there's going to be a whole bunch of job openings all at once. There's also going to be quite a few nurses that leave the field because they can't afford to wait for the boom cycle to start. Politics also plays a hand in this because it's often the legislatures that set certain staffing requirements. Once those positions are filled... hiring comes to an abrupt stop and then ideally, a maintenance hiring begins. If nobody quits... well... problem for the new grads.
There is a shortage of nurses but at the same time there isn't.
The "shortage" comes from nurses having to work with limited staff because of budgets - places cannot afford to hire more nurses. In reality, hiring more nurses will be expensive in the beginning but in the long run, it ends up being more cost effective. More staff = less chance of error or potential lawsuits. Employers, however, do not see this. It's a tough market out there for both new grads and experienced nurses because of this.
There are more nurses (new grads and experienced) compared to the amount of jobs available. Nursing schools are constantly putting out new grads and in larger cities, there are often times more than one nursing program putting out GNs more than once a year.
As to where to find employment....I think suburban/rural areas are better than larger city areas because of the reason I mentioned above.
Here we go again. Everyone citing DOL statistics that are based on what is supposed to happen due to population growth, aging, etc. There is something very important missing from these projections - - the actual number of nursing jobs. Nurses don't freelance - we can't really hang out our own shingles... we need to work in a job.
Employers are shrinking the number of RN jobs. They are trying to cope with dwindling reimbursement (due to a variety of causes) and the easiest way is to decrease the labor budget. They are increasing nurse:patient ratios and changing care delivery models to decrease the number of RNs required. Net effect = fewer RN jobs & those that remain are working much harder than before.
The projected increase in NP jobs is based upon the same type of calculations.
Don't believe it until you actually see the job postings.
As you would do when researching any topic, especially one as important as your education and future career, go to a wide variety of sources, and consider carefully whether any one source is qualified to give you a useful opinion. Ask yourself if an institution or association stands to benefit financially based on their interpretation of statistics.
This article is one of the most balanced out there despite the depressing title:
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
One of the Most balanced you've ever seen and written by a news media station?
I'm a bit unclear what you meant by that, but most reporting is done by media of some sort. It's certainly more balanced than the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Media Relations "fact sheet" on the supposed nursing shortage.
Annalyn Kurtz, the reporter who wrote the article got permission from Brian, the creator of this website to gather stories from allnurses members about their difficulties in finding jobs. If you read the article, you'll note she included input from the AACN and Dr Peter Buerhaus as well.
I think at the end of the day job outlook depends on the region that one is in. However, that is is not only limited to nursing, it is the case for many industries. Networking is key to gaining a job these days and grades. There might not be a shortage say in the metropolitan NY area however I know people who were new grads and landed positions at top notch hospitals in the city and other who only could get a job in lesser known hospitals or at a LTC. At the end of the day, talking about the shortage will not make jobs appear for those who are new grads or others who hope to one day enter those ranks. All we can do is do our best.
I'm a bit unclear what you meant by that, but most reporting is done by media of some sort. It's certainly more balanced than the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Media Relations "fact sheet" on the supposed nursing shortage.
Annalyn Kurtz, the reporter who wrote the article got permission from Brian, the creator of this website to gather stories from allnurses members about their difficulties in finding jobs. If you read the article, you'll note she included input from the AACN and Dr Peter Buerhaus as well.
What I meant by it is that news media stations, especially CNN, msnbc, etc are not balanced. They write some good articles and informative at that but again they too are humans and therefore have opinions. Numbers on the other hand are hard, true and factual. If you think they are lying look at how they obtained their statistics; Margin of error, group size, methods, etc and that will prove or disprove the validity of those figures.
In fact Dr. Peter Buerhas says it himself in the article you posted "Demand for health care services is expected to climb as more baby boomers retire and health care reform makes medical care accessible to more people. As older nurses start retiring, economists predict a massive nursing shortage will reemerge in the United States.
"We've been really worried about the future workforce because we've got almost 900,000 nurses over the age of 50 who will probably retire this decade, and we'll have to replace them."
MagicStatic
9 Posts
Think of all the places you don't want to go.