Will the Economy for Nursing turn around in the next few years?

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Sep 23, 2010

Honestly, I have my doubts as to whether there will be a change for the better - as far as the availabilty of nursing jobs is concerned. IMO, the whole idea of a 'nursing shortage' is based on faulty assumptions -- that there should be some magical ratio of nurses per population or per number of patients. The problem is - all our assumptions are driven by historical information, and there is no precedent for what is going on now.

No one seems to be factoring in the (very clear) fact that hospitals and other providers are going to be forced to make even more significant changes in order to stay afloat.... and decreasing the labor budget is going to continue. So - unless there is an dramatic improvement in reimbursement, my guess is that (despite research to the contrary) RNs are going to be working with more and more unlicensed and assistive personnel to deliver patient care as labor budgets are squeezed down even more.

Maybe the smart organizations will take a hard look at what nurses do and remove some of the non-nursing junk. Maybe technology will actually live up to the hype and reduce the massive clinical documentation burden & decrease the number of people needed to manage billing. Maybe health care reform will reduce the uninsured/indigent drain on hospitals so that more money is available for staffing. Maybe the public will wise up and stop suing providers for frivolous reasons so the money it takes to defind thse cases will decrease . . . etc.

That's a lot of maybe, isn't it? My point? The horrible nursing job situation is the end result of a very complex situation and it doesn't look as though any of those underlying reasons is going to improve any time soon.

itsmejuli · Sep 24, 2010

I gaze into my crystal ball and see :tinkbll: