Just wondering what everyone's perspective is on this. The average RN is 45 y/o, and shortages seem to be cyclical. Do you believe that over-saturation of the market with new grad nurses will obliterate the long-term shortage? OR..as the economy continues to show signs of improvement (slowly, but surely..it is), will nurses leave the profession like they did before the economy tanked?
This article does a good job of putting things into perspective:
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
the only time i've ever seen foreign nurses in "droves" was several years ago at a skilled facility. apparently we weren't a good enough kind of place for american born nurses to work. with the downturn in the economy, i have too many applications from new grads who know next to nothing and experienced nurses who can't keep up with the pace required.
Just wondering what everyone's perspective is on this. The average RN is 45 y/o, and shortages seem to be cyclical. Do you believe that over-saturation of the market with new grad nurses will obliterate the long-term shortage? OR..as the economy continues to show signs of improvement (slowly, but surely..it is), will nurses leave the profession like they did before the economy tanked?
This article does a good job of putting things into perspective:
Well so far my nursing program (VN) is expected to lose half of our campus, its a smaller school of 30 students. The other campuses' within the college are about 70 and they are also expected to be dropping students possibly more than half.
Scary, but I worked very hard to maintain 95's and above and ended up with only two classes below that (92 and a 89) while most worked only to maintain their grades above 80 which is what we have to have to pass. I have to get a 53 on my med admin final to have an 80%, others have to have 98's and some 100's...our directors said "might as well drop the program because you will not make it" only one did.
Anyway....if more schools were like this then maybe there wouldn't be so many nurses coming out of these programs.
Not sure, at my school all the students seem to think there are nursing jobs all over the country & when I tell them its not a pretty of a picture as they think they wont believe me! lol oh well...I hope I get a job I have a 3 year old & my mother, and my older disabled brother to care for...I am the future for my family so LVN then LVN to RN :) Hope there are jobs for me! lol
What I wish is that, somehow, we can find a way to have a balanced supply and demand of nurses.
Obviously, I don't like the fact that there are too many nurses compared to open positions. That part is self-explanatory.
But regardless of how tired I am of searching for acute care jobs, I do not want to see a crazy surplus either. To me, a surplus would mean that there are not enough people caring for a large, ailing population. It also could mean that not enough nurses stay in the profession long enough, maybe because of unbearable job conditions. A surplus of jobs means that hospitals are chronically on the brink of being short-staffed or actually short-staffed, putting current nurses and their patients in peril. Not really a nice picture.
In my six some years of being around nursing, I have never personally seen a moderate job climate. I entered nursing school at the dusk of the $15k sign-on bonus days and now, well, you know the deal. Different sides of the same batsh*t crazy coin.
I would like to see a happy medium in the near future.
I really did not feel that nursing education was "difficult". I graduated with highest honors. I also have another degree. I really don't believe that "they" just graduate anyone, nursing edu is just like any edu. if you put in the time, I mean really put in the time, you will do well in school no matter what that is.
You might get eliminated by one point from entrance to the college of your choice, but that will be true of all degrees that are in demand. There also is the problem of being upstaged by someone who has connections. The college industry is also big on doing favors... just like when you get out in the working world, your idiot classmate with connections will get that job that you couldn't even interview for.
I don't see a surplus of jobs coming in the near future. They are cutting positions and getting us to do MORE with less staff all the while reminding us that we need to raise our pt. satisfaction scores.
2 nurses have transferred from our department to work other areas and due to budget cuts they won't be replaced.
Just found out at one of the local universities has an average acceptance GPA of 3.0. I think they need to increase that GREATLY.
It takes more than book smarts to be good in any field. Having a B "average" doesn't necessarily mean someone isn't going to make a great nurse.
People talk about how hard it is to get into nursing school and how so many people don't make it out. I wonder what the stats are for the people who stay the course and the ones who fail out are. How do we know the lower end of the GPA aren't doing awesome and the 4.0s aren't the ones failing out?
The concern is oversaturation. Not correlation of Gpa and Job performance. You better believe that if there is oversaturation in any medical specialty they increase entrance requirements and decrease the amount of acceptances. Nursing should follow.
The concern is oversaturation. Not correlation of Gpa and Job performance. You better believe that if there is oversaturation in any medical specialty they increase entrance requirements and decrease the amount of acceptances. Nursing should follow.
If there is an over-saturation in applicants to schools, yes, they'll increase the entrance requirements.. but if a school has enough seats, they'll do whatever it takes to fill them, no matter what the actual job market looks like.. Schools make money off of tuition, they aren't going to cut their class size in half because there is a saturation of nurses... if they are people applying, they're going to fill ever last seat they can.
Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN
20,908 Posts
there is a bill right now...... http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.1929:#
h.r.1929
latest title: emergency nursing supply relief act
sponsor: rep sensenbrenner, f. james, jr. [wi-5] (introduced 5/13/2011) cosponsors (1)
latest major action: 7/11/2011 referred to house subcommittee. status: referred to the subcommittee on immigration