how will health care reform impact the nursing job market?

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I am just curious to everyone's thoughts about the subject -- do you think job opportunities will open up once the major phases of health care reform roll out in 2014? Do you think it will be like in the past where nurses have more freedom to switch specialties and new grads can find jobs easily?

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I don't even know if healthcare reform will ever roll out, and that being said, if it does, no one can predict the future. We can only hope.

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I think the nursing shortage will come back with a vengeance. You'll have the pre retired nurses likely retiring again, those who were delaying finally getting to, and now millions of people who didn't previously have insurance will have it. People will go.to the doctors for EVERYTHING now. They'll need nurses worse than ever, imo.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Our facility is preparing for medicaid changes related to healthcare reform.......their response is no much hiring.............but lots of overtime to be had....people are so tired they often go unfilled because even the agency we use can't find people.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I guess I am the dissenter so far.

IMO, Reform will not result in a net increase in jobs. Maybe there will be more non-acute jobs created, but this will undoubtedly offset by hospitals desperately trying to reign in labor costs by using more non-licensed staff to stretch their existing RN workforce as far as possible.

Healthcare reform will continue to squeeze down reimbursement for acute care services... if hospitals are going to survive, they will have to make the cuts somewhere and labor dollars are the most likely target. If you examine the 'situational reimbursment' models that come in to play it's easy to see what a negative effect this will have. HCCAPS, for instance - will reduce reimbursement for anyone who does meet targeted patient satisfaction goals. There will be no payment for treatment of nosocomial infections and complications that occur while in the hospital. etc. etc. etc.

Face it folks, our esteemed legislators are trying to balance the budget by carving out enormous chunks from healthcare. This is going to trigger a cascade of 'unintended consequences' that no one can really predict at this point. I fail to see how this will increase nursing jobs.

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I don't think anyone can tell you for certain what will happen. There are things that can back up anyone's opinion as to what will happen.

I do however, think that in the next few years to a decade, we are going to see a nursing jobs situation like we did 3 to 4 years ago. I believe the economy will rebound, but even if it doesn't nurses can not work forever and with the average age of nurses being what it is, it is a matter of time, not to mention formerly retired nurses a previous poster mentioned.

Also keep in mind that even with all the fud and panic you read/hear about nursing job prospects being worse than a few years ago (that is true), the nursing field is still better than most other fields, as far as new grad jobs go, in terms of starting pay, security and ease of placement.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I think our health care system is broken. This reform is an attempt to fix it, or at least get it working better. All I can say is AT LEAST SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING. All this fear mongering going on about this legislation is ridiculous.. nothing will ever get fixed in this country if we remain afraid of CHANGE. People cry for change constantly and then when someone attempts to change things everyone gets their panties in a knot. It's insanity.

Will it have a positive or negative impact on jobs or health care in the long run? We can't speculate with any accuracy as nobody has a crystal ball that can see into the future.

All I can say is lets give it a chance! My personal opinion is that it WILL create more health care jobs as more people acquire health care and seek treatment sooner than they would have had it had to come out of pocket. I believe we will see more patients with chronic illnesses visiting the doctor more often to keep their conditions under control.. an increase in patients will probably result in an increase of health care workers.

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I don't see how this reform will be beneficial for nurses in any way. People are already getting free healthcare through medicaid when they walk in the ED. That hasn't created more jobs. And people are still going to use the ED as their primary. Nothing will change, except that our nations debt keeps growing, dollar keeps sinking, and eventually we'll be taxed even heavier in the near future. I hope you didn't buy that no one who makes under 250K a year will see tax increases...

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Specializes in School Nursing.
I don't see how this reform will be beneficial for nurses in any way. People are already getting free healthcare through medicaid when they walk in the ED. That hasn't created more jobs. And people are still going to use the ED as their primary. Nothing will change, except that our nations debt keeps growing, dollar keeps sinking, and eventually we'll be taxed even heavier in the near future. I hope you didn't buy that no one who makes under 250K a year will see tax increases...

First of all- health care reform isn't about FREE health care..

How can you conclude 'people will just keep using the ED for their primary'? That nothing will change? You have no way know knowing that.. It's an assumption based on what?

There are a lot of people who don't use the ER for free health care that will benefit from healthcare reform. These people, who simply don't seek medical care AT ALL will actually start going to the doctor. Utilizing health care instead of suffering it out at home because they can't afford a doctor or hospital bill. Believe it or not.. not everybody will go to the ER with no intention of paying the bill for 'free' health care.

Perhaps if some other sides of the 'coin' would suggest other ways of fixing health care we'd have some stuff to argue about.. but all I see is "Lets give big business huge tax cutes and it will trickle down" as a cure-all for all the nations problems. But hey- that worked so well in the 80s, didn't it?

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.

Two words: RED. TAPE.

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I don't see how this reform will be beneficial for nurses in any way. People are already getting free healthcare through medicaid when they walk in the ED. That hasn't created more jobs. And people are still going to use the ED as their primary. Nothing will change, except that our nations debt keeps growing, dollar keeps sinking, and eventually we'll be taxed even heavier in the near future. I hope you didn't buy that no one who makes under 250K a year will see tax increases...

How many people are getting free healthcare through medicaid?? I don't think it's as many as you think lots of people can't afford Insurance and don't qualify for medicaid and don't use the ED as their primary. I would like to know what your facts are based on because I disagree. I think if everyone had access to afford healthcare the last thing they would want to do is go set in an ED for 5 hours waiting to be seen instead of making an appointment with their primary and being in and out in maybe an hour.

I think the health care reform will open up the nursing market. You will have people going to the Dr. for regular check-ups again, having surgeries that have been put off, and just being able to seek medical attention when sick. .

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Come live by the border...you'll see how many people are getting free healthcare...

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