Your response to "there is a high demand for nurses"

[Ecl09]

It seems like I have been reading a lot of blog posts that continue to quote the Bureau of Labor Statistics report from 2012, stating that between 2010-2020, the RN workforce is estimated to be the top occupation in terms of job growth. The report estimates the number of RN jobs increasing over 700,000. But most of my friends who are currently looking for a position as an RN are having a lot of trouble getting anything. There is a ton of competition.

So I'm curious...are these Bureau of Labor stats accurate in your area? Is there a thriving job market for RN's where you live? Or is it highly competitive? Thanks for your input!

[HarryTheCat, MSN, RN]

It's going to take time for the Nursing market to adjust to the current condition of oversupply. Over the last few years, many nursing schools bought into the "nursing shortage" myth and expanded their programs to accept more students. Other colleges and universities, looking to cash in on the potential influx of new tuition money, started new nursing programs from scratch. The result is that the U.S. is graduating something on the order of 150,000 to 170,000 new nurses every year, while the number of job openings runs around 120,000. These numbers are a bit "fuzzy", since they don't really differentiate between LPNs, ADNs and BSNs, but even accepting the lower number of 150,000 it means that there would, in just three years, be 90,000 new grad nurses who were unable to find work in their field or at the level of their education.

Eventually we should see the market self-regulate, producing either more openings or fewer new grads. Some of the schools with marginal performance will lose accreditation or BON approvals. Prospective students will become better informed as consumers, choosing to stay away from underperforming or overpriced programs. The better schools will become more selective again, reversing some of the "come one, come all" approach to admissions. Unfortunately, until natural market forces reshape the nursing school industry there will be thousands of bright, talented, educated nurses out there struggling to compete in a crowded field of job applicants.

Just my $0.02. Your mileage may vary.

[Cohiba]

My response to that statement usually revolves around making sure that I'm on a soft surface so that when I fall down while laughing uproariously I won't get hurt...