No jobs for new nurse grads. Recession proof field? I think not!!!!

[inthebrain]

There you have it folks. Anyone considering nursing as a career choice I advise to think twice. Word I am hearing from many people graduating is that the hospitals are just not hiring people. Many of em are laying people off, forcing people into retirment and those elligible for retirement are not retiring cause their spouses have been laid off.

It's really bad out there. Hearing all the horror stories I wonder if the Nurse Shortage really was the same as the dot com boom. Just another overhyped phenomena to keep people buying into the capitalist system. Years ago I heard the nurse shortage was nothing but hype. When I went to school in 2001 many of the teachers were telling the students that hospitals were no longer accepting associate degree nurses.

Now it seems to be all new nurse grads. At least that's the situation in the North East. I do hear that New York is still hiring but the pay still is no where close to meeting the cost of living (Looking at about 60k to start).

Things are really bad and it's a damn shame to see all these people killing themselves for an education that sends them back into Temp jobs and burger flipping. In order to fix this mess radical change is needed and I don't think the politicians are really up to spec when it comes to fixing it. Nor do they seem entirely interested in anything beyond offering platitudes and false promises.

What is it going to take? Probably the same thing it took Nancey Reagan to get on board with stem cell research. One of em is gonna have to go in to the hospital and face a situation where the nurses are so overburdened with patients that they are not able to get adequate care. One of em is probably going to die (though I think this is never gonna happen) from a pulomary embolism or something like that before they get on board.

Of course they will probably blame the nurses themselves for conditions that are out of their control.

It's a damn shame. Folks looking at the economy collapsing alone haven't even hit the tip of the iceberg. The health care system is overwrought with the same unbrideled greed as Wall Street and it's let to complete rot of the system. Think the economy is bad?

The health care system is also bottoming out at a much faster rate. The biggest shame is that the resources are there to fix it (plenty of squandered nursing grads) and nothing is being done about it.

[Lisa0825]

1. We still have a shortage down here in Texas.

The nurse recruiters I used to work with at my last job spent much of their time traveling to other states and to Canada to try to entice nurses to relocate down here.

[WolverineDG]

26. They're bringing them in from the Phillippines & Ireland down here

Nurses make a good living here too.

dg

[Serial Mom]

2. They tend to "replace" RNs with degrees

with medical assistants that have "attended school" for a year and think they can take my blood pressure and pronounce medical terms correctly! Please, I don't mean to hurt any medical assistant's feelings out there, but most just cannot do the job as well as somebody who is more educated (and I've had a few that don't WANT to do the job better!).

And these schools that "teach" medical assistants take $7,000 - $10,000 for tuitiion and give the "graduates" jobs that pay $17,000 - $20,000/year at a clinic that is raking in money from the overcharing to insurance companies who in turn overcharge those people they cover!

ALl part of the health care system!

[Deja Q]

3. At the same time, people need more than the diploma. They need to build the skills.

Only actual jobs can do that. Not volunteer work in some tin pot location. Volunteer orgs aren't quite the same thing as corporations.

I have to wonder, thanks to the greedy at the top, if more and more people are apathetic and don't want to care. :(

[Serial Mom]

6. Of course, they need experience and to feel empathy and caring

towards the patient in order to do a good job.

But with a "required" amount of patients to see to meet the insurance companies' contracts, they have to get patients in/out quickly.

[inthebrain]

5. They aren't doing that around here

I would love it if where I worked hired more assistants. Instead they've cut back (long before this recession even started) and now have the nurses running around like crazy.

Taking a BP is not a hard thing to do. Most people can learn how to do it in matter of weeks manually. I think I learned in about three days.

These days a lot that stuff is done with machines. So it's not like you really have to know how to do it manually unless you get a weird reading. When that happens the RN comes in and takes it manually.

The assistants really are not supposed to do assessments. They can gather vitals but only on stable patients. Everything is reported to the RN as they are still responsible.

[Serial Mom]

10. I am talking about in clinics...

they replaced my doctor's nurse with a med assistant and she could not and refused to take my BP correctly (and yes, this clinic still does them manually and she was NOT good at it). She put me on exam table with my arm hanging down my side and took it that way and when I asked her to take it with my arm resting on table she refused and said they don't do it that way there! I complained to my doctor, she re-took it.

I had more training and practical experience as an X-ray Tech 35 years ago! There is only one RN in the entire Internal Med dept each time I have gone there... and they let all the LPN's go and replaced them with medical assistants. They can gather vitals, but that does not mean they are accurate or care to do a good job - at least the one at the clinic I go to has that attitutde.

[Red State Rebel]

4. They are still begging for them here in St. Louis! n/t

[inthebrain]

9. I know two that might be moving there

One of em doesn't know if they can realisticly take the job. No money to move.

The other one moved up here from Maryland and is upset about being too far away from family. To her it's bad enough living almost an eight hour drive away from family but at least it's possible to get their on a weekend if they have to.

It seems like most of the nurses that are getting trained are right here in the NE. With the way finances are and the prospect of being away from friends and family it doen't look like where there is need and hospitals willing to fill it, they can make the move.

[SoCalDem]

7. Nurses willing to work for $8-10 an hour with no benefits WILL find jobs

BUT..if they need a fair wage, so they can afford to pay off their loans and live a life, they may not find many jobs..

[quiller4]

18. That is less than half the starting pay in Washington. Even the

nursing services pay their temps more per hour.

[CherokeeDem]

8. As A Recruiter For a National Nursing Home Group...

we still have a shortage of nurses and in fact, as acuity of the residents in our facilities rise, we are trying to hire as many RN's as we can instead of LPNs. We, however, except in a very limited number and depending on the facility, do not hire new grads simply because there is less money available in most of our nursing homes to provide the preceptoring necessary to train new grads. Hiring the wrong nurse with limited experience can be worse that having an open position. We also do not differentiate between ASN nd BSN degrees for nurses with the exception of leadership positions where having a BSN can sway a hiring decision. Make no mistake, there is a shortage of nurses but in many of the faculties, especially acute care where nurses are being laid off, it is a shortage of patients rather than nurses. In MI for instance, where so many people have lost their jobs and health insurance, people just aren't going to the doctor. Only in dire emergencies do people go to the ER.

There is a nursing shortage and it is compounded by the lack of faculty to teach...not a lack of people wanting to attend. There is a Labor Workforce group that I worked with in Florida that states by 2020 the national nursing shortage should be at 800,000+. With baby boomers aging and the average nurse is 47 yrs old...this is not going away.

[inthebrain]

12. Even in a bad economy

it I was a new grad right now and my only option was a nursing home I would walk away from the field. I like the speed and immediacy of what I do now and find nursing homes to be too slowly paced.

Also, right now a lot of places want to see that one year of med surge if you want to do other things. A lot of people that I know that went into nursing homes right out of the program wound up leaving because they got pidgeon holed in that job by other prospective employers. Others just got burned out.

A few of em said if they were older they probably wouldn't have minded it so much. A lot of their complaints is in regards to the lack of aids around here.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. They're placing everyone coming out of our school.

The only thing stopping our program from expanding is that they can't find more clinical locations (hospitals that host nursing training-- for the uninitiated).

[CherokeeDem]

14. Clinical Locations are the Hardest Thing to Find...

When I was at a hospital in Miami, I handled operations for all the clinical rotations (I was a clinical microbiologist at one time, not a nurse...didn't handled the clinical portion) and we hosted student clinical rotations on both shifts and on the weekends and still I would get calls from schools desperate for slots. I am now in KY but in KY and FL new grads area being absorbed the acute care facilities...we just don't hire very many new grads in our facilities across the country with the exception of places where the nursing shortage is really bad. The shortage is starting to show up here and we are talking about how to incorporate new grads...just no money in the budget. It is frustrating.

[inthebrain]

15. The new grads here are saying that CT, RI, MA all have

hiring freezes on.

I wish I had the numbers for how many students are graduating here.

Perhaps I'll pass that on to anyone looking. Looks like the midwest is really desperate.

[Alcibiades]

13. We still need nurses in the triangle

Our local paper's help wanted section lists 316 openings for nurses in Durham alone. Plus, unlike in New England, you can actually afford a good house on what they pay nurses down here. And we need more Yankee Democrats to help keep NC blue.

[mwooldri]

23. Good to know, cos Moses Cone is laying off here in GSO.

At least that's what I hear from those in the know.

Mark.

[madrchsod]

16. last fall a major hospital in northern illinois hired nurses from the Philippines

they could`t find enough qualified nurses in this area. my community college has a two year waiting list for their two year degree program.

[quiller4]

17. Every hospital in my community is hiring. One is even offering

bonuses to members of their nursing staff who recruit a new hire.

[etherealtruth]

19. I graduated from nursing school in the early 1980's

There was a nursing shortage then. I worked in the field until the early 1990's (I "retired" to raise my children). There seemed to be a shortage of nurses in Michigan until the 2000's.

The economy here in Michigan is very bleak, with high unemployment and under-employment. None of my friends that remain in the field have "lost" jobs (they've all been in field for 20+) years; however, I do hear talk of hiring freezes.

I would tend to believe a new nursing grad has a better chance of finding employment in my state than most grads (in other disciplines). In my experience, nursing is still a field many educated and experienced people walk away from ... many are holding on for the moment because of lack of economic opportunity.

I don't think the nursing shortage was ever "hype" but I do think economic times are more dire than they have ever been (in my lifetime).

[NC_Nurse]

20. There are plenty of jobs out there. They may not be great hours or the type

of nursing you want or the location you want - that's another issue.

There are still positions here in ATL, they are fewer and many are nights, or other off shifts. It depends on what part of the country you're in.

Still a better chance of a job than most fields, and you can get in with an ADN which is only two years of school. Because there are fewer jobs than in the recent past, new grads will
probably not be accepted in many positions, but that is a good thing, IMO. You need some experience before you start in the ICU or the cath lab. For a while there, they were hiring new grads for ICU's (with a longer orientation) where I worked in NC. That's not necessarily ideal.

The reason things have slowed down is because patients are putting off healthcare because of the economy. So we get sicker patients and we have less staff around to help out. I think
that will change. The shortage is no joke. It's going to get really ugly when half of the nurses out there now retire in the next 20 years.

[w8liftinglady]

29. I agree...with a couple of things you said

New nurses really don't belong in acute areas like ICU.I know because I went into an ICU internship right out of school(in 1984).They usually gave me the "stable" icu patients,but it was still scary.
80% of the nurses I work with are over 40.We are all getting old and tired.As healthcare adm tries to cut our staffing,WE are the ones getting those cushy clinic jobs.We are the ones who have killed ourselves for decades,and now make the sacrifice of money for some peace of mind.

[NC_Nurse]

34. I am definitely tired. I still work PACU, but I'm sure I'll have to move to a less

physically demanding job in the next few years. My knees and back are going and the stress can be really
intense, even if you're experienced.

I graduated in 1986, BTW, so I'm probably close to your age, maybe older. I'd like to move to a low key job, but those are not opening up right now.
Still, you can't say there aren't ANY jobs. They might not be very attractive, but they're out there.

[inthebrain]

38. What makes you think the newer nurses aren't killing themselves?

I've been in the field for about 6 years. To tell you the truth I find the newer grads more pleasurable to work with. Those guys do a much better job of backing eachother up and aren't out to eat each other like the older nurses.

A lot of the older nurses that I met, that are honest, pretty much admit that the people coming out of college now have it much harder than they did. They have a tougher time getting in (A lot of the older nurses claim all they had to do was walk up to the registrar and sign up for the program) and the nursing exams and NCLEX is much harder now than it was. Many states allowed you to take a section of the NCLEX over if you didn't do well on it.

I hated the older nurses when I first started. Although I think being the male on the floor made it easier for me. The shit those nurses pulled on each other I found absolutely disgusting. A lot of games, sabotaging each other and none of em helping each other out. Most of em think that cause they've been in the feild for so long or working on a certain floor for a few years that they are owed something.

The new grads that I run into at my facility are NOTHING like the older nurses who I find petty and out to get each other. I also KNOW for a fact that the reason why a lot of em don't respect the newer grads is because they feel EXTREMELY threatened by them. I'm about six-seven years ahead of a lot them and amazed how much a lot of these guys already know.

[Vinca]

21. Are nurses from foreign countries still being imported?

Insourcing is as bad as outsourcing.

[no_hypocrisy]

22. Hospitals in NJ have been known to send reps to the Phillipines to recruits hundreds of nurses

to bring over here.

[shanti]

36. doctors too

at least, that's what i've seen with kaiser. filipino, chinese, russian, east indian is what you find. american doctors with kaiser who are accepting new patients are like finding a needle in a haystack. i don't give a rat's ass if anyone thinks that's xenophobic either!

[Kitty Herder]

24. My brother just graduated as an RN, top of his class, and can't find a job.

He's getting frustrated and depressed. He was led to believe that nurses could always find jobs.

[DatManFromNawlins]

25. Nonsense.

RNs at the university I went to all have, to a person, 3-4 local offers upon graduation.

Don't blame the economy because people are unwilling to move to an area where they can find a job. The world doesn't owe anyone anything, no matter how hard they worked for a degree.

[inthebrain]

30. Yeah, those damn whiney nurses!!!!

How dare they blame the economy because the nurses aren't retiring becuase their spouses all got laid off.

Lazy fucking bums. How absurd to expect to get a job within 200 miles of where you live.

[grandpappy]

35. RN

I am an RN since 1973. The worst thing that ever happened to our profession is we started to make money. People went into nursing to make money not because they cared. So many new nurses don't want to work shifts or weekends. Wake up people are sick 24 7 not just when it's convenient for you. I have not met or worked with many new nurses I would trust with a pet none the less a human. Everyone wants to be in charge not work with patients. Yes,there still is a shortage in many places with the average age of a nurse in the mid fifties.Nurses also do home care, nursing homes,pediatric long term care, hospice etc. Maybe the new grads need to lower their expectations a little. 60k? I have never made that much without overtime. I usually work a50+ hr week without travel time. No sympathy here.

[uppityperson]

27. Nurses work other places than hospitals.

My local small hospital won't hire me because I don't have recent hospital experience. Even when I did, there were few jobs as minimal turnover. My local public health dept has had 3 openings in 15 yrs. Clinics are possible, as are nursing homes and rehab facilities. There is private duty also.

Work for a lawyer, reading med records. Work in a school. Home health, visiting nurses. Clinical setting like dialysis.

There are lots of different jobs. Yes, many clinics are trying to replace nurses with medical assistants (got one in trouble when their med assistant called herself a nurse. No, simply because you replaced a nurse does not mean you can call yourself one. Hey admin, think of the liability. Hey State Nu Board, etc).

And yes, facilities are short staffing. Just because state reg says something is ok doesn't mean it is safe. Some of us have talked about what will happen if it comes to unsafe working conditions. Our DNS has said will support us walking off/picketing/etc. Decent DNS

It may not be what you want to do, or the shift you want, but seems even here where there are a whole bunch of nurses who have gotten out of nursing, there are jobs for those of us who are now getting back into it.

[w8liftinglady]

28. I think it depends on where you live

most of the hospitals here(DFW area) have multiple positions.One thing new nurses may not understand is that they MAY have to work on the floor,on off shifts,to begin with.Almost all the nurses I know have done some type of med/surg nursing when out of school,usually on evenings or nights.
I'll give you the fact that nurses do not have control of the profession.With few exceptions,they are poorly organized,if at all.

[inthebrain]

31. I don't know where DFW is but....

What I am talking about is actually new grad nurses trying to get that year of med surge in on a floor and not getting it.

This is primarily the North East United States. There are hiring freezes in CT, MA and RI. I haven't heard much about NH and VT but what I'm hearing from a lot of new grads is that it's not even worth the bother. Those states don't pay enough to justify the cost of living or the commute.

Most new students understand that you are gonna have to settle for nights your first year or two (what I'm hearing is that they aren't even getting that).

[w8liftinglady]

32. Dallas/Fort Worth

[DU GrovelBot]

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[CANDO]

37. Dozens of nursing ads in Reading(PA) Eagle's Sunday edition

eom