43% of New Nursing Students do not have jobs.

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Koolcypher, Jan 14, 2013.

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  1. Koolcypher

    Koolcypher Member

    Interesting article: 43% of new nurses can't find work. :bigeyes:

    How the heck is this happening? I thought we were facing a critical shortages of nurses in this country? My local hospital--when I was living in Hawaii--at one point was recruiting nurses in the Philippines and Vietnam. Makes you wonder what career is "recession-proof" these days.
     
  2. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    The article explains it. Older nurses are staying in the workforce longer, so employers don't have to hire the inexperienced. Also, it seems like everyone and their mother is going for a nursing degree.
     
  3. Koolcypher

    Koolcypher Member

    True, however, I thought that the demand was so high that basically you had a job upon graduation. It seems that many of these students--whether right or wrong-- had the same thoughts as well.
     
  4. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    I'm not shocked that new grads are having trouble finding jobs, but I am shocked by the 18 months. On average, it is taking new grads 6 to 12 months to find a professional job after graduation. As you said, a lot of people went into nursing because they thought it would be easier to find a job. I think it does help, however, to have a BSN instead of just an ADN. I've heard that some hospitals are looking to only hire BSNs.
     
  5. pfelectronicstech

    pfelectronicstech New Member

    Or you can look at it with the glass half full instead of half empty by looking at it this way, 57% are employed.
     
  6. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I like your attitude young man!
     
  7. pfelectronicstech

    pfelectronicstech New Member

    Thanks I try to look at things that way most of time.
     
  8. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I heard one nurse saying that there is definitely a nursing shortage, but the shortage is in experienced nurses. She told me that there are too many new nurses that nobody wants to hire. Health administrators are looking desperately for nurses with experience. I can understand that bias to some extent when the health of patients are in their hands, who would want to be cared for by a noob?
     
  9. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I work in a 700 bed hospital (considered a very large facility by healthcare standards). I am going to ask around and get the hiring managers opinions.
     
  10. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Some say the glass is half-full, some say it's half-empty. I say it's two times larger than is necessary.:newangel:
     
  11. pfelectronicstech

    pfelectronicstech New Member

    Whew, right over my head!
     
  12. NMTTD

    NMTTD Active Member

    But if no one hires the noobs, how will they ever get experience? Seems like a pretty nasty cycle to me. Hiring managers want nurses with experience but can't find any. Noobs want a job to get experience. Hiring managers won't hire them because of their lack of experience and noobs can't get experience because no one will hire them. OUCH.
     
  13. nmesproject

    nmesproject New Member

    They should stop importing poorly educated nurses from India and other fourth world countries.
     
  14. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I absolutely agree. It is one of the conundrums of life; you can't get hired unless you have experience, but you can't get experience unless you are hired. I expect it's because they don't want to go to the trouble and expense of training noobs.

    It was exactly that same way getting into the teaching profession for me many years ago. Took me several years after earning my credential to get in.
     
  15. rebel100

    rebel100 New Member

    In my area there are still more jobs than nurses, there are two areas I would comment on though.

    For one I have seen a rise of the for profit nursing school, nothing wrong with this...but they seem to take the students that cant qualify for the more traditional programs, they run their practical components in a loose manner, and they seem to turn out nurses that require a great deal more new hire training than a graduate of the more traditional programs. I can understand these nurses having a harder time finding work...they simply aren't as qualified. As the recruiter these are the least desirable of all the nurses I could hire. Students should understand the difference going in. In contrast, there is a hospital based school in town that is very competitive to enter. But if you can gain entry and finish there is a job waiting for you at the end...you gotta be careful and thoughtful where you go to nursing school.

    There is also a sense among students to think they will be stepping into their dream job on nursing school graduation...as in most fields...this just isn't reality. There are plenty of jobs in nursing homes, med surge floors, and other "entry" oriented positions. The oncology ward, the ER, and the flight team all want a more seasoned nurse. This doesn't reflect o shortage of RN jobs, but rather a selectivity among some nursing positions.
     
  16. Koolcypher

    Koolcypher Member

    I think you hit a major point here, it all boils down to where you went to school; for-profit, non-profit, private, public, and so forth. This situation is very similar in the financial/consulting field. These industries only recruit from certain schools, so if you are an MBA grad from a no-name school, you will not break into the financial/consulting world no matter how well you performed in business school. Same with these new nursing students, why would a hospital/health care facility hire someone from a lesser-known school when there are quality graduates from more established programs available? I think prospective students should ask their target schools for placement statistics before enrolling in a nursing program.

    Just for curiosity, I did a simple search of nursing programs around my area (Miami, FL) and I was able to obtain a list of 13 programs. The majority of them from lesser-known for-profits, in addition to well established programs from the local colleges. So if I'm a hiring manager, would I hire someone from University of Miami, FIU, St. Thomas University, Barry, Nova or for-profits? I think the majority of these folks (hiring managers) would hire from more established schools first. However, this is just my opinion, as I don't have any data to prove this, however, this should make for an interesting survey.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 15, 2013
  17. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    Must be a regional thing. My sister went back to school to get her RN license, and she'll finish in May. She's already had job offers, as have several of her peers in the program.

    -Matt
     
  18. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Traditional B&M schools have historically been criticized for being slow to adjust to market demands. Here's an example, for Bachelor's degrees in "health professions and related sciences". I believe these are primarily nursing degrees (you can see that most are awarded to women). First, look at some historical numbers:

    1982-83: 65,642
    1992-93: 68,434
    2002-03: 71,261

    That's 8.5 % growth over 20 years. Not very much.

    *****

    Now, look what's happened since then:

    2003-04: 73,934
    2004-05: 80,685
    2005-06: 91,973
    2006-07: 101,810
    2007-08; 111,478
    2008-09: 120,488
    2009-10: 129,634

    That's 82% growth in just 7 years -- far more impressive. There was growth of 7,000 to 10,000 degrees every year. Compare that with the historical numbers, where there was an increase of maybe 6,000 degrees over 20 years.

    *****

    Why did degree growth explode in this field during the 2000s ? Anyone who reads degreeinfo can take a guess -- it probably reflects the success of non-traditional education, including on-line and for-profit programs. With low startup costs, high accessibility, and aggressive marketing, these programs can be much more responsive to market demands than the old-fashioned B&M programs -- so responsive that they can turn a degree shortage into a degree glut in 5 to 10 years.

    Unfortunately, if growth is high, then the market inevitably gets saturated at some point, even if there was a shortage to begin with.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 15, 2013
  19. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    My daughter has been an RN for 7 or 8 years (degree from Oregon Health and Science University). She says she averages 2 or 3 personalized job offers a month from desperate hospitals and health care facilities: public, private, and (especially) VA. The good news is that many of them are six-figure offers with 4 weeks of vacation. The other news is that most of them are in places like (I asked her about the last three) Barstow, CA; Fort Meade, SD; and Biloxi, MS. It takes a lot to pry someone out of Portland, Oregon
     
  20. Julie1014

    Julie1014 New Member

    Here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, jobs are plentiful for nurses. A couple of years ago I was hospitalized, and I was asked if a student nurse could take care of me for the day. I said yes, because I was a student at one time. Of course, her instructor was there if there were any problems. I had the BEST care of any hospitalizations I have had. The nursing student crossed her T's and dotted her I's. She was so thorough and wonderful. Sometimes having a new person has it's benefits. I love having a seasoned nurse take care of me, but some of them are hardened over the years.
     

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