As “graduation season” approaches once again, another class of nurses will be looking for jobs and many will be disappointed that there seem to be no jobs available which is not what they expected when they became nursing students. For years we have experienced and heard about this terrible shortage of nurses and if you want to walk out of school and write your own ticket, go to nursing school. And then theses students began to graduate and found they need six years of experience to get a job! What happened to the nursing shortage? Why can’t new nurses find jobs? Well in a simple explanation, the recession stalled the…
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Do You Understand How the Affordable Care Act Affects the Nursing Profession?
The Affordable Care Act is going to come under attack in Congress again soon. Many of us can share reasons why we need this law from our own harrowing experiences with pre-existing clauses and insurance that capped out etc. Here’s some of the ways the law impacts nurses and the future of nursing…
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Let’s Hear About Success Stories
It’s graduation season and let’s take a moment to congratulate all the new nurses!!!! Good luck with your boards and your new careers. But for far too many new nurses, the age old story of graduating college and having difficulty finding a job is becoming a common thread. And yet we’re still saying there’s a shortage of nurses!!! But where are the jobs?? Unfortunately the downturn in the economy found many of us putting off retirement and even returning to work for financial stability. And as many of us know, especially many old timers like myself… hospital administrators cut nursing jobs first and expect the remaining staff to pick up…
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Shortage of Nurse Educators Continues to Keep Students out of Nursing schools
The nursing shortage affects us all. And the even bigger problem is the shoratge of nurse educators. In these lean economic times when so many are out of jobs, it seems even more cruel that over 48,000 qualified students were turned away from nursing programs in 2008-9. In just six years’ time there will be a need for over 580,000 new nurses, not to mention about 425,000 replacements. Read more….
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Nurses Willing to Teach Can Earn Grants
The nursing shortage continues to grow despite the economic crisis causing many nurses to delay retirement or return to work. Many pundits fear that when the economy recovers, the nursing shortage will increase as Baby Boomer nurses finally do retire, possibly in droves. President Obama has been working with the ANA to help divert this crisis and to educate more nurses as quickly as possible. But one of the biggest problems is the lack of nurse educators. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been exploring ways to increase the number of nurse educators and is now offering grant monies in some states to help recruit students who will commit to…