Nursing industry desperate to find new hires

I have 8 years experience as an RN. I love what I do, but I am so tired of feeling like a court reporter and having to cover everyone's butt, that I don't know if I want to keep doing this job. Incentives don't mean anything when hiring unless you keep bouncing from job-to-job. How about pay what we are worth and try to keep us happy in one place.

Currently,  I am a full-time clinical instructor for a large southern reputable university. I left a full-time Nurse Practitioner position to teach in order to be available to my children in the afternoon....It has been 8 years since I have been a staff nurse.   And honestly I do not know why any one would want to be a nurse these days.  I am ashamed to say it, but the working conditions are ten times worse since I was last a bedside nurse.  We now have to contend with pushing a full size computer on a cart with a scanner  into each room to give medications.  It can take at least two hours to give medications to four or five patients due to the additional steps needed to take to reduce medication errors.  And while I believe in reducing these errors...the hospital administrators did not take in to consideration the nursing work load.  It would make things much easier if each patients room had it's own computer.  But now we are forced to push a huge cart with a large PC in order to give medications.   Not to mention trying to TEACH student nurses how to give medications properly.    Nurses also have to contend with irritable, often hateful physicians as well as resident doctors that do not write proper orders.   Nurses also are notorious for being horrible to each other and "eat their own".   Nurses need to learn to take care of themselves and each other which is horribly difficult when caring for the sickest of patients.  A solution for the nursing shortage  is hard to come by but perhaps instead of giving away gas cards and SUVs I think most nurses would welcome increased hourly salaries and more regular praise from administrators for a job well done.    What I would really like to see is administration walk a mile in a bedside staff nurses shoes for a full 12 hour shift and better  yet have administrators be patients for 24 hours in their own hospitals.

Who can afford to even go to the hospital anymore?

New grads are having the toughest time finding a nursing job in New York though. I got my license, and gave my resume to all the hospitals.. but nobody is hiring.. budget cuts, they say.

I was an RN for 18 solid long years.  I will never work in the field again.  This article is the first one I have read that cites the real reasons for the shortage.  Nurses are leaving the profession in droves.  Hospitals are built to make money.  Taking care of people is very much secondary.  The goals of hospital adminstrators and those of the care givers are in direct conflict with each other.  Nurses are not treated well at all on the job by their superiors and often by the patients.  A person can only take so much abuse before they throw in the towel.

Pay the teaching nurses commensurate with their duties.

In english that means at least as much as their students will receive working in a hospital.

There is always enough funding for war and never enough for social efforts.

When are we ever going to learn how to push our politicians to set their priorities?

Been Nursing for 13 years now, no ones given me a free anything... cept maybe a loaded bedpan. Sheesh, give me a gas card or TV just for applying...

I've loved nursing, its been good. But I have to admit I've thought of leaving the field many times. Hospitals are a worse bureaucracy than the army was. The article had it right that they fix issues when times are bad only to go back to their evil ways when times are good (staffing wise). It kills me that they would rather hire a new nurse and pay them $10 more than we started to do the same job and chase off the experienced nurse to save $3... at the risk of patients safety. Oh silly hospital administrations... when will you learn to mix the experience levels so the new and old nurses are happy and the patients get good care?

As a nurse (RN, BSN) with experience (8 years) in one of the specialized areas (pediatric ICU) I know that hospitals are doing alot to get more nurses, but some of their biggest problems are in KEEPING the old nurses.  I work in a children's hospital in a city where their is no other children's hospital, so there really is no competition for those of us who specialize in caring for kids.  Therefor we are some of the lowest paid nurses in the city.  But I will say that we are often better staffed than many of the other hospitals.   

There are new policies in place that actually take away from beside care, to intice nurses to do more (such as research, and community service) outside the hospital for more money- so the hospital can look better.

We do lose many nurses who have gone back to school, which the hospital pays for, and I agree that we need more nurses with advanced degrees,  but those of us who stay get nothing equal to the free tuition those who left recieved.

There are other things that I think would help the nursing profession as a whole.  If people really understood what we did-how much we have to know, how much we learned and keep learning as things and knowledge change and grow.  Nurses have to know if what the doctor wants to do is right, and it is part of our job to refuse to do something the doctor wants us to do if it can harm the patient.  Another important thing: the doctor is not the nurses boss, we are all part of a healthcare team, and the doctors wouldn't be able to care for anyone in the hospital without us.  And (this is a sore spot with many RN's) a nurse aide is not a nurse, if someone works in the hospital and has contact with a patient that does not make them a nurse.  Also, it is not ok to assault a healthcare worker-I work with nurses and doctors and others who have been hit, cussed at, threatened-and this is not by patients, this is by family members-and often the worker is not well protected by the administration.

Even after all this (and actually there is more), I do love my job most days.  I am very happy to have a job in these poor economic times.  I don't want to discourage anyone from becoming a nurse, it can be a very rewarding profession, there are patients and families I will never forget.  But the profession needs help, it needs to reward those who stay and help those who want to join it in better ways.

I went back to college and wanted to get into the nursing program. at 37 years old it was estimated that I would graduate in 6+ years. 2 years for my pre-reqs (optimistic to say the least, as they were always FULL), 2 -3 yr wait for the nursing program, then 2 year program itself. I wanted it so badly, but didnt want to embark on my career at 43+. 

In addition to adequate teaching compensation of at least $75000/year for a day shift RN teaching job to start....get rid of the ridiculous criteria.  I.E.  it is totally unnecessary to hold a BSN or even a Masters in order to teach and the fools running the show should know better...THINK!  Are ya that dense that you don't get it;  that pushing this academia agenda may sound nice and artsy/fartsy......but it is a total line of B.S.  especially when shortages are happening and are forcast to continue.  Go ahead and get almighty once and if you solve the problem of shortages.  In the mean time use that so-called highly educated brain of yours and THINK about doing the right thing for nursing now.  I am going to urge my children to take just about anything but nursing because it is a thankless job most of the time and it sure as hell doesn't warant 4 years of school;  unless they are going to use that to spring board into a better Masters level career.

K.Switzer RN    

warrant....my bad.

I am a surgical tech and 2 prereqs away from applying to nursing school. I live in Southern Cal and all the junior colleges have long waiting lists...my plan is to apply everywhere but maybe cough up the money to go to a private school that is offering the 2 year program...I have my GI bill to help some but there is a time limit...I don't want to wait forever to get started!!!!  I figure in the end it will all work out.

We'll have to wait until one of them is sick and has poor care.  Then they'll take up our cause.  The only solution is to pay nursing school teachers/professors 50 dollars/hour or more.  Then perhaps the nurses leaving the hospitals in droves will be inclined to teach rather than leave the profession for something else entirely.  Here in Texas, thousands of students wait for openings, so there is no shortage of bodies wanting to work in nursing, just no one to educate them. 

I have been in nursing since 1985 and every day I leave the hospital after work, I don't know how I manage to go back into the quagmire that has been created by insurance companies and the hospital management companies.  But I love what I do.  So I continue to work as a nurse because I wouldn't want to do anything else.

I am a nurse of almost 3 years. I admit, I still have more to learn, but I pride myself in being an excellent nurse with excellent patient outcomes and pride myself in that. I make a decent wage up here in the northeast (CT)....I make approx 31 dollars an hour with my 2nd shift differential...not shabby, but still not great considering the plethora of responsibilities I have. It's kind of sad that I have almost 3 years experience and new nurses being hired are being given more money per hour than I make with NO experience....so fair don't ya think? I know it's tough, but we aren't a unionized hospital as many hospitals here in CT aren't as well. it's a tough game that we aren't ever going to win.

When I was working, despite the claimed shortages, the hospital where I worked staffed every shift with as few nurses as they could get by with, and if the census went down during a shift, nurses would be floated or let off, even those who were full-time and needed to work full shifts, because that's how they paid their bills. I decided that my talents could be put to better use.

Simple solution---change the name from Registered Nurse to Registerd Medic.  That way more and more men will enter the posistion.  Look at the big laugh at "Meet The Falkers".  Most guys NEVER even think about being a nurse, but on the other hand, the vast majority of the ambulance service people (low in the medical chain of command) are men.  Now I personally know that there is a 2-3 wait in a lot of schools---but it's worth a shot.

run,   do not walk away from nursing.  it is theee worst career choice one could make.  low pay, long hours, always shift work, and plus you are around a bunch lazy people.  the aids want an lpn license, the lpn's want their rn. the rn's want their bsn.  the bsn want their msn.  there is never a satisfied state.  nurses are high strung and nevere satisfied.  the patients expect to be waited on like kings and queens.  in effect in nursing your are just that and nothing more   a waiter/waitress.   in addition to the above many rn's have more ego than their license could possibly ever hold.  and this idea that there are tons of jobs everywhere  that is just total  bs.  sure the place in the article gives gas cards away   it is a nursing home,  that is where the most jobs are because they are crappy places to work,  totally understaffed and overworked.  you will be up to elbows in urine and stools on a hourly basis.   yes there a jobs in nursing because  there are more nurses trying to get out of nursing thatn trying to get in.    run do not walk away from nursing.  be an engineer, a lawyer, a plumber   and be able to spend evenings/nights/weekends with your families.

I have been an RN since 1996. I enjoyed the job, especially working in pediatrics. I really felt like I was making a difference. But here are just a few of the reasons why I got out of hospital nursing, probably never to return: Long shifts, usually 12 hours but would extend to 16 if you had to chart at the end of your shift or you had a code, high patient to staff ratio (my first job I had to care for 12 cardiac step down patients one night. I quit that job due to the unsafe conditons), hospital administration that promises higher pay, safer working conditions etc but never comes through (although the hospital CEO usually gets 4-500K a year plus perks), administration who are NOT RNs, just bean counters with no hospital experience, untrained hospital staff who are hired right off the street, hospitals that import poorly trained foreign RNs under the guise of patient safety (yes that does happen and continues to this day), unruly doctors who treat hospital staff as idiots (yet copied my charting as their own and never looked in on the patient during the entire shift). Wow, so there you go. Just a few reasons why I left the floor. RNs are professionals and need to be treated as such. We all go to college (Nurse Practitioners with Masters degrees have years of experience but in some cases are still paid less than Physician Assistants who only go to a 2 year program, some with NO healthcare experience). RNs strive to provide the best care possible and promote a safe and healthy environment for our patients. We talk to the patients, we check their medications, administer those medications and watch for any side effects. We listen to the patient's concerns, their problems, their family issues and sometimes even become their best friend in a scary hospital situation. Nursing is and always be a noble profession. So don't worry. Even though RNs are treated poorly and paid low wages, they will continue to care for their patients and watch over them.

I have been an R.N. for thirty-eight years.  For the first half of my career, I was a busy, but fulfilled hospital nurse, working in Med-Surg, O.R., L & D, Post-Partum, and Neonatology.  During that time, nurses actually had time to spend with patients.  Call me old-fashioned, but my reasons for going into nursing were to treat, to listen, to teach, to counsel, to comfort, to touch (yes, we actually gave backrubs!)...to minister to the body, spirit, and soul. 

I would not return to hospital nursing in this age.  The horror stories about short-staffing and forced overtime make me wonder how those nurses can bear it.  I also wonder how hospitals and the public can fail to realize/acknowledge how dangerous those conditions are.  I believe it truly is all about the profit margin.

I currently enjoy a position in Home Health/Personal Care nursing.  The one-on-one benefits of this type of work are reminiscent of the past.  Unfortunately, the low pay is a drawback, and government rules and red tape make it challenging.

Hello, employers!  Try fully staffing all units with ample nurses, providing fair pay, offering educational opportunities, and helping your nurses avoid burnout.  Your patients will fare better, and maybe there will even be someone around to care for me in my last days. 

I am a 10+ year Critical Care RN BSN in Minneapolis/St. Paul and our area IS being effected by the economy (or something!) with many hospitals (large and small) having lower patient census totals this past year.  Cost cutting in my facility started out with letting go of Cleaning staff so it took longer to get rooms turned around, then they started limiting the number of RN's on a unit and left us short staffed many times. Our unit secretaries were downsized and we had to share between units and the phones rang and rang as Nursing had to juggle patient care and answer the phones, and direct traffic.  We put a halt to  the reduction in ancillary help by just not answering the phones and eventually our Manager saw the light and we were able to have secretaries on each unit during the dayshift. 

Today, many hospitals in the Twin Cities have hiring freezes in effect and my hospital is calling Nursing staff DAILY to request us to take a vacation day, on call, as well as RN's being involuntarily cancelled from our scheduled shifts with NO pay.  In December the hospital layed off 20 Nurses and we received a memo last week that in the near future (possibly this week), 40 additional RN's hospital-wide will be layed off.  Nursing in this area is essentially unionized which in this case is a saving grace as there are limits in the number of times the hospital can cancel RN staff yearly, but the lower senority you have, the more likely you are to be effected.  Many of my co-workers had short checks this past holiday season and were cancelled up to 3 times in one pay period.   Overtime was very limited this past year as well and my annual income this year was close tp  $15,000 less than 2008.  I make good money but I like overtime as well which enables me to pay college expenses  for my children.  That's a chunk of change lost this past year!   Right now I'm just happy to have a job that I love and hope that it stays that way. I'll deal with less income if I have to in order to keep a paycheck coming.

I've been browsing/searhing job opportunities in the area and Nursing positions are limited at this time.  When I moved to the Twin Cities area 3 years ago, job opportunities were plentiful and I was even sent flowers after one job interview as experienced critical care RN's were hard to find. I was offered positions with all 5 hospitals that I interviewed with.  What a difference it is today, I couldn't find one critical care position when I looked at 6 hospitals in St. Paul and Minneapolis last week.  That is very worrysome.   I feel for new grads trying to get their foot in the door of a facility at this time as well as for the morale of our Nursing staff which  is at an all time low in the facility I work for.....

I have vet. technician backround and agriculture school but all my life I wanted to work in hospital. I love being in hospital even if sick. I just love the medical backround. Problem is, during communism I had no chance to go to medical school and now here in USA I can't afford  the school and on top of it I'm getting older( (48).

I always wondered if there is chance to study only the necessary classes that you really need. Something like a fast one year crash course. Seems like there is so many other subjects one has to take in order to finish school.

I have a friend as RN and have an idea what she needs to know and what she does. It feels like I could learn it in one year, the rest everybody gains w/ experinces later anyway.

Is there any RN program or class on internet? 

I have been in the nursing profession for 40 years.  I graduated from a diploma nursing school in nyc.  I have worked on an ICU, Cardiac cath lab and am now working in the or.  Where I am employed at a small rural hospital, most of the OR staff is over 50 years old, with the majority of us nearer 60.  We work long hours, call, callback and have to be back at work at 7 am the next day, no matter how long we worked call the night before. 

The hospital needless to say is nervous about our age as we all want to retire while we can still walk. 

My son just became an RN last year, and is working on an ICU and with a registry.  He works 12 hour shifts. 

Lets face it, you cant be in nursing for the money.  It is about caring for people, but it has be be done safely.  It seems there are more regulations for everything , taking the RN away from the bedside and doing more paperwork.  I have seen a lot of changes in nursing since I graduated, some for the better but some definetly for the worse. 

Nursing is a portable occupation.  You can get a job almost anywhere you go.  There are problems in every job, I don't care what profession you are in.  But there are ways to manage some of the stuff that you would normally have to put up with. 

The main problem is that nursing schools do not have enough instructors.  Generally the pay is lower and the educational requirements are greater.  Until they bring instructor pay up to what staff nurses make, they are never going to be able to fill those positions.  I would love to teach but I only have a BSN.  I have no desire what so ever to go back and get an MSN.  I have 30 years experience and feel that I would have a lot to offer students but I can't teach due to my lack of greater educational preparation.  It is too bad.

Another problem is that nurses will not help themselves.  I have often said that nurses should independently contract their skills to hospitals instead of being employed by them.    Nurse have all the power but have no clue how to utilize this power.  They just continue to accept whatever the hospitals throw at them instead of standing up for what is right for the care of patients. In reality there is not a nursing shortage in this country.  There are lliterally thousands upon thousands of nurses who refuse to do the job anymore.  Staying in the profession for 20  years will not raise a nurse's standard of living.  Bottom line is that traditionally, nursing is still a "woman's" profession, and strictly speaking, it is not even a profession, but a blue collar job.