I remember when I started nursing school about a decade ago, that there was a near militant attitude describing the nursing shortage. School administrators, politicians, and journalists hopped on this easy bandwagon and talking point. Research and polls of dubious quality rode the tidal wave of popular opinion. Unsurprisingly, their genesis in an echo chamber yielded predictably confirmatory responses. As graduation time was fast approaching, the class began to job hunt … and there was nothing. The few jobs in the region asked for the golden “one year of experience” and yet nobody was prepared to give it. Worse yet, this experience was required to be in that particular setting. It was a classic catch-22. Many graduates languished with unemployment/underemployment, fighting for exploitative part-time nursing homework.
Ten years later, there does seem to be a stronger recruiting effort for nurses. It’s a surreal feeling now, having been borderline unemployable once upon a time and now seeing actual signing bonuses. So did the talking heads accurately predict a nursing shortage then? In my (admittedly anecdotal context) opinion, they didn’t. The least scrupulous polled various staff and physicians in the trenches — which might seem intuitive for determining what’s needed and what isn’t but ignores the fact that the grunts don’t make the hiring decisions. Others failed to recognize that organizations wanted veteran nurses for easy plug and play. In an era of accelerated outsourcing and general job loss, there was a lot of money to be made selling career training seats. The rosier the employment prospects, the better.
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
