My First Podcast!!

Check me out on Insights in Nursing hosted by Jamie Davis as we discuss nursing school, the nursing shortage *enter scary music*, and the job outlook for soon-to-be grad nurses.

And back to the books it is for me…finals and a HESI next week and then I can officially call myself a SENIOR nursing student!! The countdown to the end of nursing school is on—503 days, 16 hours, 23 minutes, and 10, 9, 8, 7…

What Nursing Shortage???

I came across an article today about how even in this “nationwide shortage of nurses,” one of our local nursing schools’ grads can’t find jobs. So let’s have at this so-called nursing shortage thing.

Many people think it’s the economy. The hiring freezes. That nurses are working to later ages—even past retirement. Among other things. And all of those things probably do contribute to the problem. But this is my spin on the situation. I live in the Delaware Valley / Greater Philadelphia area. IMHO (and what do I know anyway?), I don’t believe there is a nursing shortage here. Why? Because this area is just too saturated with nursing schools. Diploma programs, and ADN programs, and BSN programs oh my! There are day programs and there are evening/weekend programs. There are even various accelerated programs (such as Villanova’s BSNExpress, Jefferson’s FACT, and Drexel’s ACE) that are pumping out new nurses as fast as every 11 months!

Now what surprises me most about not a single one of the AMH Dixon SON grads being able to secure a job yet is that the school is part of a hospital. A lot of their students do in fact think that gives them an edge as far as securing a job after graduation—which evidently is not the case. I have noticed job postings on AMH’s website for “Clinical Associates” (tech-type positions) which are only open to their own nursing students—why not initiate something similar for their graduates? One would think they’d be able to hire at least some of their own grad nurses.

Secondly, Abington is a diploma program. Though they have recently partnered with Jefferson to offer an RN-BSN or RN-BSN/MSN option after you’ve completed their program, that really doesn’t help the new grads right now, with their fresh diplomas in hand. And depending on where/what type of setting (hospital, etc.) you’d like to work at as an RN, know that many of the major players (at least in this area) are now moving from a “BSN-preferred” to a “BSN-required” model. Just food for thought.

Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, please know I am in no way bashing Abington or any of the other diploma or ADN programs—in fact, I almost went to Abington. It’s a great school, the faculty that I’d dealt with were great, and they have stellar NCLEX pass rates—though if it’s anything like my program the bad test-takers and flat-out slackers are weeded out of the program way before you get anywhere near the NCLEX (which is why I never really considered NCLEX pass rates as a determinant of how good a program was). But in the end I decided that it would be best for me to pursue the BSN. Besides the fact that I just couldn’t wrap my head around going to school for 2 years and just getting a diploma when I could go for an extra semester and get a BSN, again, where and what type of position I plan to pursue after graduation requires the latter. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

So is there really a nursing shortage? Maybe—in Texas, California, or the Midwest—but not so much here in the city of Brotherly Love…