More news reports indicate a widespread slowdown in available nursing jobs with the primary reasons being:
- Nurses are taking more shifts in reaction to this economy
- People are avoiding the hospital to save money, reducing the current needs
- Nurses are putting off retirement
See the following two articles for more.
From the Boston Business Journal:
Hiring freezes leave nursing grads in cold
Victoria Upson thought finding a nursing job would be a piece of cake.
She has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Bowdoin College in Maine and now attends a master’s program at Northeastern University.
“I’d heard about the nursing shortage. I’d heard about the good pay, the schedule and great job mobility,” she said.
Then Upson heard from her professors in October that many hospitals had instituted hiring freezes.
[…]
Hospitals including UMass Medical Center, Cape Cod Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance’s three affiliated hospitals, Jordan Hospital and MetroWest Medical Center currently have hiring freezes that include nursing positions, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
[…]
For years, one of the factors keeping nursing atop most of the recession-proof job lists is the aging of the nursing workforce. But with the soured economy, analysts say, some nurses nearing retirement may put off that decision for a few extra years.
From the Arizona Republic:
New nurses face hiring challenges
New graduates such as Caulk are discovering that landing an entry-level nursing job has become more challenging as hospitals scale back hiring because of the recession. The slower entry-level job market is a sharp contrast to recent times, when hospitals rapidly hired new graduates to address the state’s critical nursing shortage.
Some hospitals are not hiring new nurses, while others have reduced or eliminated the use of temporary or traveling nurses who once helped with the area’s nursing shortage.
[…]
Veteran nurses also seem to be delaying retirement, and part-time nurses are working more shifts to shore up their household finances during weaker economic times.
Hospitals have delayed expansions and do not need to hire as many new nurses to staff new units. Some hospital administrators report that more patients are postponing elective surgery, so nursing hours are correspondingly cut.
These cuts have affected more than new graduates. Even veteran nurses are finding that when a hospital’s patient census is low, a hospital may cut nursing hours accordingly.
Deborah Rice, a registered nurse who works at West Valley Hospital’s nursery, said the hospital has been frequently cutting back shifts due to lighter patient loads.