Is the nursing career what is once was?

2 This past week several nurses and other medical support personal were laid-off. I was always told that the medical field was a sure bet in finding and keeping a job. With some many nurse reaching retirement age and the "baby -boomers" reaching the age where more medical services will be required, I am confused. Is it a matter of higher patient to nurse ratio? or are people getting smarter about their health? The local vo-tech is cranking out LPNs and the community college is turing out ADNs and other medical support personel as fast as they can. What gives and where will all these people work? Thanks!
What you were "always told" was wrong. The nursing profession is vulnerable to swings in the economy, too. There are no guarantees.I don't know how much experience you have with the nursing profession -- but I see you are new to allnurses. I suggest you search this site for threads about the so-called "nursing shortage" and read the details there. There hasn't been a nursing shortage for years. When the economy tanked, the nursing profession was effected, too. There are many threads on this topic -- and how the general public's perception of the nursing profession and the nursing job market is very far from the truth.Happy reading!

I agree with the above post. For example, my mom is a nurse and where she works, the clinic just laid off several of their nurses. Now my mom is the only nurse at the clinic working 40-55 hrs a week. To help her they hired MA's to fill the nursing positions, but since a MA can't do everything a nurse can do, my mom is stuck with most of the work load.

Quote from barbj317This past week several nurses and other medical support personal were laid-off. I was always told that the medical field was a sure bet in finding and keeping a job. With some many nurse reaching retirement age and the "baby -boomers" reaching the age where more medical services will be required, I am confused. Is it a matter of higher patient to nurse ratio? or are people getting smarter about their health? The local vo-tech is cranking out LPNs and the community college is turing out ADNs and other medical support personel as fast as they can. What gives and where will all these people work? Thanks!

As the others have said, nursing is not immune to lay offs. It never has for LPN's or CNA's. Now RN's are getting axed and it's scary. Hospitals save money by laying off extra nurses and upping the nurse/pt ratio.It's very scary out there and I feel for new grads.

Nurses get burned out fast so maybe that's how new grads will find work...until they (the new grads) burn out. I know some nurses and nurse managers who change jobs once or twice a year because conditions are that bad. The word about working conditions, understaffing on purpose, and the nurse glut is not public knowledge yet. There is still a lot of press from hospitals and nursing schools out there about this great need or future need for hoards of nurses. See wiki's lies about how we need to graduate more and import foreign RN's etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_shortageI tell hopeful nurses to go into the field only if they love it. It's a very hard job...if you can find a job.

Kudos to the OP for seeing the situation for what it is....not many people do.

Quote from CaOTn96The word about working conditions, understaffing on purpose, and the nurse glut is not public knowledge yet.

Quote from barbj317where will all these people work?

OP: We had someone come in on the first day of orientation and show us this chart and time line and some other things and said the same thing about the baby boomers and there would be a shortage when we graduate and blah blah. That was only a year ago! I wonder why they tell students this if it's simply not true? Looking on this board for a while I clearly see it's not.

There are some areas of the country that need nurses....most are rural, but many close to larger areas (so not far from shopping, entertainment, etc). These areas may pay somewhat less (my experience was that it was not that much), but their cost of living is much lower, so paychecks go further. You just need to shop around