Nursing: Not A Recession-Proof Career

No career (no legal career anyway) is recession proof. Unless your career is being Mitt Romney's wife, which as we've seen in the news is a very difficult and challenging job requiring at least a couple Cadillacs."Insourcing" of RNs appears to be a myth. (We can dig up the old threads again if you want.) The reason desolate border towns are willing to sponsor nurses from abroad is because they are desolate border towns. As the economy slowly recovers, the outlook for all jobs will improve. The economy cycles.

Quote from MN-Nurse"Insourcing" of RNs appears to be a myth. (We can dig up the old threads again if you want.) The reason desolate border towns are willing to sponsor nurses from abroad is because they are desolate border towns.

I have seen "in-sourcing" used extensively at my hospital in the SF Bay area. I work NOC shift, med-surg and many nights I'm the only native born English speaking nurse on the unit. I can go all night hearing Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin, and various African dialects being spoken, without a word of English.And these nurses are HARD working nurses. They will work through breaks, off the clock (after end of shift), and put up with treatment by management and other staff which would have your average American nurse shouting HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT, and calling for a lawyer. They are grateful for their jobs, and are 100% loyal to the hospital management which sponsored them into those jobs. Welcome to the new Global (AT WILL) workplace, where you can be replaced by a cheaper, more flexible (aka subservient), nurse without any notice.Would you like fries with that?

Quote from Dana1969I have seen "in-sourcing" used extensively at my hospital in the SF Bay area. I work NOC shift, med-surg and many nights I'm the only native born English speaking nurse on the unit. I can go all night hearing Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin, and various African dialects being spoken, without a word of English.

Quote from Dana1969I have seen "in-sourcing" used extensively at my hospital in the SF Bay area. I work NOC shift, med-surg and many nights I'm the only native born English speaking nurse on the unit. I can go all night hearing Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin, and various African dialects being spoken, without a word of English.And these nurses are HARD working nurses. They will work through breaks, off the clock (after end of shift), and put up with treatment by management and other staff which would have your average American nurse shouting HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT, and calling for a lawyer. They are grateful for their jobs, and are 100% loyal to the hospital management which sponsored them into those jobs. Welcome to the new Global (AT WILL) workplace, where you can be replaced by a cheaper, more flexible (aka subservient), nurse without any notice.Would you like fries with that?

I'm assuming the "work for 40 years at one job and retire at 65" era is now history. I don't know anyone around me who is planning to retire any earlier than 70. I personally plan to work until at least my mid-70's, God willing. There's no way I can retire anytime before then and live comfortably. Not that I plan to do floor nursing until then, but I will look into nursing opportunities that will simultaneously complement my life comfortably.

enlightening article, & sad to say very true.

Quote from TheCommuterYou're in California? I was born and raised there, and I can certainly attest to the fact that California has a staggeringly high number of nurses from foreign countries.

The article doesn't consider countervailing trends, such as unemployed people tend to get medical care more (at least at first, while insurance is around) because they have more time on their hands. Plus, the aging of the population sets up a demand for services independent of the economic cycle. Still, a good eye-opening article.

Quote from MN-NurseI don't doubt it. I don't consider RNs who were trained in the United States as "insourced."

Quote from TheCommuterContrary to widely held beliefs, nursing is certainly NOT the recession-proof career that many entities have seemingly made it out to be. . . . More people than usual become unemployed during sluggish economic times and, as a result, lose their health insurance benefits. Since healthcare is prohibitively expensive, uninsured people are definitely not inclined to seek it unless their health problems have progressed into unavoidable emergencies. In addition, the medical bills of uninsured patients tend to go unpaid, which means less cash flow for healthcare facilities. Numerous hospitals are providing plenty of charity care in this day and age.

Another thing to consider is that although there are weak spots for hiring and warmer spots, these will become more homogenized as nurses migrate to where the jobs are. I've seen this in Texas with this recession and I've seen similar migration in other fields, as well as in past recessions.