how will health care reform impact the nursing job market?

1 I am just curious to everyone's thoughts about the subject -- do you think job opportunities will open up once the major phases of health care reform roll out in 2014? Do you think it will be like in the past where nurses have more freedom to switch specialties and new grads can find jobs easily?
I don't even know if healthcare reform will ever roll out, and that being said, if it does, no one can predict the future. We can only hope.

I think the nursing shortage will come back with a vengeance. You'll have the pre retired nurses likely retiring again, those who were delaying finally getting to, and now millions of people who didn't previously have insurance will have it. People will go.to the doctors for EVERYTHING now. They'll need nurses worse than ever, imo.

Our facility is preparing for medicaid changes related to healthcare reform.......their response is no much hiring.............but lots of overtime to be had....people are so tired they often go unfilled because even the agency we use can't find people.

I guess I am the dissenter so far. IMO, Reform will not result in a net increase in jobs. Maybe there will be more non-acute jobs created, but this will undoubtedly offset by hospitals desperately trying to reign in labor costs by using more non-licensed staff to stretch their existing RN workforce as far as possible.Healthcare reform will continue to squeeze down reimbursement for acute care services... if hospitals are going to survive, they will have to make the cuts somewhere and labor dollars are the most likely target. If you examine the 'situational reimbursment' models that come in to play it's easy to see what a negative effect this will have. HCCAPS, for instance - will reduce reimbursement for anyone who does meet targeted patient satisfaction goals. There will be no payment for treatment of nosocomial infections and complications that occur while in the hospital. etc. etc. etc. Face it folks, our esteemed legislators are trying to balance the budget by carving out enormous chunks from healthcare. This is going to trigger a cascade of 'unintended consequences' that no one can really predict at this point. I fail to see how this will increase nursing jobs.

I don't think anyone can tell you for certain what will happen. There are things that can back up anyone's opinion as to what will happen.I do however, think that in the next few years to a decade, we are going to see a nursing jobs situation like we did 3 to 4 years ago. I believe the economy will rebound, but even if it doesn't nurses can not work forever and with the average age of nurses being what it is, it is a matter of time, not to mention formerly retired nurses a previous poster mentioned.Also keep in mind that even with all the fud and panic you read/hear about nursing job prospects being worse than a few years ago (that is true), the nursing field is still better than most other fields, as far as new grad jobs go, in terms of starting pay, security and ease of placement.

I think our health care system is broken. This reform is an attempt to fix it, or at least get it working better. All I can say is AT LEAST SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING. All this fear mongering going on about this legislation is ridiculous.. nothing will ever get fixed in this country if we remain afraid of CHANGE. People cry for change constantly and then when someone attempts to change things everyone gets their panties in a knot. It's insanity. Will it have a positive or negative impact on jobs or health care in the long run? We can't speculate with any accuracy as nobody has a crystal ball that can see into the future. All I can say is lets give it a chance! My personal opinion is that it WILL create more health care jobs as more people acquire health care and seek treatment sooner than they would have had it had to come out of pocket. I believe we will see more patients with chronic illnesses visiting the doctor more often to keep their conditions under control.. an increase in patients will probably result in an increase of health care workers.

I don't see how this reform will be beneficial for nurses in any way. People are already getting free healthcare through medicaid when they walk in the ED. That hasn't created more jobs. And people are still going to use the ED as their primary. Nothing will change, except that our nations debt keeps growing, dollar keeps sinking, and eventually we'll be taxed even heavier in the near future. I hope you didn't buy that no one who makes under 250K a year will see tax increases...

Quote from dhammo01I don't see how this reform will be beneficial for nurses in any way. People are already getting free healthcare through medicaid when they walk in the ED. That hasn't created more jobs. And people are still going to use the ED as their primary. Nothing will change, except that our nations debt keeps growing, dollar keeps sinking, and eventually we'll be taxed even heavier in the near future. I hope you didn't buy that no one who makes under 250K a year will see tax increases...

Two words: RED. TAPE.

Quote from dhammo01I don't see how this reform will be beneficial for nurses in any way. People are already getting free healthcare through medicaid when they walk in the ED. That hasn't created more jobs. And people are still going to use the ED as their primary. Nothing will change, except that our nations debt keeps growing, dollar keeps sinking, and eventually we'll be taxed even heavier in the near future. I hope you didn't buy that no one who makes under 250K a year will see tax increases...

Come live by the border...you'll see how many people are getting free healthcare...

The only thing this reform is good for is increasing the insurance companies pockets...now that everyone has to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. It really changes nothing except that the government is attempting to get people off of their programs and onto the private sector. Its' all about budgeting.