Monthly Archive for July, 2010

A Taste of Nursing in High School

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on July 31, 2010
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i_student_3As soon as I made the decision to enter nursing school as a high school junior, I started brainstorming ways to prepare for nursing school. In addition to researching nursing schools, and preparing applications, transcripts and letters of reference, I wanted a little taste of a career in health care.

I wanted some sort of preview of what it might be like being a nurse. So, I signed up to be a hospital volunteer (“candy striper” in the days of old) during the two summers before my high school graduation.

Working as a hospital volunteer exposed me to the field of nursing and allowed me a valuable glimpse into a “day in the life” of a nurse. It also gave me the chance to help in many other hospital departments, see their role in patient care, find out how they interact with nursing and get the “big picture” view of my future profession.

More and more high schools are seeing the value of spotlighting a career in nursing for their students, in hopes of drawing them into the field, especially in light of the mounting shortage of nurses. Lamar University in Texas, for instance, has created a program for high school students called the “Nightingale Experience” where students are introduced to the field of nursing, are engaged in conversations with nursing faculty, shown the different job opportunities available and encouraged to consider nursing as a career goal.

The university program takes it a step further, allowing students a hands-on learning experience in a simulated hospital setting. Whether your groundwork for nursing school includes a program such as the one at Lamar University, or if you choose to work as a hospital volunteer, it is helpful to include some kind of “real life” component to your preparations. Nurses will be in higher and higher demand in coming years, so the earlier you start developing an interest in this career, the better.

Outsourcing Nursing

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on July 24, 2010
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a_nurse_phoneFilling the nursing pipeline with enough RN’s to care for our rapidly growing patient population, has quickly become an exercise in problem solving involving lawmakers from all states and working at all levels of government. Some are quick to point out how the decades long nursing shortage has temporarily stalled.

But this is largely due to previously retired nurses filling the nursing pipeline for the time being. That can only last for so long, and a more lasting solution to supply more nurses for the workforce will soon be needed. Specifically, a few hundred thousand (and rising, especially if universal health care passes) nurses will be needed by 2025.

Many industry experts and lawmakers have looked toward foreign nurse “imports” (while trying not to make foreign trained RN’s sound like cars) to fill the pipeline. Florida representative Robert Wexler has proposed that the U.S. allow 20,000 additional foreign trained nurses to enter and work here, while we continue working on a more permanent solution.

In the “pro” column, welcoming foreign trained nurses into the American workforce helps to bridge staffing gaps and at a price that most hospitals can afford. In the “con” column, foreign trained nurses frequently encounter language and culture barriers, training and skill crossover challenges and require extra training to pass the NCLEX exam.

President Obama has stated that he would prefer legislators focus more on a solution to increase the capacity of U.S. nursing schools to graduate more students, and provide incentives to attract more nurses into the field domestically. He points to the rising unemployment rate as the best argument to make sure that all domestic nursing resources have been tapped before turning our attention to other countries.

The number of foreign born and trained nurses has risen over the years, from 9% of the total RN’s working in the U.S. in 1994 to 16.3% in 2008, as the shortage has worsened. With the nursing shortage worsening and the economy taking its regular hits, there is something to be said about the “home field” advantage right now, for those with a passion for the very recession proof field of nursing.

Source: Business Week Magazine

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Nursing schools

Recession Era Nursing

Published
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on July 12, 2010
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i_nurse_geriatricsResearch has shown that during times when most other professions are recessing, the field of nursing is hiring. Employment data reveals that during times when most job sectors are in a downturn, the employment of nurses grows by about 5.3% on average and increased by a much higher 8.6% during the current recession.

Hiring of hospital nurses increased by an astounding 18% in 2008.  These numbers may seem to be leveling off temporarily, but this is still cause to be optimistic for nurses and future nurses. It means that of any industry, nursing and other health care careers have the highest probability of bouncing back the quickest. One of the reasons for the current temporary slowdown in the hiring of nurses is that a big piece of the workforce who were poised to retire before the recession, were forced to keep working.

Many retirement age nurses have seen their nest eggs dry up or their spouses unemployed and therefore made the choice to keep working to make ends meet and attempt to rebuild their savings as much as possible. However, this cannot last forever and eventually these nurses will have to retire and their positions will need to be filled.

A Vanderbilt School of Nursing study showed that the current recession has put a temporary end to a long term nursing shortage that has strained hospitals across the country for the last 11 years. The same study predicts the imminent arrival of a more serious nursing shortage than the country has ever seen, in the next decade, especially since the predominant age demographic of working nurses is over age 50.

All of this data is good news for those considering a career in nursing, that despite many mixed reports due to the current downturn, nursing is one of the true recession proof careers out there and it always will be.

High Tech NCLEX Studying

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on July 8, 2010
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i_student_2Technically, all of nursing school is a crash course in NCLEX exam preparation.  From your very first “welcome to the magical world of nursing” quiz all the way to your advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology and biochemistry exams.

After graduation, however, the real NCLEX studying fun begins.  It is almost as if on graduation day, towards the end of the ceremony, the dean of nursing is standing on the stage with a stopwatch, counting down…. 3, 2, 1… “Okay now you’re graduated, let the NCLEX studying begin!”

As I recall, I was the dork who had already purchased my twenty pounds of NCLEX study books, workbooks and CD’s before graduation day. NCLEX studying almost seemed like an extension of nursing school to me.

I had been studying like a madwoman for four and a half years (counting required summer sessions that made nursing students stand out from the rest).  A few more months of hitting the books couldn’t hurt.  Of course, I had to keep reminding myself of this as I was cramming more and more details from the study aids into my head as the exam date approached.

Fortunately, a nurse has created a website to help nursing students prepare for their NCLEX exam. AllNurses.net also serves as a comprehensive resource for nurses and student nurses to look up other vital pieces of data and clinical knowledge. This includes nursing guides, tutorials, disease references, lab values and medication information, all at the click of a button.

The site’s “PDA Reference Software” is a portable version of the website resources that nurses and student nurses can have with them in their uniform pockets as they see patients and handle often complex situations where running back to the nurse’s station for information is not an option.

There is a lot of information to be absorbed in nursing school and interactive tools like this can be a very helpful addition to the student and new grad’s resource kit.