Nursing Shortage Anticipated By 2020
The world is changing before our eyes, often in ways difficult to fully comprehend.
In 2008, the financial crisis made it much more difficult to earn a living. As companies began downsizing, many long-time employees could not hold down their jobs. Worse still, it became increasingly difficult to find anything comparable. Things looked treacherous for awhile. There was much press about a possible global financial meltdown when countries like Greece and Spain appeared on the verge of collapse. Yet somehow, despite the sturm und drang, we appear to have made it through the difficult years.
Now, according to President Obama’s recent State of the Union address, we’re looking at a new chapter in American history.
During his talk, besides describing the turnaround in the economy, he issued the following challenge: “Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?”
How does all this affect you? What kind of effort can you make to raise your income and improve your quality of life?
One option is to consider a career in healthcare because with America’s general population getting older, sicker, and retiring by 2020, there will be a shortage of medical professionals to take care of this growing number of people who will need medical care.
Crisis and Opportunity
If you’re a working adult, you may not see how it’s possible to devote a many years to become a doctor, but besides a shortage in doctors, there will also be a huge shortage in nurses. Although getting a degree in nursing can often take time too, many colleges are offering accelerated programs to drastically reduce the time it takes to get licensed as a nurse.
The Crisis
First, more nurses are required than doctors. While a single doctor is needed to diagnose and prescribe treatment, many nurses working in shifts are necessary to look after hospitalized patients.
Second, more Baby Boomers will be retiring. Due to an increase in stress and lifestyle-associated diseases like obesity, diabetes, and others, numerous people will require either short-term or long-term nursing.
Third, many of the seasoned nurses now working will be retiring, as they are also part of the Baby Boomer generation.
The Opportunity
Due to the high demand for nurses around the country, the professionalism needed to do the work well, and the high level of education necessary to become a nurse, the compensation is also high. On average, nurses earn from $60,934 to $96, 582. Additionally, if the hospital they work in provides a profit-sharing plan, they may get an annual bonus of $19,866.
Here is what the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), an organization that sets the standards for the education of nurses, says about the coming nurse shortage:
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections 2012-2022 released in December 2013, Registered Nursing (RN) is listed among the top occupations in terms of job growth through 2022. The RN workforce is expected to grow from 2.71 million in 2012 to 3.24 million in 2022, an increase of 526,800 or 19%. The Bureau also projects the need for 525,000 replacements nurses in the workforce bringing the total number of job openings for nurses due to growth and replacements to 1.05 million by 2022.
Accelerated Programs
Many colleges are now introducing online accelerated BSN programs. This means that a Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) degree can be completed in as little as 18 months. This degree is for people just coming into the profession with no previous educational background in nursing.
Accelerated programs are designed for working adults who need a fast-track to a new career. They are highly intensive, because they compress the academic preparation and clinical hours of experience necessary to become a nurse into a vigorous schedule.
Employment Opportunities
Employers are quick to hire nurses who graduate from an accelerated program because past experience has shown that these nurses tend to be more motivated on the job than nurses who graduate from traditional schools.
There are three main reasons for this phenomenon:
· Graduates from accelerated programs are usually older when they enroll, so they have a more mature attitude about life.
· Graduates from accelerated programs have to work harder because of the compressed timeline involved in an accelerated program.
· Graduates from accelerated programs often underwent huge sacrifices in personal and family life to successfully become licensed nurses.
Employers also find that these nurses are quick studies, learning rapidly on the job, and that they do their work with a high level of focus and dedication.
Guest Author: Adam Lee
[…] Nursing Shortage Anticipated By 2020 – The world is changing before our eyes, often in ways difficult to fully comprehend. In 2008, the financial crisis made it much more difficult to earn a living. As companies began downsizing, many long-time employees could not hold down their jobs. […]
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