Community Colleges See Increase in Male Nursing Students

Nursing was once thought of thought of as a career for women, but that's all changing. With more factories closing, men are entering the profession.

It's finals week for students in the nursing program at John A. Logan College. That includes Jerry Martin. He's one of the growing number of men who are becoming nurses.

"I've done everything from restaurant management, loan officer for a bank. This is my third career, nursing."

Jerry says he turned to nursing because he wanted to find something more purposeful to do.

Two percent of this class of 40 is male. Compare that to 1995, when less than one percent of Logan Nursing students were male.

"I think things have changed. I've been well accepted in the department I work in. Well accepted by the program, the instructors. I don't feel stereotyped at all."

Neither do any of the other men in this program. Some are turing to the profession out of necessity, because of job losses.

Shawnee Community College, Southeastern Illinois College, and Rend Lake College are also reporting higher numbers of men entering their nursing programs.

Most of the guys we talked to today already have a job lined up after the graduate next week. Jerry just likes helping people.

"I really enjoy it and it's the only job I'd do for free."

While students say working toward their degree has been very rewarding, they also admit the last two years have had plenty of challenges.

"You're away from your family a lot, you're studying all the time. You have clinicals to go to a lot early in the morning, a lot late at night."

Challenges that these men hope will pay off in the long run.

Shawnee Community College, Southeastern Illinois College, and Rend Lake College are also reporting higher numbers of men entering their nursing programs.

Most of the guys we talked to today already have a job lined up after the graduate next week.

by Kevin Hunsperger
khunsperger@wsiltv.com

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Suburban Nursing Schools Expand To Fill Need

Ask any of the area community colleges and four-year universities, and the answer is the same: the degree programs drawing the most interest right now are in health care, and more specifically, nursing.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs for registered nurses is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations, through 2016.

In March, the bureau reported that the health care sector continues to grow, despite steep job losses in nearly all major industries.

Specifically, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other ambulatory care settings added 27,000 new jobs in February, the same month when 681,000 jobs were eliminated nationwide, according to labor statistics.

As the largest segment of the health care work force, nurses will likely be recruited to fill a large portion of these new positions.

Their income ranges between $47,710 and $69,850 for the middle half of all registered nurses, with the lowest 10 percent making less than $40,250 and the highest 10 percent making more than $83,440.

Nonetheless, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing expects the nursing shortage only to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows.

Compounding the problem, they say, is the fact that nursing colleges and universities across the country are struggling to expand enrollment levels. However suburban colleges are coming up with ways to open more seats.

Just last month, the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn dedicated its 180,000-square-foot Health and Science Center, which houses a combination of laboratory, classroom, office and instruction space.

Likewise, a new player on the scene, Chamberlain College of Nursing, opened its new building in Addison last year. Formerly called the Deaconess College of Nursing and based in St. Louis, it is now owned by DeVry.

Chamberlain offers a baccalaureate program in nursing, so as not to conflict with the associate programs offered at community colleges, says Jan Snow, campus dean. It admits new classes three times a year.

Starting in July, Chamberlain will launch an online master's program, offering courses aimed at producing nurse educators and nurse executives.

"DeVry was looking to expand educational opportunities and meet the demand for careers in health care," Snow says. "The demand for nursing programs is absolutely out there."

In fact, she describes many of Chamberlain's students as those who were on the waiting list at other colleges.

"The average age is 24, but they are highly, highly motivated," Snow says. "These are adults who have made a choice to pursue nursing as a career."

At Lewis University in Romeoville - which produces the greatest number of nursing bachelor degrees for private institutions in the state - officials see an increasing trend in college graduates returning for their pre-licensing, accelerated program to earn a nursing degree.

"We like to work with these students," says Peggy Rice, nursing school dean of the 17-month program. "They are dedicated and work hard because they know what they want."

Officials at Harper College in Palatine say demand is so great for their nursing degree that they have spun off a separate practical nursing certificate program.

Formerly, the practical nurse program was embedded in the registered nursing course of study, but this August, Harper will offer it separately.

"For the last five years or so we have been experiencing a rise in interest in our nursing program, as the public becomes aware of the nursing shortage," says Cindy Luxton, dean of Health Sciences.

At the same time, Harper has tightened its application criteria by requiring students to have taken anatomy and physiology before applying, and their science credits must be current within the last five years.

Luxton adds that because of that, they have fewer applicants this year than normal, and they will open a second admission in June.

Still, with two programs in place, Harper will be able to admit 120 in its two-year registered nursing program, while taking another 30 in its one-year practical nursing program.

College of DuPage officials began offering a separate practical nursing certificate two years ago, and they have seen their numbers grow, Solt says. They can seat 117 nursing students, and typically draw around 450 applicants.

Their separate practical nursing program allows them to seat another 40 students, which draws 150 applicants.

What's more, their certified nurse's assistant program, which is a prerequisite for both nursing degrees, fills its 100 spots on the first day of registration.

Starting this fall, they also will be able to offer their nursing students who have completed their associate degree at COD the chance to complete their bachelor of science degree at Northern Illinois University.

Similar degree-completion partnerships with NIU exist at Harper, Elgin Community College and the College of Lake County.

Already, COD nursing students can enroll in a fast track course through Benedictine University in Lisle that allows them to complete their bachelor's degree in one calendar year.

"We're seeing a lot of the acute care hospitals encouraging their nurses to get their bachelor's degree," says Karen Solt, associate dean of health science at the College of DuPage. "An increased educational level leads to an increase in the quality of patient care that is delivered."

Article source: Dailyherald.com

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Challenge, Teamwork Key to Cardiac Care Nursing

By Eileen O. Daday | Daily Herald Staff

Andy Gomes represents a growing trend in the field of nursing: males nurses.

At Delnor Community Hospital in Geneva, where Gomes works in the cardiac intensive care unit, male nurses work in nearly every unit, with a slightly heavier concentration in the operating room.

"Male nurses are in big demand," Gomes says. "They seem to gravitate toward the more technical aspects of nursing, like the intensive care unit and operating room."

Gomes originally thought of pursuing pre-med in college, but when his scholarship opportunities dried up, he had to rethink his options. Two of his aunts are nurses, he says, and his father was a minister while he was growing up, so he found himself drawn to the personal side of nursing, and the chance to spend more time with patients and their families. He completed his registered nursing degree at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove. Gomes found a job first at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb on the medical oncology unit, and later the intensive care unit at night.

"That's what I like about nursing - there are so many opportunities to try something different," Gomes says. "If one place doesn't seem like a good fit, you can always try something else."

When Delnor opened its new cardiac care center, Gomes seized the chance to work in a new unit, and during a day shift. For the last eight years, he has worked in its cardiac intensive care unit, where he now is a charge nurse. Gomes works 12-hour shifts, typically three days a week, and attends meetings and classes on the fourth day. "It's a pretty nice schedule, especially for family life," says Gomes, who with his wife, has two young children.

As a charge nurse, Gomes comes in a half-hour earlier than the rest of his shift, to read over reports and assign the staff their patients for the day. He doesn't assign himself the most critical patients, so that he can be available to help other nurses or serve as a sounding board if they need to bounce something off him.

"There's a real team environment to the job, and I enjoy that," Gomes says, "and every day presents something different. Patients are always in different stages, and the physicians ask you a lot of questions, so you have to be on your toes.

"You never have the same day twice," he adds, "and I like the challenge in that."

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Male Florence Nightingale Stands Tall

By Voon Miaw Ping

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama) -- People like Mohd Hafiz Hamzah are a minority in a profession dominated by females.

But as a male nurse in a society where nursing is still viewed as a profession for the fairer sex, he and the few others like him have managed to stand tall and be proud of the career they have chosen.

Mohd Hafiz has worked at the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani for three years now.

"I came across nursing as a profession during a career expo after I had just completed SPM. I was able to develop my interest in the subject and since then I have had no regrets, " he said.

Speaking to Bernama at the International Nurses Day celebration officiated by Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) here today, Hafiz, 25, said that besides the constant challenge of working at the general surgery section, the job also offered a promising future.

"The prospect is very good. Well-trained nurses, especially those who specialise in certain areas, always command good demand in a situation now where the people are placing high priority on healthcare," he said, adding that he was considering specialising in intensive care.

For Muhamad Kamil Che Hasan, also 25, his launch into a career as a male nurse has been the beginning of an exciting journey.

He started work at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan six months ago.

"I studied Health Science and Nursing at USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) and I chose to specialise in nursing despite very few male students having opted for it.

"My family was supportive of my career choice. Acceptance from fellow nurses and colleagues was no problem and they are ever willing to teach me the trade," he said.

Rather, he said, the discrimination was from society at large which still perceived nursing as a female profession.

"This view needs to be corrected. In fact, it provides the men with lots of career opportunities to progress.

"At the same time, I also hope more guys will take up nursing because, in some cases like what I have experienced, some male patients would feel more comfortable when dealing with male nurses, especially when it is related to masculine issues," he added.

To date, there are only 461 male nurses nationwide compared to 78,483 female nurses.

Earlier, when speaking to reporters, Liow said he also hoped to see more males joining the profession in the future.

He said the ministry was committed to increasing the number of nurses, especially in the specialist and sub-specialist areas such as coronary and pediatric care.

He also hoped to improve the nurse/patient ratio from the present 1:375 to 1:200 by the end of 2015.

Liow said the 64 nursing colleges in the country produced an average of 6,000 graduate nurses annually.

He said he would propose to the Cabinet to gazette May 12 as Malaysia Nurses Day.

-- BERNAMA

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No More Nursing Shortage?

There's no more nursing shortage, thanks to the recession

by Kimberly Morrison Staff Writer
Source: Jacksonville Business Journal

Alison Carpenter is fresh from graduation at the University of North Florida with ink barely dried on her nursing degree, and she’s realizing the grim reality of entering the work force.

She knows that even as a newly graduated nurse, she might not be working as one any time soon.

Health care officials say the nursing shortage that has plagued hospitals for years has, at least temporarily, been alleviated.

The recession has prompted many nurses to re-enter the work force while others have delayed retirement. Those employment trends, coupled with staff reductions at many hospitals, have made for few job opportunities for nursing students exiting colleges across the country.

Debra Hernke, chief nursing officer for Mayo Clinic Florida, said the Jacksonville hospital typically gets up to 150 applications for nursing positions, and would hire 20 or “as many new graduates as possible.” This summer, Mayo expects to hire fewer than 10, and most of those will be internal hires of students already working in some other capacity.

Mayo, like many hospitals, has seen a significant decline in turnover as nurses with jobs cling to them, and is staffing as efficiently as possible.

“We are seeing many nurses picking up extra shifts, nurses returning to the work force, and older nurses delaying retirement in an effort to increase their income during the tough economic times,” said David Alexander, president of Soliant Health, a health care staffing arm of Jacksonville-based MPS Group Inc. (NYSE: MPS)

That means the days of soaring pay, hiring incentives and attractive benefits packages that hospitals have used to attract nurses in prior years have all but disappeared. Students like Carpenter, one of 60 nursing students who just graduated from UNF, will have to fight harder for the few jobs that are available.

“There aren’t a lot of jobs,” Carpenter said. “It’s something that nursing students graduating today struggle with.”

Graduates outstrip jobs
Dr. Pam Chally, dean of the Brooks College of Health at UNF, said she knows that there will be “significantly” fewer jobs than nurses graduating this year, a trend she and others began noticing in January. She is advising her new graduates, who might have otherwise held out for the best shifts in a good unit, to consider applying to a public health department or hospice facility, and make themselves available for less desirable night and weekend shifts.

“We’ve really tried to encourage them to be very open and creative at trying to locate job possibilities,” Chally said. “There just isn’t the demand right now, especially in hospitals.”

While students are forced to be more flexible, hospitals have the unfamiliar luxury of being picky about their hires, and are looking for more nurses with a bachelor’s degree and experience working in health care.

Carpenter said just three of her classmates had secured jobs by graduation. Even her year and a half of experience working as a nursing technician for St. Vincent’s HealthCare is no guarantee that the hospital, which has undergone three rounds of layoffs in the past two years, will hire her full time. In past years, a bit of experience might have made her a shoo-in for a nursing job.

Harsh market
Carpenter, who is from Orlando, said she has just two weeks following her licensing exam in May before the lease to her apartment expires. If she doesn’t have a job by then, she’ll have to return home to live with her parents.

It’s a story that can be told right now from virtually any U.S. college, where graduating students are facing one of the harshest job markets in a generation.

Dwight Cooper, CEO of Jacksonville-based PPR Healthcare Staffing, which places traveling nurses in jobs, calls it “the lost class.”

“One big byproduct of this change in shortage is a whole bunch of students will have difficulty getting jobs when they graduate in the spring and summer,” Cooper said. “It will result in some subset of graduates who would have otherwise ended up working in hospitals to end up never working in hospitals. That’s a problem because this break in the shortage will be short-lived. This lost class will contribute to a critical shortage later.”

Industry experts agree. They say that like the last recession, once the economy improves, nurses who would otherwise not be in the work force will leave their jobs. Meanwhile, an aging baby boomer population and declines in students enrolling in nursing programs will continue.

Alexander said Soliant is predicting a shortage of up to 275,000 nurses by 2010, and as many as 1 million by 2020.

“The shortage is a long-term issue because the nurses who are coming back don’t want to work full time,” Alexander said. “We will still have an aging work force, a growing demand for health care and a shortage of nurses coming out of college.”

Tracking job placement
Chally said some of the new nursing graduates at UNF are already considering graduate school to delay entering the work force, and an additional 80 nursing students will graduate in June and August.

In the meantime, she’ll be keeping a close eye on job placement for the most recent graduate class.

“I think the students have a pretty positive attitude about all this,” Chally said. “We’ve had close to 100 percent employment, always. So it will be important as we move through the summer to carefully track their job placement. I really think that in the next six months, most of them will find positions.”

kmorrison@bizjournals.com | 265-2218

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Male Nurses Assaulted More Than Female

Male nurses in Canadian hospitals and nursing homes in 2005 were much more likely to be physically assaulted by a patient than female nurses, officials said.

Statistics Canada reported 46 percent of male nurses said they had been physically assaulted by a patient in the previous year, compared with 34 percent of female nurses.

The report also indicated 55 percent of male nurses and 46 percent of female nurses said they experienced emotional abuse.

The report covered the approximately 218,000 nurses who delivered direct patient care in hospitals or long-term care facilities in 2005.

Overall, three-quarters were registered nurses, 24 percent were licensed practical nurses and the remaining 1 percent were registered psychiatric nurses. Ninety-four percent of the nurses were women.

Health officials speculate the higher risk of abuse among male nurses might be greater exposure to violent patients and that male nurses might feel protective of female staff and assume the primary role in restraining aggressive patients.

Source: UPI.com and United Press International, Inc.

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Students Explore Nursing Profession Through Documentary Film Course

by Olivia Bartlett

Baltimore native Esther McCready grew up in segregated, discriminatory world and was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Nursing. At that time, the school did not admit “Negros.”

With help from NAACP civil rights leaders like Thurgood Marshall, she sued for admission to the university, and in April 1950, McCready won her right to attend classes.

In the spring semester course “Making the Science Documentary,” molecular biology and biochemistry major Christopher Doucette ‘11 had the opportunity to interview and film McCready about being the first African American woman to attend Maryland’s School of Nursing. He also interviewed Rosetta Sands, the first African American dean in the University of Maryland’s undergraduate program.

“I asked these women about their stories and really analyzed how racial relations affected their school and working experience as nurses before, during and after the Civil Rights movement,” Doucette says. “I have always been interested in how science has been represented through both still and moving images, and this class really taught me how documentaries can be effective tools in conveying information and educating the public about pressing social and scientific issues.”

Doucette and his classmates Sarah Gillig ‘09 and Vytaute Pivoriunaite ‘12 traveled to the University of Maryland School of Nursing Living History Museum, where they conducted research on the history of nursing. Each student made his or her own film for the class, which was co-taught by Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and Jacob Bricca, adjunct assistant professor of film studies.

The science and film hybrid class, designated a Service Learning Course, is designed to introduce students to topics in the life sciences and the basics of documentary filmmaking, in order to teach students the skills and art of communicating science-related issues through visual media.

Students learn technical filmmaking skills such as composition, lighting and editing, and study science documentaries to understand functional models of non-fiction filmmaking. In complementary sessions, students learned about specific diseases, at the molecular, cellular, and human level, to develop a knowledge base that enables intellectual engagement with the nursing profession.

“I wanted students to gain an appreciation of the biological sciences at the molecular and organism level, learn about diseases like cancer and diabetes that have a devastating impact on so many people, and learn about biomedical research as it relates to the nursing profession,” Hingorani explains.

The 12 enrolled students worked under the guidance of Ann Anthony, a retired home care registered nurse and educator. Anthony made arrangements for the students to meet nurses working in hospice, oncology and palliative care at Middlesex Hospital; nurses working at the Joslin Diabetes Center in New London, Conn.; and a certified nurse specializing in wound care at Middlesex Hospital. Anthony also lectured on the history of the nursing profession, explaining how the nursing profession has evolved in the past 50 years.

“I was very impressed with the integrity and open-mindedness of all the Wesleyan students, and how serious they were in their projects,” Anthony says. “It was fascinating to see how these students with no medical or nursing background approached their films with a liberal arts perspective.”

Classmates Chris Skorik ‘09, Kaitlin Halibozek ‘10 and Elliott Skopin ‘11 explored the role of gender in the field of nursing for their films. They interviewed two male nurses, one at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, and one from Middlesex Hospital, about their experiences in the profession.

“Nursing is currently dominated by about 90 percent females due to historical and cultural associations between the role females in society and nursing,” Skorik says. “As we had expected, they faced social barriers to their acceptance as nurses, especially early on in their careers. Confusion and occasional opposition was common from family members, for example ‘why aren’t you becoming a doctor instead?’ and from patients ‘wait, so you’re not my doctor?’”

All three students shot footage and interviews, and created three separate cuts based on their own preferences. From seven hours of raw footage, they created three, eight-minute documentaries highlighting different aspects of this interesting phenomenon.

This is the second iteration of “Making the Science Documentary” taught by Hingorani and Bricca. The first class, taught in Spring 2007, focused on four research labs at Wesleyan. The course is part of the interdisciplinary Science and Film Courses initiative begun in 2005 with support from Wesleyan’s Fund for Innovation, the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Doucette’s film on African American nurses and Halibozek’s film on male nursing will be shown at the 2009 Nightingale Awards for Excellence in Nursing, Connecticut’s largest state-wide nursing recognition program on April 30. Doucette’s film will be shown at a gala in Hartford, and Halibozek’s film will be shown at a gala in New London.

Source: The Wesleyan Connection

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Change in Public View of Nursing

Professor says ‘dated’ views are detrimental to the profession
By Jonny Muir

FEMALE nurses are “no longer doctors’ handmaidens” and not all male nurses are gay, a university professor told an audience in Inverness yesterday in a lecture aimed at altering long-held stereotypes about the profession.

Speaking at the Centre for Health Science at Raigmore Hospital, Professor William Lauder, head of nursing and midwifery at Stirling University, said he took a “dim view of the ‘popular’ perception of nurses”.

He said: “The roles nurses are adopting in clinical settings are vastly different from the roles they filled even 10 years ago, because our profession is changing at a furious pace.”

Prof Lauder said public perception had not kept pace with that change, however, which was demonstrated in recently published research on school pupils’ views of nursing.

He said: “It was clear that the image they had of nursing was dated. Amazingly, they see female nurses as going into the profession for one thing — snaring a doctor.

“Just as surprisingly, they also see male nurses as gay. Their view of nursing was like something out of a Carry On movie.”

Prof Lauder said the lingering negative view of nursing was detrimental to the profession, particularly in an era when many nurses command large salaries. He said: “The problem is that there are few communications vehicles which accurately reflect the modern image of nursing to either nurses or the public.”

Explaining that nurses are often portrayed in one of two ways, he added: “The BBC way is Holby City, where doctors, mostly male, play the hero, while nurses make tea.

“Others portray nurses as poorly paid, constantly being at risk of physical abuse and suffering from low morale.

“Nurses are by nature self-deprecating. They tend to adopt a poor view of themselves and when they’re constantly being told how bad things are for nursing and nurses, that’s hardly surprising.

“The reality is that we’re a confident, high-achieving, very successful profession.

The NHS could be run without medics, but it cannot be run without nurses, and it’s surprising how seldom that particular message comes across.

“Ever since Florence Nightingale first encountered opposition in the 19th century, the feeling has been that educating nurses was a mistake.

“Even today, there are still vestiges of that old idea that women could either be educated or they could be nurses, but they couldn’t be both.”

Source: PressAndJournal.co.uk

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Male Nurses Praise Job

though still minority.

By Jessica Beym
jbeym@sjnewsco.com

When Jason Mejzak walks into a hospital room with his white lab coat on, the patients almost always calls him "doctor."

But the 35-year-old Williamstown resident isn't a doctor. He does however, have a slew of initials following his name RN, BSN, CMSRN, and CBN.

Mejzak is the nurse manager of the Surgical Care Unit at Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Washington Township.

And as a male in a field that's saturated by women, the gender stereotype is one that Mejzak encounters often.

"When I round on patients, I do take my lab coat off because I normally wear scrubs to work," Mejzak said. "Even then they say ÔOh, the doctor's here.' I have to explain to them, I'm the nurse manager."

Of the nearly 2.7 million licensed registered nurses in the United States only 5.4 percent of them are men, according to MinorityNurse.com.

But for Mejzak, there's something special about being a nurse rather than a doctor, despite the fact that the majority of his colleagues are women.

He came from a family of nurses his father was a nurse for more than 40 years, and so was his mother, which is how the two met.

"I actually started in school to be a pharmacist, taking courses in science and everything," said Mejzak. "Then I did a quick rotation through a hospital and realized I did like nursing. And my parents encouraged me to go into it."

Mejzak said he enjoys having more time to spend with the families and the patients.

"My brother is a physician," he said. "I personally just prefer to be at the bedside more."

Drew Cahill, RN, BS, MBA, and a nurse manager at the Intensive Care Unit at Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Cherry Hill hasn't been immune to any stereotypes either.

The 40-year-old North Wildwood resident started out with a degree in exercise physiology.

"I was working in cardiac rehab for a lot of years doing the same thing nurses were doing and they were getting paid a lot more money than I was," Cahill admitted.

But then his younger sister went into nursing school and Cahill decided to enroll with her.

"It was interesting because she was 20 and I was 25," Cahill said. "There were only eight guys in the nursing school and only three of us graduated."

Dr. Linda A. Carrick, chief nursing officer at Kennedy Health System, said the history of men in nursing has an interesting story.

For centuries, men dominated the nursing field, she explained, saying that it first goes back to 250 B.C. when the first nursing school in the world was started in India, when "only men were considered to be pure enough to become nurses." Men also risked their lives during the Black Plague epidemic to provide nursing care.

The first identified nurse in the United States when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock was also a man, Carrick explained.

"The history of men in nursing is very closely tied to the military," Carrick said. "But then in 1901 the Army Nurse Corps was formed and only women could serve as nurses. That actually was a big turning point for nursing becoming more female dominated."

It wasn't until after the Korean War that men were again permitted to serve as nurses in the military, Carrick explained. Prior to that, those who were registered nurses enlisted and were drafted but weren't assigned as nurses.

And with men gradually being allowed back into the military as nurses, civilian nursing for men also increased. The percentage of men in the field increased from less than one percent in 1966 to five percent in 1996, according to the American Nursing Association.

Those numbers have continued to climb. In the 2006 Survey of Men in Nursing, conducted by American Mobile Healthcare, 85 percent of the more than 1,500 male nurses interviewed said they were "mostly" or "very" satisfied with their jobs and 82 percent would recommend the nursing profession to other males.

Both Cahill and Mejzak would agree.

"I'd say to anybody it's a great job," Mejzak said. "It's an opportunity where every single day you work you have a chance to impact someone's life."

Cahill said he still gets asked all the time, whether someone should enroll in nursing school.

"I tell them 'absolutely' every time," he said.

Source: The Gloucester County Times

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Tri-Council on the Nursing Shortage

Strategies to Reverse the New Nursing Shortage

The following is a combined statement from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), American Nurses Association (ANA), American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) and National League for Nursing (NLN).

There is no simple description of the status of the nursing work force shortage, present and future. Discussion surrounding this issue is complex and interrelated. It is not possible to isolate single factors or solutions. Rather, a systems perspective review gives the greatest depth and understanding of the relationships between multiple variables. It is critical to include the systematic issues in education, health delivery systems and the work environment. Further, the impact of reimbursement, legislation, regulation and technological advances must also be considered. Failure to consider the relationships among these aspects limits the full appreciation of the nursing work force shortage complexity.

The Tri-Council is an alliance of four autonomous nursing organizations each focused on leadership for education, practice and research. While each organization has its own constituent membership and unique mission, they are united by common values and convene regularly for the purpose of dialogue and consensus building. The Tri-Council's diverse interests encompass the nursing work environment, health care legislation and policy, quality of health care, nursing education, practice, research and leadership across all segments of the health care delivery system. Member organizations believe the alliance captures the collectivity of nursing's social, political, professional and moral authority nationally and internationally to influence and provide stewardship within the profession of nursing.

The New Nursing Shortage
Today's nursing shortage is very real and very different from any experienced in the past. The new nursing shortage is evidenced by fewer nurses entering the work force; acute nursing shortages in certain geographic areas; and a shortage of nurses adequately prepared to meet certain areas of patient need in a changing health care environment. As a result, there is a growing realization that the supply of appropriately prepared nurses is inadequate to meet the needs of a diverse population - and that this shortfall will grow more serious over the next 20 years.

The actual size of the nursing shortage is difficult to quantify. Registered nurses currently comprise the largest number of health care professionals in the United States. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor and from studies within the nursing profession indicate there has been a steady increase in nurses entering the profession that would appear to be sufficient to fill nursing jobs. Indeed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, growth in actual job demand for nurses dropped during the years 1992-1997 to an annual average of 2.7 percent. This compares with a 3.6 percent annual average job growth rate for the previous 6 years. During roughly the same time period (1992-1996) surveys within the nursing profession show that the number of registered nurses employed in nursing practice rose annually by an average of 3.4 percent, culminating in an employment rate of nearly 83 percent of the registered nurse population in 1996.

Numbers Are Deceptive
Traditional employment statistics are deceptive and inadequate to measure the scope of what is actually taking place in health care. Research indicates that the standard dynamics of supply, demand and need with regard to nursing have been altered by variations in health delivery systems, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and even by regional and local customs and culture. How care is delivered, where it is delivered and how it is paid for are issues that directly impact the need for nursing services. Moreover, the increasing age of the general population and the growing need for management of chronic disease conditions suggest that the overall requirement for nursing services will increase.

The current, aging nursing population and the declining number of nursing professionals in the academic pipeline indicate that the nursing shortage will only grow more serious as time ensues. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) reports that the number of individuals taking the NCLEX exam each year has declined consistently since 1994. The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) reports that in areas where the most acute shortages seem to exist, some hospitals are closing units, diverting patients and canceling surgeries because there are not adequate numbers of professional nursing personnel.

Disturbing Future Trends
One of the most critical problems facing nursing and the nursing work force is the aging of nurses and nursing faculty. The present average age of employed registered nurses is 43.3 years, with registered nurses who are less than 30 years old representing only 10 percent of the total working nurse population. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), nursing school associate professors and assistant professors are an average age of 52 and 49 years. These figures track with the average age of medical school professors, 45 percent of whom were age 50-59, and with pharmacy professors, 46 percent of whom were age 50-59 at the time of the survey. However, this comparison does not hold true with regard to new doctoral recipients within the health sciences and other fields. In 1996, the average age of new doctoral recipients within nursing was 45 years. According to the National Research Council and the National Opinion Research Center, the average age of new doctoral recipients was 34 in all fields, 39 in the health sciences, and 44 for education majors. The aging of nursing faculty will impact the capacity of nursing schools to educate sufficient numbers of registered nurses to meet future demand.

These numbers do not address the skills, capabilities and educational mix that are required to meet health care needs today and for the foreseeable future. Enrollments in all basic RN preparation programs have declined each year for the past 5 consecutive years. According to the NLN, between 1995 and 1999, the number of programs of most types has increased in the United States. Despite this overall growth in the total number of nursing programs (from 3,137 to 3,220 or 2.6 percent), the number of students enrolled in and graduating from nursing programs has declined with the exception of a 4 percent increase in doctoral programs. Consistent with enrollment declines, an overall decline in graduations from all types of programs was 13.6 percent between 1995 and 1999. The clear trend is toward an increase in the number of programs occurring simultaneously with a decrease in the number of enrollments and graduations from those programs.

The National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) has recommended that by 2010, at least two-thirds of all registered nurses hold baccalaureate or higher degrees. Presently, only 32 percent of registered nurses are prepared at the baccalaureate level and an additional 10 percent educated at the master's level or above. NACNEP projects that only 36 percent of the total registered nurse population in 2010 and 37 percent in 2020 will have a baccalaureate degree as their highest level of preparation.

Based on these and other statistics from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, the Division of Nursing within the Bureau of Health Professions predicts that demand for full-time equivalent RNs will begin to exceed supply by 2010. The gap is expected to grow wider in ensuing years - particularly if nothing is done to promote the retention of older and more experienced nurses.

Focus on the Workplace
Constant change in the health system challenges the notion that one nurse can be all things to all people. Nurses with varied education and practice competencies bring different skills to patient care, and they must be able to practice to the fullest potential of these capabilities. To compete as attractive professional destinations, practice environments must recognize and reward these differences by defining nurses' roles, and by utilizing and compensating nurses according to their different educational preparation and competencies.

The nature of the care environment in which they practice is another significant contributing factor to the difficulty in recruiting and retaining registered nurses. Although low pay rates continue to be cited by nurses as a professional drawback, surveys indicate that the leading factors given for turnover in the nursing profession are workplace issues. A 1999 study by William Mercer Inc. found the primary reason for nurse turnover is "increased market demand" exacerbated by underlying causes such as "dissatisfaction with the job, the supervisor or career prospects." The second most cited reason for turnover in the nursing profession according to Mercer was "workload and staffing." These are fundamental problems that stand separate from the issues related to the supply and demand for nursing services. Unless issues related to the care environment are addressed, strategies to increase the overall supply of nurses will not be successful.

Strategies for the Future
The Tri-Council recognizes that others have voiced concerns about the nursing shortage and that many organizations have identified gaps, made recommendations and implemented strategies to address nursing work force issues. Many of these recommendations are relevant today.

However, in order to encourage the development of nursing personnel with skills appropriate to the health care system, the public, policy makers and the profession must engage in ongoing long-term work force planning, regardless of the perceived or real pressures related to the short-term demand for nursing services. Without measures to reverse the trends discussed above, the nation is in danger of experiencing serious breakdowns in the health care system. Strategies to recruit and retain are costly and must be done with some assurance that these efforts will be accompanied by specific strategies to overcome work force issues that discourage long-term commitment to a career in nursing. Therefore, the following recommendations are made to address a number of concerns.

Education
Develop career progression initiatives to:

• Move nursing graduates through graduate studies more rapidly
• Identify the range of options available beyond the entry-level role such as faculty, researcher and administrator.
• Institute an education and practice system to promote more equitable compensation in the health care community based on a better understanding of the educational preparation required for different health care roles.
• Support health care employers to create and sustain staff development programs and lifelong learning for continued competence.
• Reach out to youth (ages 12-18) through counselors, youth organizations, schools and other outlets to promote recruitment of a younger, more diverse population of nursing students.

Work Environment
Implement specific strategies to retain experienced nurses in the provision of direct patient care, such as:

• Introducing greater flexibility into work environment structure and scheduling programs
• Rewarding experienced nurses for serving as mentors and/or preceptors for new registered nurses
• Implementing appropriate salary and benefit programs.
• Rewarding experienced nurses for serving as mentors and/or preceptors for new registered nurses
• Create a partnership environment that advances the practice of nursing by:
• Establishing appropriate management structures within the health care system
• Ensuring adequate nurse staffing
• Providing nurses with sufficient autonomy over their practice in all settings
• Redesign work to enable an aging work force to remain active in direct care roles.
  

Legislation and Regulation

• Advocate for increased nursing education funding under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act and other publicly funded initiatives to improve the capacity and resources for education of an appropriate nursing workforce.
• Advocate for better identification of registered nursing services within Medicare, Medicaid and other reimbursement systems.

Technology, Research and Data Collection

• Investigate the potential for using technological advances to enhance the capacity of a reduced nursing work force.
• Support workforce planning by the Division of Nursing and other public or private organizations to develop models for health workforce planning that consider both the need and demand for nursing services.
• Promote consistent data collection at the national, state and local level to account for variations at each level to enable appropriate workforce planning for registered nurses.

References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (1998). As registered nurses age, nursing schools seek to expand the pool of younger faculty. (Issue Bulletin) Washington, DC: Author.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (1999). Faculty shortages intensify nation's nursing deficit. (Issue Bulletin) Washington, DC: Author.

American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2000). Perspectives on the nursing shortage: A blueprint for action. (Monograph Series) Washington, DC: Author.

Moses, E. (1998). The registered nurse population: Findings from the national sample survey of registered nurses 1996.Washington, DC. Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services.

National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. (1996). Report to the secretary of the department of health and human services on the basic registered nurse workforce. Rockville, MD: Author. Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing,

National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999). Licensure and examination statistics. Chicago, IL: Author.

National League for Nursing. (2000). Unpublished Data. New York, NY.

National Opinion Research Data. (1996). Chicago, IL: Author.

National Research Council. (1996). Survey of earned doctorates. Washington, DC: Author.

William M. Mercer Inc. (1999) Attracting and retaining registered nurses - survey results. Chicago: Author

Source: LPN.advanceweb.com

See also:
AHA on the Nursing Shortage
NCSBN on the Nursing Shortage

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NCSBN on the Nursing Shortage

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) understands that the need for public protection through regulation has never been greater, due in large part to the nursing shortage. Failure to maintain standards of practice could lead to an increase in errors, increased risk for patient harm and a lack of public confidence.

During shortages of health care professionals, one potential and predictable policy direction is to deregulate, thereby reducing practice standards. As the primary mission of NCSBN and its member boards of nursing is protection of the public's health and safety, any such trend of deregulation is assumed to increase the risk of harm to patients. Therefore, the nursing regulatory community is actively working to assure an adequate supply of competent licensed nurses through a number of initiatives. Boards of nursing will:

• Participate strategically in state and national initiatives created to address nursing supply and demand issues.
• Influence national, state and local efforts to improve patient safety in health care.
• Continue timely, humane and effective intervention when state nurse practice acts are violated.
• Support regulatory authority over nursing scope of practice.
• Maximally utilize current categories of nursing and unlicensed assistive personnel without lowering standards and in accordance with regulations.
• Track workplace-related complaints and issues brought to the attention of boards of nursing.
• Collect, analyze and disseminate comprehensive data describing present and future nursing education and practice environments as related to public protection.
• Uphold standards for entry into the profession, including requirements for U.S. licensure for graduates of foreign nursing schools.

An increasingly growing shortage of nurses, anticipated to reach critical proportions by 2010, is a matter of public protection. Inadequate numbers of appropriately prepared professional nurses threatens the nation's health and safety.

NCSBN continues to support the education and licensure of practical/vocational nurses, registered professional nurses and advanced practice nurses. NCSBN also supports regulatory oversight of nursing assistants and other unlicensed assistive personnel. Coordinated efforts to promote nursing and to ensure an adequate supply of nurses in the future will serve both the public and the nursing profession's best interests.

NCSBN strongly opposes the implementation of any expedient solutions to the shortage that lead to the inefficient and unsafe delivery of nursing care because of the likely adverse impact on public health, safety and welfare.

Collaboration among those who practice nursing, educate nurses, supervise nurses and regulate nursing is essential to maintain the public's trust, health, safety and welfare during the predicted nursing shortage ahead. The NCSBN pledges its support to assist in seeking solutions for the nursing shortage from the perspective of regulatory public protection.

The mission of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing is to lead in nursing regulation by assisting member boards, collectively and individually, to promote safe and effective nursing practice in the interest of protecting public health and welfare.

For more information about the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, go to www.ncsbn.org

Source: LPN.advanceweb.com

See also:
AHA on the Nursing Shortage
Tri-Council on the Nursing Shortage

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AHA on the Nursing Shortage

Taken in part from the interim policy statement from the American Hospital Association: "Workforce Supply for Hospitals and Health Care Systems-Issues and Recommendations," addressing the non-physician work force.

Read through what the AHA has to say on the nursing shortage. Know what issues are being considered by hospitals and health care systems and how they would recommend addressing it.

Issues for Consideration by Hospitals and Health Systems
1. Health care executives and trustees need to adopt a long-term time horizon for work force supply. To correct the shortage, executives must assure that the hospital has the staying power to focus on work force for the full education, recruitment, career development and retention pipelines.

2. Hospital boards and senior management teams need to recognize that the supply, development and satisfaction of caregivers and supportive personnel is a critical success factor for the organization. Human resource issues are and should always have been strategic issues for the leadership team rather than simply tasks delegated to a functional department.

3. Hospital leadership needs to consider investing in innovations that establish a competitive, if not preferred, work environment, including: 1) information technologies that reduce manual documentation and repetitive administrative task; 2) work schedules that provide more employee flexibility; and 3) work roles that emphasize professional competencies and contributions rather than those defined by bureaucracy, administrative procedures and regulatory requirements.

4. Increasingly, hospitals and health systems will have to create the capacity to develop the staff skills necessary for their survival.

Many hospitals have had limited involvement in formal education or career development programs. They have been able to post vacancies and recruit fully trained staff from outside their organization. Clinical and non-clinical education and career development programs that upgrade skills and help personnel transition from one career to another are becoming critical success factors for hospitals and health systems.

Hospitals need to consider innovations that encourage present staff to obtain additional training and enter new careers in order to facilitate career development, upward mobility and increased employee tenure.

5. Hospitals and health systems need to broaden their work force initiatives to reach populations that have not traditionally been employed throughout health care. Regional initiatives that combine the efforts of multiple institutions are needed as well as individual hospital initiatives.

In some cases, nursing as an example, the pool of applicants remains primarily female. In other cases, minorities are found only in the lower paying positions. Meeting the work force challenge will require expanding the pool of interested people to reflect fully the diversity of our society.

As society becomes more diverse and patients come from an increasing number of racial, ethnic and national backgrounds, hospitals need to recruit a more diverse work force that can readily understand, relate to and communicate with their patient population

6. Despite the economic pressures faced by hospitals, compensation strategies need to be reviewed and evaluated.

Hospital careers are demanding. Hospital staff care for patients who are scared and vulnerable. Hospital occupations often require advanced education and continuing training. Unless hospitals provide compensation that is comparable to positions with similar education and responsibility, some potential workers will seek other positions. Comparable compensation is a serious challenge to hospitals with revenues limited by administered prices for Medicare, Medicaid and other patients. The challenge is made more difficult if hospitals engage in "bidding wars" that raise compensation costs without attracting additional staff to the work force.

In the past decade, many for-profit businesses have provided large numbers of employees with stock ownership as a means of attracting, retaining and improving the productivity of employees. As business increasingly uses stock to compensate employees, non-profit hospitals without the opportunity to provide stock options must develop other benefits and compensation approaches to remain competitive. For example, some hospitals have found incentive compensation programs and "gainsharing" are approaches that appeal to workers.

7. Hospitals and health systems, individually and collaboratively, need to consider establishing new relationships with schools, colleges and universities.

K-12 education is the basic building block of the hospital work force. Unless primary and secondary schools provide students with skills and attitudes necessary to hold jobs and develop careers, employers of all types will face a work force shortage. As corporate citizens in their communities, hospitals and health systems should consider working with school systems to evaluate and improve performance; assure that students take the language, math and science courses necessary to have the foundation for health care careers, and assure that career possibilities in health care are given visibility.

Participation in K-12 education also offers hospitals the opportunity to increase exposure to hospital careers. Fortunately, most young people are healthy and have only limited contact with hospitals. As a result, many do not appreciate the wide range of career interests and positions offered by hospitals. Involvement with school counselors, science fairs, school clubs and extra-curricular activities offer hospitals an opportunity to increase awareness of hospital careers.

Many health care careers require post-secondary education with a hands-on clinical training component. Historically, the bulk of clinical training has been provided in a large but limited number of mostly urban hospitals. Suburban and rural hospitals need to consider expanding their involvement in clinical education programs.

Experience indicates many residents who leave rural communities for higher education in an urban community will not return to rural areas unless some significant part of their education occurs in rural hospitals. Rural hospitals need to consider developing "distance learning" or "on-site learning" centers.

Issues for Consideration by the American Hospital Association
1. The shortage of personnel facing hospitals now and for the next two decades has received little attention outside the health care system. The AHA should consider establishing a Commission on Workforce for Hospitals and Health Care Providers charged: to develop bold, actionable recommendations that members, the AHA, and society can take to:

• increase recognition that human resources are a core, strategic resource of hospitals
• fully value and invest in work force recruitment, retention and development
• design work patterns and employment practices attractive to today and tomorrow's work force while improving performance and productivity
• encourage upward mobility in the work force
• make hospitals and health systems "employers of choice."

2. There is a critical need to develop and test new work designs for both caregiver and support services. This effort will be highly inefficient if individual hospitals and health systems must each develop and test new work designs. The AHA should consider creating a new organization with the primary purpose of developing, testing and sharing new work designs across multiple hospitals and systems.

3. Those from outside the hospital are often struck by the "guild" or "silo" structure of the hospital work force and by the tendency to organize work along traditional patterns.

Licensure and practice acts mirror the guild structure of the health professions and impose restrictions on the mobility of workers. The AHA should consider working with the state hospital associations and with the associations of individual occupations to remove barriers to work force mobility and to facilitate employment in multiple states.

4. While new work design approaches are being developed and tested, the AHA should consider using its publications and meetings to highlight successful recruitment and retention practices by members, as well as by other industries.

5. Hospital associations-national, state and metropolitan-need to address work force issues with the same intensity as payment advocacy. In the developing environment, inadequate staffing threatens the hospital's viability as much as inadequate payment threatens its solvency.

6. While the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recently released state-specific health work force profiles, much of the data is from 1996-1998, the AHA should consider having the Health Research and Education Trust (HRET) explore the present availability of contemporary work force data. If up-to-date data is not produced regularly for the wide range of hospital occupations, either as a single or multiple effort, HRET should consider investigating ways to stimulate and encourage the collection and publication of such data.

Conclusion
Health care is about people caring for people. Therefore, hospitals require large numbers of caregivers and support personnel. The "baby boomer" population entered the work force at roughly the same time as Medicare and Medicaid were introduced, and many baby boomers were attracted to careers in hospitals. Now, baby boomers are approaching retirement, new generations have less interest in hospital careers, and the inadequate supply of caregivers and support personnel is raising genuine operational problems.

Hospitals must actively address work force issues, including work design and the work environment, in order to care for their communities. The Strategic Policy Planning Committee has offered its ideas to encourage dialogue within the field and to stimulate hospital action, immediate and long-term. The Committee welcomes comments and insights from members about the important issue of work force supply.

Source: LPN.advanceweb.com

See also:
NCSBN on the Nursing Shortage
Tri-Council on the Nursing Shortage

Read more...

National Organizations on Nursing Shortage

National Organizations Release Position Statements on the Nursing Shortage

Several national associations have released position statements on the nursing shortage.

Update: See links below to go straight to the following nursing organizations.

AHA on the Nursing Shortage
NCSBN on the Nursing Shortage
Tri-Council on the Nursing Shortage

There are several common themes among them. Perhaps the most important is that each group recognizes the need for long-term solutions, as the shortage is predicted to grow even more drastic than what we are currently experiencing. The Tri-Council (AACN, ANA, AONE and NLN) emphasized in its statement: ".the public, policy makers and the profession must engage in ongoing long-term work force planning, regardless of the perceived or real pressures related to the short-term demand for nursing services. Without measures to reverse the trends, the nation is in danger of experiencing serious breakdowns in the health care system." Further, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing stated: "NCSBN strongly opposes the implementation of any expedient solutions to the shortage that lead to the inefficient and unsafe delivery of nursing care."

This is not to say that all of the solutions are for the nurses of tomorrow. The groups also recognize that issues such as compensation and work environments can be addressed now. Work environment issues include flexibility, adequate staffing, appropriate ancillary staff, autonomy and making nursing friendly to the aging nurse.

The need to address the work environment is supported by the study "Attracting and Retaining Registered Nurses." According to William M. Mercer Inc., an Atlanta-based human resource consulting firm, which conducted the study, the underlying cause of turnover "typically is dissatisfaction with the job itself, working conditions, the relationship with the employee's supervisor or career opportunities." Mercer advises that facilities concerned about turnover should look at their own practice and work environment, especially how it compares in the market.

The work environment issue is also coming in as the primary reason for turnover on the spot survey on this Website. Be sure to case your vote and see how your experience compares to others in your position.

Source: LPN.advanceweb.com
photo credit, allnurses.com

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Pinoy Nurses Seeking US Jobs Down 10%

Schools urged to push geriatric nursing

The number of Filipino nurses wanting to work in America declined by 10.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) reported over the weekend.

TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said a total of 4,194 Filipino nurses sought to practice their profession in America by taking the NCLEX for the first time from January to March. This was 492 fewer compared to the 4,686 that took the test for the first time in the same period in 2008.

The NCLEX refers to US National Council (of State Boards of Nursing) Licensure Examination. In the whole of 2008, a total of 20,746 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time. This was down 3.5 percent compared to the 21,499 that took the test for the first time in 2007.

“It is quite possible that the severe global economic downturn, which has hit America hard, has somewhat dampened for now the desire of some Filipino nurses to seek employment there,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.

Herrera said the US healthcare industry as a whole and hospitals there in particular continue to add staff, while other industries have been throwing out workers.

He cited a US government report showing that while a total of 5.1 million American jobs have been destroyed since the US recession began in December 2007, the healthcare sector in that country still created 30,000 new jobs monthly in 2008, plus 17,000 new jobs monthly in the first quarter of 2009.

Herrera, meanwhile, challenged the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and schools nationwide to encourage nursing students to specialize in geriatric nursing, or the provision of nursing services to elderly individuals.

“The populations of America, Japan and other industrialized countries are getting very old. There is tremendous demand now for geriatric nurses,” Herrera said.

“Our point is, if we must continue to produce and export nurses, we might as well make our programs highly responsive to the demands of the global markets. This way, fresh nursing graduates would readily obtain gainful employment overseas,” he added.

Herrera lamented that the huge oversupply of nurses locally was keeping their wages here even more depressed. “We now have more than half a million nurses looking for jobs, including the 67,220 that passed the local licensure examinations in July 2008 and February this year,” he said.

Alarmed by the surge in the number of jobless nurses, the government recently launched NARS, a program that allows them to return to their hometowns for a six-month tour of duty in return for a monthly allowance of R8,000.

NARS aims to address the glut in inexperienced nurses; the proliferation of volunteer nurses who pay hospitals to obtain work experience; and poor healthcare in the rural areas.

Lured by the promise of high-paying overseas jobs, nursing still remains the most popular college program in the country, with a total of 420,015 students currently taking up the course.

Source: MB.com.ph

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Hot Careers in Nursing

Hot Careers in Nursing
Nursing Career Information for the Non-Traditional Nurse

By Jacqui Tom

Nursing career opportunities are greater and more varied than ever before, and the demand for qualified nurses has never been higher. As the health care field becomes increasingly complex and specialized, more and more nurses are finding steady, rewarding careers beyond the traditional hospital setting. If you have a desire to help others, a fascination with cutting-edge medicine or want to explore new places and meet new people, check out five of the hottest careers in nursing.

Travel Nursing Careers

From the pristine beaches of Honolulu to the picturesque coasts of Florida, there are thousands of places in the United States, and around the world, for you to pursue a career in nursing. Travel nursing lets you be in control of your nursing career. You choose the location, nursing specialty and length of commitment for each nursing assignment. With a shortage of qualified nurses in hospitals and clinics across the country, you can find short-term work (typically eight weeks or as long as 26 weeks) in virtually any location and offering generous compensation, often ranging from $22 to $40 per hour. Many facilities also provide perks such as free housing, as well as sign-on and completion bonuses to nurses under contract.

Military Nursing Careers

Support our troops both at home and abroad as a military nurse. In addition to the honor of protecting our nation, choosing a career in the armed forces opens the door to a wide variety of educational, travel and career-enhancing benefits. In return for service in the military, you can receive financial assistance for completing nursing programs, generous financial bonuses, as well as low-cost housing, specialized training and world-wide travel opportunities. Do your part while advancing your nursing career.

Forensic Nursing Careers

Advances in the growing field of forensic science have helped law enforcement agencies bring criminals to justice. From documenting injuries to collecting valuable DNA evidence, as a forensic nurse you will be working on the front lines of justice. You will counsel assault victims, conduct physical examinations and collect evidence. You will also play a direct part in taking criminals off the street by testifying against defendants at trial. As the importance of forensic evidence continues to grow, so will the career opportunities in this exciting new field. Find the forensic nursing program for you.

Legal Nurse Consulting Careers

With some specialized training and your RN license, you could be making up to $100 to $150 per hour as a legal nurse consultant. Be a medical detective and use your nursing expertise to analyze complex medical records for your legal team. Apply your medical skills in the courtroom by testifying in court as an expert witness on a wide variety of medical malpractice, product liability and personal injury cases. Get legal nurse consultant school information to begin your rewarding career today.

Surgical Nursing Careers

As a surgical nurse, you will assist during delicate organ transplants, precision laser incisions and quadruple heart bypasses, to name a few. From preparing patients before surgery to assisting the surgeon in the operating room to charting progress in recovery, surgical nurses are there for patients every step of the way. With a mastery of clinical skills and ability to connect with people, as a surgical nurse you are an advocate for your patient during surgery. Monitoring vitals signs, alleviating discomfort and comforting anxious patients and their families are all a rewarding part of a career in surgical nursing.

Learn more from Allnursingschools.com

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