Hospitals and clinics figured that they can have the minimum regular nursing staff, and use travel nurses short term for bumps in demand. But then nurses who could do travel nursing became travel nurses, leaving more of a shortage of “regular” nurses, resulting in hospitals and clinics having to use travel nurses more, paying more for the same level of staffing, getting less institutional memory as the travel nurses come and go, and having workplace relations issues when the travel nurses are paid so much more than their regular nursing staff.
It’s not just nursing- travel positions are in rehab fields as well.
The pay is much higher, benefits are included, you can travel all over the country for positions lasting from 12 weeks to a year, etc. Not a bad experience for an adventurous young adult, but it does require clinical independence.
This is how they staff positions that are tough to fill, but it often leads to a reduced workplace climate.
Staff shortages, faculty shortages etc are impacting other fields as well, although it seems to be impacting nursing particularly hard.
Nurses do have lots of options which is why I chose the profession.
It is not unusual for my students to graduate and make more than me in less than 2 years (and I am a doctoral prepared educator).
I too think teachers are underpaid but I would not say nurses have less stress. Way too often healthcare systems are allowing unsafe staffing ratios and nurses are having to work chronically understaffed.
We don’t have a shut down in any of our community college/tech college programs here. They are accepting just as many if not more students than ever before. But the issue is there is just not clinical sites open. The school I teach at accepts 90-100 students 3 times a year. At any given time, our college alone has 300 plus students to place. Multiple this by the 11 nursing schools in my area. Post covid many clinical sites are either saying no to having students or have cut back from allowing the usual 8 students per site to only allowing 4-5 students at a time.
I teach at a second degree nursing program. Many accelerated or similar second degree programs are popping up in the last decade to give people options to enter the nursing field. It still doesn’t fix the clinical site issue or the poor pay in nursing academia.
2 Likes
I dont know that people understand how clinical works….
A cohort of students and a supervising faculty member are assigned to a hospital unit. My clinicals have eight students. We show up and the students are assisting work alongside a staff nurse. The faculty member rounds on the students and grades written work.
Imagine a bunch of students rolling into your place of work and following you for the day and wanting to do some of your work responsibilities, and you as the staff member get zero additional pay for doing this.
Nursing is a disaster. I’ve been sexually, verbally, and physically assaulted. I’ve gone without lunch breaks for YEARS. I’ve been guilted into working longer/more hours, taking heavier than recommended patient loads. Yes, nurses may make more than 100k, but depending on the region, they could easily make less than 50k. (My salary in the Midwest and Florida, since 2020, in the emergency room, with experience, advanced degrees, and certifications).
I told my kids I would not pay for school if they chose nursing as a major.
Wow. Experienced ER nurse making <50K, full time? The fact that you feel so strongly that nursing is a bad choice, that you won’t pay for school for your kids if they choose it? That is pretty compelling. I had no idea the pay could be so low in some areas of the country.
Oklahoma City, base gross pay $50,544.
Jacksonville, FL base gross pay $54,288.
Except in our area, the staff nurses will not really work with students. It is my job as faculty to teach, observe assessments, pass meds with students, do skills, answer questions but also ask socratic questions throughout the day to ensure they are developing critical thinking. I am exhausted at the end of the day.
Midwest here. I left my staff nurse job of over 20 years making the max which was about $43/hr.
Well, gosh, I’m feeling the need to chime in to say how much I love nursing and how glad I am that I made a mid-career switch to nursing. So granted, I’ve only been an RN for 4 years. I’m not yet burned out, although I can easily see why nurses get burned out. And I live in Nor Cal so I make $80/hr base pay, which I think might be on the lower end for our area. But I feel I am well-compensated for an exhausting yet rewarding job.
And I love having nursing students! Not every day, but overall, when my charge is looking for someone to pair with a student she will ask me and I will say yes. Their instructors usually have 8 students scattered throughout the hospital (2 per med/surg unit) and therefore aren’t available for all of the questions, med passes, assessments, etc. I have considered becoming a clinical instructor myself, but not for several more years. Of course, I know the pay is not good–won’t come anywhere close to what I make now.
I would be thrilled if any one of my kids wanted to become a nurse, but I don’t think it’s in the cards.
3 Likes
My area is saturated with various healthcare programs especially nursing. The south jersey/Philly/DE region has a lot of medical facilities, colleges and for profit training centers that clinical sites are spread thin. I (respiratory therapist) work at a small in patient rehab and cringe when I see nursing students. We typically have maybe 8-12 patients with varying levels of acuity and 2-4 nurses plus a couple CNAs when we’re lucky. 5 or more students with their instructor will show up and barely get to see much real care or aren’t allowed to be involved. I’ve been there when we only had 2 poor feeding infants and students were supposed to learn nursing. I do my best to give lessons on the respiratory therapies if there is any to add to their training.