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Steps to Get Your First Nursing Position

By: Grant Eckert

By some experts' estimates, there will be a shortage of nearly 350,000 nurses (RNs) by the year 2020. And while this is significantly lower than earlier estimates, this is still not good news. The nursing shortage in the United States is coming right at the time when baby boomers are aging and the extension of the national average life span. Who is going to care for these people when they become older or have health problems? That's the biggest concern for health care professionals today.

Why are there so few nurses?

The first question that most people have when it comes to the nursing shortage is - why are there so few nurses? It doesn't seem to be an unpopular profession, so why aren't more men and women choosing nursing for their career path? There are a number of possible answers.


  • Lack of funds for education costs

  • Scheduling difficulties

  • Overworking of current nurses drives them out of the system

  • Aging of nurses leads to retirement

  • Longer life spans of patients, leading to more patients

  • Health care systems' reliance on LPNs, MAs, and home health care aides

Educational costs for college are skyrocketing for all majors and professions, making it difficult for anyone to obtain a college education. Many people who consider the nursing field can not afford the classes they need to take and they do not want to take out student loans to cover the costs.

Nursing classes are sometimes scheduled at odd hours of the day. It makes it difficult for those with job and family rYou want to make sure that you get the right job when you first leave nursing school. Using the skills that you have learned, you want to be able to make a difference in a patient's life and truly help others. But just like any other job, you need to prove to people that you are the one that is best qualified to handle the challenge. Here are some steps you need to take in order to get your first nursing position.

Go to the Best School You Can

Since nursing is a professional degree, you need to undergo professional training at a community college or local university. This will help you meet the requirements, as set by your state, to become a licensed nurse. Research your area to find the best nursing school. It is important to find a school that you can afford and that includes services for helping you get a job once you graduate. To help expedite the process of getting a job, you may want to look for a nursing school that is directly affiliated with a local hospital. This will give you a better chance of getting hired at the hospital in which you trained.

Meet and Exceed Your Requirements

It goes without saying that you will want to do your best work in order to get the nursing job that you want. Try to do well in your classes as well as volunteer. Volunteering shows your commitment to nursing and to helping people. You might also want to take classes outside of your nursing curriculum to further enhance your nursing resume.

For example, you might want to look into:

  • CPR and Heimlich training

  • Disaster response training

  • First aid classes

  • Relief volunteering

  • Hospital volunteering

By taking the time to study hard and to further see how you can help in the health field, you will begin to show others just how valuable you are in terms of being hired.

Network, Network, Network

It never hurts to network along the way when you are in nursing school. Try to talk to as many people as you can about the fact that you are a soon to be graduating nurse that wants to get a job when you're out of school. Talk to your own doctor's office and send out your resume to hospitals and offices where you would like to work – even if you haven't graduated.

What you're trying to do is get your name out there so that when you graduate, you will be the first person they think of when they need to hire someone. Or at the very least, you might be directed to other potential opportunities that can help you get a job.

Be Open to Opportunities

During all of these steps to getting your nursing degree, you will want to be open to any and all opportunities that you might come across. This means that if people want to offer you jobs or tell you where you might be able to get a job, be sure to follow up with these leads and see where they might take you. Even if you end up interviewing for jobs that don't appeal to you, you might end up meeting someone who can help you in the future.

There are ample positions within the nursing field due to the current nursing shortage, but it is important that you find the best position you can for your first job. You never know where this first step might take you.esponsibilities to make their classes.

Some current nurses are quitting their jobs to take on a new career. The lack of nurses means more responsibility for current nurses, which can lead them to feeling burnout and frustrated.

Of course, many current nurses are nearing retirement, which is further creating a shortage in the nursing field.

The longer life spans of patients are leading to more patients than ever, which is also contributing to the shortage of nurses. This is making it very difficult for nurses to keep up with their workload.

And finally, the health care system's desire to cut costs has led to increased hiring of LPNs and MAs. While these medical professionals are helping to ease the workload, there is still a driving demand for qualified RNs.

What is this doing to our Healthcare System?

To say that the lack of nurses isn't significantly affecting the health care system is untrue. Since there are fewer nurses, there are a number of effects being felt by patients, doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies.

  • Less one on one patient care

  • More burnt out nurses

  • Less attention to patient needs

  • Problems with medication dispensing

  • More medical errors

Patients are beginning to notice that they aren't able to have that one on one care that helps them feel more comfortable when they are ill. Nurses have a number of patients to take care of and are often unable to stay with one patient for a long period of time.

What is being done about the problem?

Since the problem is hard to avoid, the next obvious question is - what is being done to help increase the number of nurses? There are several different tactics hat are being implemented:

  • More scholarships for nursing students

  • Better scheduling for nursing classes

  • Lower cost nursing degrees

  • Hiring bonuses for nurses

  • Advanced accelerated nursing degree programs

  • Higher salaries and benefits for new nurses

Though the nursing shortage is much smaller than it used to be due to these efforts to keep bringing in new nursing students, there is still much more to be done.

Article Source: http://www.onestoparticles.com

About Author :
Grant Eckert is a writer for Tafford Uniforms. Tafford Uniforms is a leading provider of Nursing Uniforms | Nurse Scrubs

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