By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
With the U.S. economy faltering and talk of recession and layoffs filling the airwaves and newspapers, people continue to need medical care, and nurses remain in high demand.
The U.S. Department of Labor's March 2008 Employment Situation Summary reports employment in the financial and credit markets has fallen by 116,000 since October 2006, construction has dropped 331,000 jobs since September 2006, and real estate has lost 34,000 jobs since June 2006. Health care, on the other hand, continues to grow, adding 360,000 jobs during the past 12 months.
The employment outlook continues to look bright for nurses. The Labor Department estimates employment of registered nurses will grow 23 percent from 2006 to 2016 and the country will need 500,000 new RNs by 2016.
"I've been a nurse since 1969 and have experienced different economic up and down turns," said Linda Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, senior associate dean for academics at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. "There has always been a sustained need for nurses and a shortage of nurses."
Pat Witzel, RN, MS, MBA, associate vice president and chief nursing officer at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester (New York) Medical Center, added, "Nursing is not generally affected by the economy. People becoming ill or needing health care services is not dependent on what happens economically."
Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, president-elect of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), said that while some orthopedic and elective cosmetic procedures can be delayed, cancer and treatment for acute diseases cannot. ONS's membership has grown during rough economic times.
Witzel has noted an increase in the number of nurses wanting to work additional hours related to circumstances at home that have changed due to the current financial crisis. The hospital has the hours to offer. Strong Memorial Hospital has added 200 RN positions during the past 10 years to handle increasing patient volume.
As with members of the community, nurses are aging and with the average nurse nearing 50 years, many will soon retire.
"The workforce will be consistently losing nurses during the next five, 10, 15 years, and those nurses will need to be replaced," said Hila Richardson, DrPH, MPH, BSN, professor and director of the undergraduate, continuing education and community health programs at New York University (NYU) College of Nursing.
Although enrollments have increased, schools are not producing enough nurses.
"The number of nurses who graduated has gone up during the last 40 years, but, the interesting piece is the demand for nurses also has increased," Norman said. "Nursing programs have had difficulty keeping up with the demand."
Witzel has noted "tremendous growth" in the number of people choosing nursing as a second career and completing accelerated nursing programs.
"We tend to see that as the economy is a little shaky, people will look for a career that has more stability and is mobile," Norman said.
Richardson reported many people from the financial sector have enrolled in NYU's accelerated program.
"The students are looking at nursing as offering more stability in the job market," Richardson said. "They also are looking for work that is meaningful. Sometimes working in a bank is not gratifying."
Heidi Sadowsky is one of them, now studying in NYU's accelerated program. She completed her marketing degree from NYU in 1989 and worked in the financial sector for 16 years, at CitiBank and Invesco.
Back then, "if you wanted a stable, secure, lucrative career and had a brain, you went to Wall Street, and that's what I did. But from the beginning, I never felt it was for me," Sadowsky said.
When Sadowsky's dad was hospitalized after open-heart surgery, she watched the nurses that cared for him and decided she could see herself in that role.
"It was a calling that I didn't answer until two years ago," Sadowsky said. "I love it every time I go to the clinical setting. Having five minutes with a patient and touching their lives is incredibly rewarding. I haven't looked back once. It reaffirms I did the right thing."
Although the change had more to do with her desire for something more satisfying rather than the economy, she acknowledges her "timing is good."
Multiple opportunities await her and the other new graduates.
"It's not just nurses at the bedside. Nurses are being used in so many ways," said Norman, citing nurses filling positions in quality improvement, utilization review, infection control and regulatory positions.
Nurses provide hands-on care in homes, hospices and ambulatory centers. They work for insurance, disease management and pharmaceutical companies.
Richardson said the trend toward ambulatory care and promoting wellness bodes well for nurses, because health care will require more case managers to help people with the chronic diseases associated with aging.
Likewise, as cancer treatment moves toward oral treatments, more nurses will be needed to educate patients about symptom management and the importance of compliance, Nevidjon said.
Nursing positions exist in schools, in forensics and in research, said Baumlein, adding, "The opportunities for any individual are almost endless."
Nevidjon foresees multiple opportunities for nurses willing to change with the dynamic health care marketplace and to learn new skills.
"Nursing not only is a recession-proof profession but it is one that has multiple opportunities," Norman added. "The value of nursing is being appreciated throughout the health care industry."
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