Photo courtesy of Albuquerque
Regional Medical Center
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| Maurcena
Wells, 64, assists in sewing a patient's head after
a post-craniotomy at Albuquerque (N.M.) Regional
Medical Center. "I plan to keep working as
long as I can," Wells said, "because I
do need the income. I still want to take trips and
do some things to the house...I have to keep working." |
The recession that ended last year turned out to be
a dark cloud with a silver lining for nursing. On the
upside, the downturn in the economy highlighted the
demand for RNs and the seeming insatiable nursing shortage.
With an almost ironclad guarantee of employment, the
recession-aided by marketing campaigns-swelled nursing
school enrollment. Second-degree programs that speed
professionals from other industries into nursing especially
flourished.
Also on the upside, RNs didn't experience the layoffs
that crippled manufacturing industries, and their salaries
continued to advance through the recession that consumed
2002.
On the downside, however, nurses may have to cope for
years with the effects of a weak and uncertain economy.
In the extreme, some RNs have come to realize that they
must continue working instead of savoring retirement.
Staffing also remains an issue, with heavier workloads
for lighter staffs, which is also a product of the recession.
"Historically, in periods of economic recession,
nursing sees an influx of new applicants. It offers
young men and women job security at a time when people
in a variety of other industries are losing jobs,"
said Judith Shindul-Rothschild, Ph.D., MSN, RN, of the
William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College.
All
Nursing Schools , an Internet resource representing
170 nursing schools, experienced a 93 percent increase
in visitors to its Web site-to about 4.8 million-and
a 95 percent jump in inquiries to schools in the year
ending Sept. 30, said Mike Mathieu, president and founder
of site owner All Star Directories.
"Second-degree students in particular, helped
along by the weak economy, are turning to nursing as
a career," Mathieu said. Inquiries do not translate
one-for-one into students, but 37 percent of the information
requests for bachelor's degree programs came from nontraditional
students, he said.
In a survey of 578 nursing schools, or about 85 percent
of four-year degree programs in the United States, the
American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported
that overall enrollment in undergraduate programs was
up more than 16 percent in the fall of 2003.
Boston College reflects the yin-yang of recession and
nursing. The college admits only its top applicants,
regardless of their field of study.
"From one year to the next, we don't know who
we're going to get," Shindul-Rothschild said. Yet
the nursing freshman class is up 53 percent, to 80 students,
"the biggest jump ever. We're thrilled," she
said, adding that nursing is attracting "very competitive
applicants" who just as easily could choose to
be in education, arts and sciences, social work or business,
and who have the underpinnings to be future nursing
leaders.
Shindul-Rothschild attributes the rush to nursing to
two things: recession and an awakened interest in service
professions in the aftermath of Sept. 11, which contributed
to the economic downturn.
Nowhere is the increasing interest in nursing school
more evident than at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
Tenn. Enrollment is a record 264 students for this academic
year, with a waiting list of more than 35 academically
qualified students. Vanderbiltthree-semester "bridge"
program for students with other degrees surged to 148
students from 124.
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