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"The US is on the verge of having to pay nurses a little more" is the fruition.

kazagistar 11y ago
It sounded like nursing schools are just turning away nurses. "Less qualified nurses will be hired" seems like the real outcome.
- randycupertino 11y ago
  Exactly. There are TONS of new grad nurses out there who can't get jobs. Some of them go to medical call centers or outpatient clinics because they can't get any actual clinical or hospital experience. I know about 25 people just like this in the Bay Area. What hospitals want but can't hire is some nurse with 3 years ER experience, 4 years ICU experience, who teaches ACLS and is willing to work for 65k. It's just like the "engineering shortage" ... if they increase salaries, they can get what they claim they need/can't get. Otherwise, they just need to hire and train new grads, which they totally don't want to do.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    Same here. In my area, this is one of the top professions to go into. All of them complain about how hard it is to get in and the obstacles along the way. It's so difficult that the senior ones feel a lot of pride in their position. Seem to earn it, too. So, the solution is to reduce or remove those obstacles where possible so people can get the jobs and experiences they need. I mean, 80-90% of most nurse activities I see are more about effort than arcane knowledge or skills. Could let new hires mostly do that while bringing them in for other stuff several times a day to gradually build up their experience. Hand more stuff like that off to them over time. A bunch of institutions doing this with just a handful of people at a time should make a huge difference in the availability of qualified talents starting after a few years.
lostlogin 11y ago
New Zealand has a shortage of sonographers and a growing MR tech shortage. Sonographers were paid more to work at private clinics and the public system lost staff and have been forced to outsource the work, leading to more private work and more staff leaving for private clinics. Seeking to try and prevent this happening with MRI as well as ultrasound there are moves to loosen regulation and allow staff with minimal/no training in MRI (but trained in radiography) to perform MR scans. It's interesting to watch, somehow the government health boards (and the odd private employer who can't stomach paying their staff properly) seem to think capitalism doesn't apply to them and that their crap wages aren't responsible for their staff shortages.
gozur88 11y ago
Pretty much. How is this not just a mirror image of H-1B nonsense tech journalism? The whole point here is to gin up support for an increase in whatever immigration cap applies to nurses. I'll eat my hat if there's an actual shortage that couldn't be fixed with pay raises.

It sounded like nursing schools are just turning away nurses. "Less qualified nurses will be hired" seems like the real outcome.

randycupertino 11y ago
Exactly. There are TONS of new grad nurses out there who can't get jobs. Some of them go to medical call centers or outpatient clinics because they can't get any actual clinical or hospital experience. I know about 25 people just like this in the Bay Area. What hospitals want but can't hire is some nurse with 3 years ER experience, 4 years ICU experience, who teaches ACLS and is willing to work for 65k. It's just like the "engineering shortage" ... if they increase salaries, they can get what they claim they need/can't get. Otherwise, they just need to hire and train new grads, which they totally don't want to do.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Same here. In my area, this is one of the top professions to go into. All of them complain about how hard it is to get in and the obstacles along the way. It's so difficult that the senior ones feel a lot of pride in their position. Seem to earn it, too. So, the solution is to reduce or remove those obstacles where possible so people can get the jobs and experiences they need. I mean, 80-90% of most nurse activities I see are more about effort than arcane knowledge or skills. Could let new hires mostly do that while bringing them in for other stuff several times a day to gradually build up their experience. Hand more stuff like that off to them over time. A bunch of institutions doing this with just a handful of people at a time should make a huge difference in the availability of qualified talents starting after a few years.

lostlogin 11y ago

New Zealand has a shortage of sonographers and a growing MR tech shortage. Sonographers were paid more to work at private clinics and the public system lost staff and have been forced to outsource the work, leading to more private work and more staff leaving for private clinics. Seeking to try and prevent this happening with MRI as well as ultrasound there are moves to loosen regulation and allow staff with minimal/no training in MRI (but trained in radiography) to perform MR scans. It's interesting to watch, somehow the government health boards (and the odd private employer who can't stomach paying their staff properly) seem to think capitalism doesn't apply to them and that their crap wages aren't responsible for their staff shortages.

gozur88 11y ago

Pretty much. How is this not just a mirror image of H-1B nonsense tech journalism? The whole point here is to gin up support for an increase in whatever immigration cap applies to nurses. I'll eat my hat if there's an actual shortage that couldn't be fixed with pay raises.