The Demand for Nurses and Nursing Education Remains Strong

Highlights from a recent NurseZone News Report:

The Current State of Nursing Education Capacity and Demand
by Debra Wood RN

“Workforce analysts all agree that the current easing of the nurse vacancy rate is only temporary.”

Courtney H. Lyder, ND, GNP, FAAN, dean of the University of California, Los Angles (UCLA) School of Nursing, said, “In the next three to five years, demand for nursing is going to continue, especially because of health care reform. Nurse practitioners are stepping into the role left behind by the decrease in primary care physicians. I think you will also see more nurses in alternate settings independent of hospitals.”

“Over the next few years, we expect nursing workforce acute shortage patterns to reappear again, revealing the underlying nursing production shortage related to the aging workforce and increasing demand for health care services. Given the health care reform law, population demographics, and growing demand for care, AACN projects that interest in nursing careers will remain strong as opportunities for practice expand.”

Click on the title to read the full article.

Informatics: The Future of Nursing

"Marrying the clinical with the technological creates professional opportunites for information nurse specialists."

Have you considered specializing in Informatics?

"Information Nurse Specialists combine the expertise of nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage data gathered while caring for patients, and then making sure the IT system will aid in communicating that data to the appropriate personnel and carry out specific functions.... their role involves planning, designing, implementation, evaluation, systems maintenance, and supporting the system development life cycle along side their other professional colleagues."

Did you know that the average annual salary for information nurse specialists is approaching $85,000 annually? There are currently around 8,000 nurse informaticists but the need is 10 times that number with the wireless phenomenon happening, the need to access information at point-of-care, the EHR initiatives, the push for EBN, and other informatics developments.

Nursing Job Trends from Indeed.com

There will always be the need for qualified nursing staff -- see what qualifications are asked for the most.

MSN nurse, BSN nurse, ASN nurse, LPN nurse Job Trends

MSN nurse jobs - BSN nurse jobs - ASN nurse jobs - LPN nurse jobs

The State of Health Professions in Canada

December 1, 2008

"In a series of five new reports released today, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) provides the latest available and most comprehensive data in Canada about the supply, distribution, migration, education, demographic trends and work patterns for seven major health professions. The reports highlight changes in workforce trends over several years for physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and registered psychiatric nurses, as well as recent data for occupational therapists, physiotherapists and pharmacists."

Nursing Trend Watch: Get Ready for Change

By Linda Beattie, contributor to NurseZone.com

"What does the future hold for nurses and the country’s health care system? It certainly won’t be “more of the same.” From high-tech advances to economic downturns, nurses will need to keep their eyes on a number of trends if they want to be ready for the changes ahead."
Click on the title to read the full article ~ but note one set of statistics for job seekers to keep in mind:

The projected growth rates for RN jobs in the largest areas of employment are:
Physician offices ~ 39 percent
Home health care services ~ 39 percent
Outpatient care centers ~ 34 percent
Employment services ~ 27 percent
General medical and surgical hospitals, public and private ~ 22 percent
Nursing care facilities ~ 20 percent