Employment Trends in Nursing

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The United States Department of Labor identifies the current trends of employment that affect the nursing world. “Registered Nurses (RN) at this time represent the largest occupation in health care, with 2.5 million jobs” (Vallano, 2008, p.169). Vallano (2008) proceeds to summarize the employment trends in nursing by giving percentages of the present nursing rate in the hospital setting and the employment rate for the future of nursing. The percentage of nurses in the hospital setting is standing at 59 percent and the employment rate for nursing is expected to reach 23 percent from the year 2006 to the future year of 2016, this rate is said to be faster than the average for all occupations (Vallano, 2008, p.169).

With the positive statistics mentioned above, how is it that a steady rise of employment for nurses can last for decades and then suddenly decline for years? Researchers have discovered some of the factors that are found to be the cause for the trends of employment in nursing. These include: nursing shortages, wages, and location of employment, gender, marital status and differences between novice and expert nurses. These factors have been researched and explained on how they affect nursing employment and also helps give an idea of the future employment trends in the nursing world.

Discussion of Pertinent Professional Literature

It is important for new graduates, present nurses, foreign nurses, and nurses who may no longer work in a health care atmosphere to understand the current and future employment trends in nursing. In the book, Your Career in Nursing: Manage Your Future in the changing world of Healthcare, Vallano (2008) identifies six criteria that any of the nurses that were mentioned above should observe i...

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...ay’s world: Trends, issues, and

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Jeffreys, M.R. (2006). Teaching cultural competence in nursing and health care. [ElectronicVersion]. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books

Spetz, J., Rickles, J., Chapman, S., & Ong, P. (2008). Job and industry turnover for registered and licensed vocational nurses. JONA. 38(9). p. 372-87. doi: 10.1097/01.NNA.0000323957.44791.b9

Vallano, A. (2008). Your career in nursing: Manage your future in the changing world of

healthcare. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books

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