Nurses who have earned their associates degree in nursing are struggling to find hospital that will hire them. Trends are changing in the nursing world, and it seems in order to get the remaining spots left at a hospital, you have to be wielding a bachelor’s degree.
The Institute of Medicine says that that by 2020, 80% of nurses will have a bachelor’s degree. This projection comes as a result of many different things. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Affordable Care Act has now put more focus on preventative care which has made hospitals want to hire nurses with a more intensive education that may not have been captured with an associate’s degree.
The Positives
This new change in the way hospitals are doing their hiring leads to better educated nurses who can provide the best care possible to their patients. A two year degree is simply not enough time to get all the learning in to take on all aspects of a nurse’s job. From a hospital’s perspective, hiring baccalaureate nurses will get them more “bang for their buck” by keeping a staff of trained nurses that don’t have to go back to school to later get their bachelor’s degree.
The Negatives
Diana Mason, president of the American Academy of Nursing says this new trend could turn away many potential nurses from entering the workforce. The associate’s option is a way for people who may be living in poverty to be able to enter the middle class and have a decent income. This may end up turning students away from becoming a nurse who cannot afford university costs of a bachelor’s degree.
While some hospitals are only hiring nurses that with bachelor’s degrees or higher, there are many that will hire with an added provision that they must receive their bachelor’s degree within a set time of working there. With all the new technology, codes, and duties a nurse must take on, a bachelor’s degree is the most effective way to get fully educated nurses into the work force.
Accomodations in the Works
According to Record and Clarion, a bill is currently in movement to have 28 community colleges in Michigan able to award four-year bachelor’s and science degrees in nursing. The bill is currently being stalled by pushback from universities saying it is an invasion of their turf. If this bill is passed, it will give access to students that don’t live near universities to receive their bachelor’s degree. This is something that will be needed greatly when the baby boomers start to retire from the health industry.
Get the Staffing Funding You Need
Healthcare staffing facilities have definitely received their fair share of nurse staffing requests with 200,000 nurses entering the workforce since 2000. With this new change in trends of hiring, you many need some extra hands on deck. PRN Funding can offer you invoice factoring services for your staffing agency to grow. Invoice factoring is an easy way to free up capital so you can hire more staff to better serve your hospital clients. Don’t let another busy year go by without having the cash flow you need to grow and succeed.
