The job market for nurses in Oregon is “starting to shift, but not rapidly,” according to Mary Rita Hurley, executive director of the Oregon Center for Nursing. “We are very excited to see what's going to be happening around the state.”
The center just released an infographic called “I Am An Oregon Nurse,” pulling together 10 years' worth of data the organization has culled on the status of nurses. Among its findings: there are just under 40,000 nurses in Oregon, and 90 percent of them are women; 47 percent have an associate's degree and 43 percent have a bachelor of science in nursing; and the average annual salary for an Oregon nurse is $81,000, with the average hourly wage being $39.
Just over half of nurses in Oregon work in hospitals, but that’s slowly changing, Hurley said, which isn't reflected in the data yet, but she expects that will happen in a few years. The job market for nurses is gradually shifting from hospitals to community care settings, public health, hospice and long-term care.
The data for the infographic are based on licensure and re-licensure statistics, so it will take a while before the center can accurately assess the direction the job market is trending.
Employers are more likely to require nurses to have bachelor's degrees largely “because they can,” Hurley said, but there are also several reasons why that’s a good idea. First, some data suggests that from a patient safety perspective, hiring more educated nurses can make a difference.
And, hospitals that compete for Magnet status -- a credentialing program by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (http://www.nursecredentialing.org/Magnet.aspx) – are more likely to seek nurses with bachelor's degrees, since that's one of the evaluating criteria, according to Kelley Ilic, communication director.
The Institutes of Medicine's Future of Nursing report set the goal of having 80 percent of American nurses have bachelor's degrees – right now that figures is roughly 50 percent.
That’s not to say anything is wrong with just having an associate's degree, Hurley said. “Some of the conflict, some of the angst comes from nurses who have 15 to 20 years of experience, and they feel like that's being discounted. I'm 55, and still in touch with two people I went to school with, who are still at the bedside, and their bosses are telling them to go back to school. They're going, 'Hey, I'm too young to retire, and going to school costs money and time. I'm glad I'm not in that boat.”
That said, many employers are putting their money where their mouth is, offering tuition reimbursement and partnering closely with universities, Hurley said. “They're not just drawing a line in the sand and saying, 'Have at it.'”
Community colleges are also telling new enrollees that their chances of finding a job will improve if they seek further education, Hurley said. “It's an ethical issue for them, and they want graduates to get jobs.”
The Oregon Center for Nursing is starting to collect data comparing the education levels of nurses currently practicing nurses compared to when they began in the field.
And, with fewer jobs for new graduates, particularly nurses with associate degrees, Hurley is concerned they’ll drift away from Oregon to place with a higher demand for nurses.
“Everybody down in Salem knows someone or has someone they care about who couldn't find a job right away” after graduating from nursing school, she said.
The problem has intensified because nursing schools are still preparing graduates to work in hospitals, and very seldom offer specializations in areas such as geriatrics, hospice or public health, and that’s where most of the jobs are. Nonetheless, schools are slowly infusing geriatric nursing into their curriculum, she said.
Hurley said there’s “never been a better time to be a nurse” despite the increased complexity of the job market. “One of the things that hasn't changed is the size of the nursing workforce, and it's just immense. It's a huge workforce that has a huge impact.”
Christen can be reached at [email protected].
Image for this story by Phalin Ooi (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr.
