RN Job Outlook - Alabama Nursing Schools and Nursing Programs

Registered Nurse Job Outlook

Employment opportunities for registered nurses in all specialties are expected to be excellent. Employment of registered nurses is expected to grow by more than 36 percent through 2012. Employment of registered nurses is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2014, and because the occupation is very large, many new jobs will result - more new jobs are expected to be created for registered nurses than for any other occupation through 2012 and the second largest number of new jobs among all occupations through 2014. Many job openings will also result from the need to replace experienced nurses who leave the occupation, especially as the median age of the registered nurse population continues to rise.

In evolving integrated healthcare networks, nurses may rotate among various employment settings. Because jobs in traditional hospital nursing positions are no longer the only option, registered nurses need to be flexible. Opportunities should be excellent, particularly for nurses with advanced education and training.

Generally, registered nurses with at least a bachelor's degree will have better job prospects than those without a bachelor's. In addition, all four advanced practice specialties - clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, midwives, and anesthetists - will be in high demand, particularly in medically underserved areas such as inner cities and rural areas. Relative to physicians, these registered nurses increasingly serve as lower-cost primary care providers.

Even though employment opportunities for all nursing specialties are expected to be excellent, they can vary by employment setting. The number of older people, who are much more likely than younger people to need nursing care, is projected to grow rapidly. Much faster-than-average job growth will be driven by technological advances in patient care, which permit a greater number of medical problems to be treated, and an increasing emphasis on preventive care.

Employers in some parts of the country and in certain employment settings are reporting difficulty in attracting and retaining an adequate number of registered nurses, due primarily to an aging registered nurse workforce and insufficient nursing school enrollments. Imbalances between the supply of, and demand for, qualified workers should spur efforts to attract and retain qualified registered nurses. For example, employers may restructure workloads, improve compensation and working conditions, and subsidize training or continuing education.

Enrollments in nursing programs at all levels have increased more rapidly in the past couple of years as students seek jobs with stable employment - however, many qualified applicants are being turned away because of a shortage of nursing faculty to teach classes. The need for nursing faculty will only increase as a large number of instructors nears retirement. Many employers are also relying on foreign-educated nurses to fill open positions.

Employment in hospitals, the largest sector, is expected to grow more slowly than in most other healthcare sectors. While the intensity of nursing care is likely to increase, requiring more nurses per patient, the number of inpatients (those who remain in the hospital for more than 24 hours) is not likely to increase much.

Patients are being discharged earlier and more procedures are being done on an outpatient basis, both inside and outside hospitals. Rapid growth is expected in hospital outpatient facilities, such as those providing same-day surgery, rehabilitation, and chemotherapy. Despite the slower employment growth in hospitals, job opportunities should still be excellent because of the high turnover of hospital nurses.

Registered nurses working in hospitals frequently work overtime and night and weekend shifts and also treat seriously ill and injured patients, all of which can contribute to stress and burnout. Hospital departments in which these working conditions occur most frequently are critical care units, emergency departments, and operating rooms. These departments generally will have more job openings than other.

To attract and retain qualified nurses, hospitals now offer signing bonuses, friendly work schedules and sometimes subsidized training. Many hospitals are also experimenting with online bidding to fill open shifts, in which nurses can volunteer to fill open shifts at premium wages. This can decrease the amount of mandatory overtime that nurses are required to work.

An increasing proportion of sophisticated procedures, which once were performed only in hospitals, are being performed in physicians' offices and in outpatient care centers, such as freestanding ambulatory surgical and emergency centers. Employment is expected to grow faster than average in these places as healthcare in general expands. Registered nurses may face greater competition for these positions because they generally offer regular working hours and more comfortable working environments.

Employment in nursing care facilities is expected to grow faster than average due to increases in the number of elderly, many of whom require long-term care. In addition, the financial pressure on hospitals to discharge patients as soon as possible should produce more admissions to nursing care facilities. Job growth is also expected in units that provide specialized long-term rehabilitation for stroke and head injury patients, as well as units that treat Alzheimer's victims.

Employment in home healthcare is expected to increase rapidly in response to the growing number of older persons with functional disabilities, consumer preference for care in the home, and technological advances that make it possible to bring increasingly complex treatments into the home. The type of care demanded will require nurses who are able to perform complex procedures.

Annual earnings of registered nurses vary by employer size and type. Median annual earnings for Registered Nurses are over $52,330 but the highest 10 percent earn more than $75,000.

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