Nursing
possibilities endless
By Cassady Jeremias
On-line Forty-Niner
Nursing
majors have a positive job outlook for the
next few years despite state budget problems
and impacted nursing programs.
While almost two-thirds of the students
who apply to the program are turned away,
the students who do get in are almost guaranteed
a job after graduation.
According to nursing instructor Genevieve
Monahan, new graduates can earn about $36,000
to $40,000 a year right out of school with
plenty of room for advancement, and there
will always be jobs.
“There is a huge nursing shortage,” Monahan
said. “The shortages and surplus’s tend
to ebb and flow, this one has been four
years in the making and is driven by looking
ahead as to what the populations needs will
be in the future.”
Hospitals all over now cannot seem to hire
enough nurses, and nursing programs have
recently started asking hospitals for funding.
Hoag Hospital in Orange County agreed to
donate $100,000 a year for three years to
Cal State Long Beach’s program, enough money
to allow twelve more students to be accepted.
Despite the aid, the nursing program remains
impacted as it has for over 20 years. Students
who do not make it in have a few other options,
such as applying to a different campus or
a non-impacted community college to receive
an associate’s degree.
A year and a half ago, CSULB had 1500 pre-nursing
majors, said Loucine Huckabay, director
of the nursing department. In 2003,
due to shrinking funds and lack of building
space, there are 447.
When applying to the nursing program, Huckabay
said students are required to declare two
majors in case they don’t get into the program.
They are allowed to apply twice, and if
not accepted, they must take their second
major, or apply to a different school.
“[The nursing program takes] the people
who have the highest grades, it is very
competitive. But once you are in the program
they don’t require you to maintain them,
you only need to keep a ‘C’ average,” Jose
Rojas, senior nursing major said.
It is also a good idea to get acquainted
with the prerequisites needed early on.
“It is important to know ahead of time.
UC’s and CSU’s don’t all have the same systems,”
said Audrey San Pedro, senior nursing major,
who admitted she had applied to many campuses
from a junior college.
“It took me forever to get qualifications
for all the schools I wanted to apply to,”
she said.
Despite the threat of aging baby boomers
adding to the number of patients, and the
lack of funding required to make new nurses,
the profession does have a glimmer of hope.
“I’ve never been sorry ever. It is the best
career. You can do almost anything in nursing,”
Monahan said. “There are nursing attorneys,
psych nurses can treat patients with anxiety
disorders, there are public health nurses.
We are really entering a brand new era of
professional nursing.”
She explained that since the cost of health
care services have gone up, nurses are performing
tasks that they were not able to do in the
past, in part to save money.
A nurse with proper training and schooling
can be a nurse anesthetist, a position that
according to Monahan, pays upwards of $100,000
a year. Certified nurse first assistants
who assist in surgery, a position that used
to be reserved for doctors, can also bring
in more money than the average floor nurse,
as can nurse practitioners, a position that
requires a master’s degree.
More relief to the always-changing profession
came in 2002, in the form of the Nurse Reinvestment
Act, signed into law by President Bush.
The act, among other things, will enable
some students to be reimbursed by the federal
government after graduating if they agree
to work in a hospital with a recognized
shortage.
It will also allow scholarships to be given
to nurses pursuing an advanced degree who
upon graduation agree to teach nursing for
a specified amount of time.
“We are not short of people wanting to be
nurses,” Huckabay said. “We are short of
faculty to teach them.”
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