CampusRN Job Blog
Healthcare curing what ails Dallas-Fort Worth’s jobs market
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Take away the healthcare industry, and the North Texas economy might look like California or another distressed state.
For the past decade, healthcare has been generating most of the job growth in this area, and often the only increases. The trend is similar nationwide, but the rate is faster here, because our population is rising, and Dallas-Fort Worth is drawing more patients and workers from beyond the region.
For all the hype about the exceptional Texas economy, Dallas-Fort Worth actually lost jobs from 2004 to 2009, as the recession deepened. But during the same period, the number of healthcare workers jumped 22 percent, according to a recent report from the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce.
My own analysis tracked those results. Tarrant County, which benefited from a natural gas boom, owed almost two-thirds of its private job growth to healthcare from 2001 to 2009. In Dallas County, total private jobs fell 11 percent in the period, while healthcare employment rose 28 percent. In fast-growing Collin County, healthcare jobs doubled in that time.
posted in: news, Employer News, Texas
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Hospital officials address House
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Anticipating a House budget vote later this week, hospital officials spoke warned of the possible effects of the budget cuts. Here is a press release sent out by the Texas Hospital Association on the subject:
posted in: Texas
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2011 TNSA 63rd Annual Convention
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Texas Nursing Students’ Association 63rd Annual Convention
February 24-26, 2011
Moody Gardens Hotel
Seven Hope Boulevard
Galveston, Texas 77554
posted in: Event, Employer News, Texas
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Nursing school to open, despite possible health cuts
Monday, January 31, 2011
Proposed budget cuts to the state’s Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Fund have not halted the forward motion of a new Houston nursing school on track to open in February.
Texas has previously invested in increasing the number of nurses, and Texas nursing schools have been working to expand the number of graduates, but many worry that the state’s proposed slashing of $49.7 million to the Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Fund will turn back the progress that has been made and result in higher nurse vacancy rates in area hospitals.
posted in: Education, Texas
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LU masters in nursing ranks among most affordable in nation
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Lamar University is “getting it right” by offering one of the nation’s most affordable online graduate programs in nursing, according to an online education consumer group that ranks nursing and healthcare schools for cost and credibility.
posted in: Education, Texas
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Ranger College adds nursing program
Monday, November 08, 2010
The State Board of Nursing has approved an associate degree nursing program at Ranger College in Brownwood.
The decision came Thursday when the board met in Austin and after several requests from college and community officials for permission to establish the program.
posted in: Education, Texas
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Global Nursing Conference Slated For Houston
Monday, November 08, 2010
Officials with Houston Baptist University, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and the United Kingdom’s University of Chester announced plans to host the 2nd annual Global Nursing Conference next year in Houston. The conference, scheduled for March 14–15, 2011, will be held in the Morris Cultural Arts Center on the campus of Houston Baptist University in Houston.
posted in: Event, Texas
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Millions Donated to Alleviate Nursing Shortage
Monday, November 08, 2010
Texas Tech University System Chancellor Kent Hance has announced a generous gift of $10 million from the Hunt Family Foundation to the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC). The donation will be used to develop an autonomous, fully-accredited nursing school at the TTUHSC campus in El Paso.
posted in: Education, Texas
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Nurses work from home in new health care niche
Friday, October 22, 2010
A growing San Antonio company is offering a service that’s in high demand: expert medical advice over the phone. Some of the employees get to work from home.
Carenet in San Antonio supports health insurance companies, the military and health care systems across the country. For their clients, timely medical advice is just a phone call away.
posted in: JobAlert, National, news, Employer News, Texas
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Job market tightens for nursing graduates
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
It’s no secret that graduating from college in today’s job market can be scary, but the nurse shortage was supposed to insulate nursing grads from the economic downturn.
While hiring in the profession is still better than in many job segments, recent nursing graduates have discovered they aren’t immune from the tough market.
At Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Atlanta, graduates started feeling the pinch in 2009, when most students didn’t get their first choice in jobs, said Robert Hoover, associate dean of finance and administration. Hoover says this year’s graduates, however, are more prepared for the realities of the job market.
“There was less nervousness [this year],” he said. “Students knew they would have a tougher time vs. last year.”
Adam Houck, a 2010 Emory nursing school graduate, found out quickly how tough the market is when he applied for 43 nursing positions at hospitals all over Georgia and received 27 rejection e-mails.
But Houck persevered and was hired by Emory University Hospital Midtown as a nurse in its medical intensive care unit. He was scheduled to start work in July.
“If I could say anything to other nursing grads who are frustrated with their current job prospects, it would be, ‘Don’t lose sight of your dream job,’ ” Houck said. “It may take a little while to get there, but you can and you will get there.”
Houck said that Emory’s rigorous nursing program provided quality clinical experience to get him ready for the “real world of nursing.”
“I’m as prepared as I possibly could be as a recent grad,” Houck said. “I believe Emory’s school of nursing will be doing even more to prepare students for the current and future job market.”
Part of that preparation is helping nursing students get a broad-based education.
“The trends in nursing are becoming more diverse than in the past 20 years in research and science technology,” Hoover said. “We try to prepare our students for all the integral parts of nursing. There’s so much more to do besides working in a hospital.
“Just because there are current shortages [of nursing jobs] in some hospitals doesn’t mean there aren’t other opportunities elsewhere.”
At some hospitals, the hiring of new nurses has remained steady.
“In the two years that I have been here, we’ve stayed pretty consistent,” said Robin Mitchell, human resources consultant at Gwinnett Medical Center.
Still, in this tough market, it’s important for nursing graduates to be well-prepared for job interviews, Mitchell said. When hiring, she looks for candidates with high energy and the ability to maintain drive and passion throughout their careers.
“I enjoy hearing about clinical experiences and personal stories — just overall excitement,” she said. “I have talked to nurses that are well into their careers that say they still have the same excitement as… when they started.”
An effective track for getting a job at Gwinnett Medical is its 10-week summer externship program, where students work as nurse technicians and then are often hired into the health system’s 12-week residency program as full-time nurses.
“If students have to go back to school after completing the externship, we remember who was in the program so we’re likely to hire them once they graduate,” Mitchell said.Read Full Article
posted in: Career, National, news, Employer News, Texas
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