Even compared with other jobs in healthcare — an industry that made it through the heart of the recession rather gracefully — the job outlook for registered nurses is strong, with the number of jobs growing at an above-average rate.But nursing schools are slow to change, and in order to graduate successful nurses who are [...]

Healthcare is the economic engine of the United States: one of the few places that shows consistent job growth even in the face of global economic doldrums.But just because there are jobs doesn’t mean you would want them (no matter how much they pay). Healthcare reform, digital health and a global marketplace have thrown some [...]

A new survey shows that nurses are spending more time on indirect patient care activities like paperwork, traveling to supply rooms and entering medication orders than in the past.One of the consequences of nurses spending less time directly caring for patients is that more than half of the nurses surveyed said they weren’t satisfied with [...]

How many times have you read about the staggering shortage of nurses? It’s routine to see numbers in the hundreds of thousands tossed around ’representing the seemingly insatiable demand for nurses from an aging population. I’ve always been suspicious of these estimates. First, it’s not how the economy works. We’re not really going to have [...]

Medical cart and clinical workstation maker Rubbermaid Medical Solutions has named a new executive to help the company develop products for nurses.Cheryl Parker joins the medical products unit of Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE:NWL) as chief nursing informatics officer. Will Horner, director of marketing for Rubbermaid Medical, said Parker will be a “nurse advocate” and offer insight [...]

Healthcare remained the economic engine for the United States: More than 10 percent of the jobs created in December were healthcare jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The number is more pronounced when you look at 2011 overall. Healthcare — meaning medical jobs in hospitals, ambulatory care facilities and nursing homes — made up [...]

In Matching Supply to Demand: Addressing the U.S. Primary Care Workforce Shortage the National Institute for Health Care Reform observes that the primary care workforce expansion components of the Affordable Care Act will not be sufficient to meet demand. The funding and other incentives to encourage the training of new primary care physicians will take [...]

A sharp uptick in the number of young registered nurses entering the profession means that concerns about a U.S. nursing shortage may be a thing of the past, according to a new report in Health Affairs.Between 2002 and 2009, the number of young registered nurses (between 23 and 26 years old) entering the field grew [...]

The Occupy Wall Street protests continued in Chicago and the nurses unions are dispensing a new form of “first aid:”Outraged by the arrest of two nurses and a union organizer volunteering at the Occupy Chicago protest over the weekend, National Nurses United is planning a protest at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office Monday.The group, the nation’s [...]

The Minnesota Nurse’s Association, which launched one of the most closely watched nursing strikes in recent years, is hosting its annual conference this week with an Occupy Wall Street theme.It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 18 months since the nurse’s association launched what seemed like a national showdown on patient ratios and treatment of [...]