Good question. 2009 was a year I never anticipated, to be honest. I thought healthcare and nursing in general was bulletproof. I was wrong. The financial chaos rained upon us rippled through virtually our entire society.
As usual, there was a lot of knee jerk reaction A whole lot of employers got scared and through up their hands and instituted hiring freezes. Travel nursing jobs, by definition a flexible but more expensive alternative for hospitals, was an early casualty.
The truth is though, the RN shortage did not go away. Baby boomers are still retiring, (and a lot of them are nurses), and they tend to utilize the healthcare system more then younger members of society. People lost jobs and health insurance and a small percentage of them put off things that should have been taken care of.
The good news, though, is slowly but surely the economy is coming back. Jobs always lag but the combination of rising employment, a probably healthcare plan from Obama and all of this pent up “demand” for healthcare augers well for the nursing profession job prospects and travel nursing in general……..MORE
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