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Nursing Shortage Reaching Critical in Iowa

There’s a nursing shortage all over the country, as more and more nurses are in demand but there aren’t enough qualified nurses to fill the many positions available. In Iowa, in particular, the demand is overwhelmingly higher than the supply, and the shortage of nurses is reaching a critical level. This shortage will only continue to worsen as more baby boomers retire and need more medical care.

Keep reading to learn more, and consider getting your Bachelor of Science in Nursing if you want to take advantage of all of the high-paying job opportunities that are available.

Many Nursing Positions Are Affected

There’s a variety of career paths that a qualified nurse can take and, in Iowa, the nursing shortage spans across several different nursing positions. These include jobs in emergency care, acute care, rehabilitation, home health, and many other areas.

The shortage of registered nurses is occurring all across the state, and in Cedar Valley, in particular, there’s a significant number of job openings for nurses who can work at all three of the area’s hospitals.

Open Job Positions Are Difficult to Fill

Medical facilities all across the state have many job openings that are available to nurses who want them, but there are many employers who are finding it difficult to fill these positions. Therefore, the nurses that are working are overworked as a result of their facilities being understaffed.

Critical access hospitals, in particular, which aren’t affiliated with larger groups, have experienced shortages, and some have even had open positions for a year without any luck of finding someone to fill them. Even just one unfilled position can cause a lot of stress to a small critical access medical facility with 25 beds or less.

A Severe Shortage in the Medical-Surgical Sector

Nurses are critically needed in the medical-surgical sector as well. A lot of nurses will actually start off in this area, but they’ll later move on to find employment in other fields instead.

On the other hand, there are some specialty nursing areas that don’t have many openings, if any, because they’re more popular. For example, nurses will often develop an interest in areas like emergency room care, operating rooms, and birth centers, so they’ll keep those positions for as long as possible.

Finding Nurses at Job Fairs

If you’re a qualified nurse, even if you’ve recently graduated and you’ve never worked in a medical facility yet, you can attend one of the many job fairs that are being held throughout the state. You may be hired on the spot if you can prove your skills and if you’re the right match for a position that will pay well and provide you with the job security you need.

This strong demand for nurses is expected to increase in the coming years. In fact, within the next decade, the country will need an additional 1 million nurses to enter the workforce, so if you want a career that will allow you to make a difference, this is definitely one area that can guarantee employment.

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