Nurses didn't need resumes, interviewing skills, or career counselors. The severe nursing shortage of the 1980s gave RNs more influence in the workplace and elevated the status of the profession. It is hard to believe that in less than a decade much of that picture has changed. Hospital beds are being eliminated, patients are spending less time in acute care settings, professional staffing is being reduced, unlicensed assistive personnel are being hired in record numbers, and now, without a resume and good interviewing skills, a nurse applicant has little chance of success in today's market. Nursing, swept along in the tidal wave of healthcare reform, is having to redefine itself to remain an integral part of the new healthcare delivery system.
Old solutions are obsolete.
Each year more and more nurses look beyond staff nurse positions in traditional general hospitals for employment. During the same period, US hospitals eliminated almost 45,000 jobs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Nursing. The number of lost nursing positions in hospitals isn't identified. Managed care has shortened inpatient hospital stays and helped shift the focus to the patient's need for services at an affordable price. Every healthcare agency is now questioning how and where to best deliver these services.