With millions of health-conscious Baby Boomers moving into late
middle age and hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers looking to
retire sooner rather than later, 2008 hiring prospects for nurses,
doctors and allied health workers in most specialties are very good
indeed.
Hospital employment passed the 4.5 million mark in
2007, and has risen by about 100,000 per year recently, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, turnover among nurses is
13.9 percent, according to a report by Martin, Fletcher,
an Irving, Texas-based healthcare staffing firm. This translates to
hundreds of thousands of job openings in healthcare each year, with
thousands of positions in the highest-demand occupations going begging.
For healthcare veterans who are looking to move up from direct
care, opportunities are plentiful. “More and more people at the
management level are retiring,” says Tracie Austin, director of
executive recruiting at search firm PrincetonOne in Austin, Texas.
One
caveat about healthcare job growth in 2008 is that it is somewhat
dependent on the health of the macroeconomy. “Since the economy is
slowing, the near-term outlook for healthcare is expected to be soft,”
says George Van Horn, a senior analyst with research firm IBISWorld.
Fields with Perennial Labor Shortages
Hospitals
and other healthcare providers are always looking for qualified
professionals to work in laboratory, imaging, pharmacy, rehab,
oncology, anesthesia and, of course, nursing. Occupations expected to
be in very high demand for the foreseeable future include:
Primary-care physicians, whose earnings are generally much lower
than those of specialist MDs, are in demand, with serious shortages in
some geographic areas.
As hospitals and physicians’ practices
look to contain spiraling expenses, certain advanced-practice
professions are booming. “Nurse practitioners and physician assistants
are one of the fastest-growing areas,” says Russel Hicks, president of
Martin, Fletcher. “Healthcare systems are looking to run their
businesses more efficiently, and this is a lower-cost way to provide
some of the services that otherwise fall to physicians.”
The
aging population is also driving oversized demand in related healthcare
specialties. “We have more and more customers moving into our
demographic every day,” says Anne Pinter, vice president of human
resources at an assisted-living provider.
Jobs Are Migrating from General Hospitals to Other Settings
As
the healthcare industry evolves and restructures, healthcare
professionals can find opportunities in new practice settings and
geographic locations.
“Old-line hospitals have a lot of empty
beds,” Van Horn says. Jobs are moving from these institutions to more
specialized hospitals and clinics that treat cancer or childhood
illnesses or provide rehabilitative services.
Population
growth, especially in the Sun Belt states, is driving construction of
healthcare facilities. “More hospitals are being built, but there’s not
enough space in nursing and allied health schools to train the staff
they’ll need,” Austin says.
Meanwhile, existing facilities are
looking to expand their high-margin services while jobbing out
peripheral activities. “Outsourced services are growing,” Van Horn
says. “Outpatient facilities, home-care services and the ambulance
sector are all expanding.”
Some healthcare professionals are
exploiting this trend to lay claim to a more manageable lifestyle. “You
can see the rise in independent imaging and surgery centers,” Hicks
says. “Many of these jobs come with an 8-to-5 schedule and no on-call
duty.”
Nursing Professionals Needed at All Levels
The shortage of nurses just continues to expand. “In coastal areas, we’re seeing 30 percent to 40 percent vacancy rates,” Hicks says.
With demand for RNs so great, why would nurses even consider going for a master’s or other advanced degree?
“It means more money, more career possibilities and more job mobility,”
says Barbara Krainovich-Miller, a clinical professor and coordinator of
graduate education at New York University’s College of Nursing.
Workers are also in shortage at the sub-RN level. “We have a huge need for [certified nursing assistants]”
and others personal care workers, Pinter says. “We face the challenge
of how to attract and retain these workers when they’re willing to go
down the street for another 20 cents an hour.”
This article originally appeared on Monster.com.
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