Blotted Ink

In recent years, the nursing field has become an increasingly attractive option for those looking for stability in the face of economic and financial uncertainty. As one of the few sectors of the economy that continues to grow, health care appeals to many people for a variety of reasons, but the big two are these:

The ability to make a secure middle class income while
Doing meaningful work that makes a difference in people's lives
There's nothing wrong with these motivations, but it pays to understand that most health care professions are harder to get into during times like this due to the nature of the health care labor market and health care itself.

How does this economy affect nursing?

Just like any other career, during times of high unemployment, it's harder to find a nursing job for a new nurse, and it's harder for a part-time nurse to get more hours than it is when things are going well, even though the health care field is still growing.

Why?

Demographics. Nursing is a pink-collar job. That means that it's historically been a women's profession, and while this is changing, the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of RNs are women. Over 92% of them, in fact. Women are more likely than men to work part time (PDF).

Statistically-speaking, women work fewer hours than men throughout their careers. Due to the high barriers to entry for health care professionals, it is possible for men and women to work part time and still bring home a decent salary. (Indeed, this freedom is one of the main appeals of being a nurse!) During a recession, if an individual is worried about their partner losing some or all of their income, they will usually try to increase their hours in response, especially if they're in a profession like nursing.

This works fine in principal, until large numbers of nurses start increasing their hours, or delaying their retirement plans until the recession is over. This phenomenon is not limited to nursing, either; the same thing happens to pharmacists, physicians, and other allied health personnel.

Nursing shortages are temporarily alleviated.

Individuals flee to security in the face of uncertainty, and nursing looks very secure. This means that new grads may have difficulty finding positions in the hospitals and locales that they prefer. It also means that those looking to attend nursing school may be rejected when they might otherwise have been accepted under better economic conditions. Admissions committees can afford to be very picky because the applicant pool is so large.

In short: it's harder to get into nursing school, and it's harder to find the ideal nursing job when times are tough. When the economy improves, the nursing shortage will return, and your options will open up.

Salaries

One of the appeals of being a nurse is financial independence no matter what stage of life you're at. There are a number of recurring salary questions that are asked on nursing discussion forums all the time. Probably the most popular is:

Is there a salary difference between an ASN and a BSN?

The short answer is no. But… there are a few provisos and a couple of quid pro quos that you should know about. First off, when it comes to floor nursing, there's no meaningful salary difference between an RN with an Associate's degree and an RN with a Bachelor's degree. An RN is an RN regardless of whether you have an ASN or BSN. In many cases, nurses with an MSN working the floor make the same as their colleagues with an ASN. That said, some institutions have a policy of paying their BSN nurses more than their ASN counterparts, but normally this differential is small: less than a dollar an hour to do the same job is quite common. This trend holds true from numerous anecdotal reports on nursing discussion boards to salary search engines which try to normalize a large quantity of salary data.

That doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile to get your BSN. Having your BSN opens doors that are closed to nurses with just an ASN. This includes management, clinical research, getting your Master's later, and/or becoming a Nurse Practitioner. Does that mean you can't do research or get into management with just an ASN? No, but having a BSN does make it easier.

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