Discussing the Market for Nurses

When discussing the market of nursing all different things can come to mind. This career is one that can be a great a rewarding job but also can be pretty difficult and exhausting just depending upon where you work and what company you work for.

Discuss which factors could influence the supply and demand of a nurse’s position.

Some factors that influence the supply and demand of nursing is how many nurses the hospital needs, patient flow, nurses needed per unit, if hospital needs specialized nurses, and wages (The National Academy of Science, 2008). These are just some of the things that will influence the supply and demand of nursing positions.

A big factor in all this is overall what is the hospitals staffing issue. The big thing to research is how many nurses does the hospital need to function above and beyond what is legally required of them. This is a very important factor when in the hospital people want to feel that they are getting the proper care and that their nurse is available to take care of their needs. Patient flow is another factor when considering supply and demand. Hospitals can average out what there patient flow is and try to determine how many nurses will be needed to cover each shift adequately. Making sure that the specialized units in the hospital are staffed properly may entail a little more work for hospitals. Some hospitals require special certifications for nurses to work on their floor such as ICU, these floors require more nurses because the needs of the patients are more serious and demanding. Wage is a very important issue when discussing nursing. Some health systems seem to be in a battle with others regarding wages. Health systems that can offer an overall better package of everything including hours, patient to nurse ratio, wages, and incentives seem to have a higher chance of getting the nurses that they need.

Discuss how a nurse’s pay is determined and how the salary is structured.

Nurses pay from what I have researched and understand just from working in the medical field for many years is based on several different things. One of the first things that determine what a company or health system may offer you in regards to pay comes from your experience as a nurse. New graduates start on the lower end of the pay scale in nursing (PayScale, Inc, 2008). The reason for this is nursing is truly a hand’s on profession, the more you are on the job and see different situations and practice different things the better you become at your job. One of