Nurses hired before their graduation

By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer

May 16, 2008 11:47 pm

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As 34 graduates of Connors State College nursing department walked off the Muskogee Civic Center stage last week, most could have walked straight to their new jobs.
“I’m at McAlester Regional Health Center,” Ragan Reann Birckel said after Connors’ Pinning Ceremony.
“The Eufaula hospital,” said Frederick Francis.
“St. Francis,” said Dana Smith Hawkins.
The graduates’ easy access to jobs comes as no surprise to Connors Director of Nursing Glenda Shockley.
“As far I know, they do have jobs already unless they don’t want one yet,” she said. “There are lots of jobs out there. It’s definitely easy for nurses to get jobs.”
Graduates of other nursing programs have it easy.
“I only had one student graduating this year who did not have a job already, and it was her choice,” said Paula Netherton, interim director of nursing at Bacone College. “Nursing graduates don’t need to find jobs. Jobs find them.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says employment of registered nurses is expected to grow 23 percent from 2006 to 2016, much faster than the average for all occupations.
The bureau’s 2008-09 Occupational Outlook Handbook says growth will be driven by technological advances, increasing emphasis on preventive care and an aging population. The handbook says registered nurses are projected to generate 587,000 new jobs by 2016.
“Additionally, hundreds of thousands of job openings will result from the need to replace experienced nurses who leave the occupation,” the handbook said.
Birckel and Francis said they have been working at their hospitals for a while.
Birckel, who lives in Quinton, said she has been working at McAlester for two years.
“I think many of us will have already found jobs,” she said.
Hawkins said she is a nurse graduate “extern” at St. Francis, which is a transitional position until she passes the boards as a registered nurse.
She said the Tulsa hospital was “the first place I applied.”
“They invited me there,” she said.
Shockley said health care recruiters come on campus “all the time.”
“They come from Muskogee, Tulsa, even as far away as Fayetteville,” she said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says registered nurses constitute the nation’s largest health care occupation, with 2.5 million jobs. Of those, 59 percent are in hospitals.
Evon Ashley, nurse recruiter at Muskogee Regional Medical Center, said she goes out on recruiting lunches at six area nursing schools: Connors, Bacone, Platt College, Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee, Indian Capital Technology Center and Green Country Technology Center in Okmulgee.
“All the heads of management go out with me,” she said. “Students job shadow at our facility, and we have jobs posted on our Web site.”
Pay also is a good incentive, a 2007 story in the Muskogee Phoenix said MRMC paid a starting registered nurse with an associate’s degree $17.50 per hour, or $36,400 per year. Additional stipends were given for advanced degrees and working night shifts or holidays.
As heavy as hospital recruitment has become, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment at hospitals are expected to grow more slowly than in other health care industries such as physicians’ offices, home health care providers and nursing care facilities.
Nurses aren’t the only health care profession in high demand.
“It’s pretty much all health care areas,” Shockley said. “Respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists are high on the demand list.”

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