Nursing

[AKpilot]

Hello folks. Had a great time on our last ittle vsit to Pahoa. I am currently a pilot, but have always had my eyes on some other possible careers. I was wondering if there is any great need for nursing in the area or is it like so many job markers in the Puna neck o' the woods and all full up?

Many thanks,
AKpilot

We're all here, because we're not all there!

[Seeb]

there is a nursing and Dr. shortage but there are reasons no one wants the jobs

[Ryan.]

Practically speaking, there is little to no nursing shortage on this island. We have three nursing schools pumping out graduates each year, with a significant portion of those needing to leave the island to find work.

[Kapohocat]

Ryan, WOW. I really thought the opposite. Thanks for the info. Why do they have so many traveling nurses if we have more than enough?

[missydog1]

There is a physician shortage, or at least there is a shortage of practices that take new patients who have the most common insurance carriers.

Even worse if you get in a car accident, good luck finding a treating physician who takes No Fault auto insurance.

Any desire to go to med school? []

There is never much buzz about jobs available if you move here (other than the fuggedaboudit type buzz). Better to bring the income flow with you. Not the skill and experience -- the actual business or establish yourself in a long distance job, or transfer (that not too likely for Puna, but viable for Oahu).

The truth is that employers here aren't interested in hiring new arrivals (malihini). They MIGHT waste your time interviewing you, but they'll usually reject you, with a few exceptions I can think of that are in retail. (Home Depot, maybe Target?)

It's who you know here, not how good you are -- in many cases.
If you have family connections here, that is the best bet.

There was a building boom here that created a plethora of good work in construction and related fields, even for newcomers, but the boom ended when the market crashed, and left a lot of people high and dry for work.

[mary blonde]

KathyH- I'm not sure the part about newcomers not getting hired is true anymore. I moved here 5 years or so ago. I got 2 GOOD job offers in one day! Still get calls from the company I didn't go with. I think it depends on skill sets and attitude.

mary blonde

[missydog1]

well, of course a good attitude is essential, but plenty of people have had great attitudes who haven't gotten jobs. Not trying to be negative, just to inject something about a very real perspective that exists here -- if not in everyone, then in enough to where if affects many who move here and look for employment.

I had a guest at my old rental with a great attitude and tons of experience. She applied and interviewed daily, while on island, for a month, and got nothing but rejection letters saying that someone else had been hired.

I'll revise what I said -- they will hire you if there isn't someone in the family or friend of the family or in the extended family who was born here who needs work and can do the job. []
OR
the people hiring are transplants and don't care if you are from here.

As nice as people are here, those born here care deeply about taking care of those who share that heritage. That is not going to change. It is a small island world. If they don't take care of each other, who will?

The astronomers have a special skill set, for example. []

I am thrilled for you, mary, that is terrific you are and were sought after. []

Also there is always a niche for people who make their own way; it is the jobs that pay a living wage that are in short supply.

[Ryan.]

Kapohocat, I can see how at first glance it would seem that the presence of many travel nurses in a hospital would seem to suggest a shortage. This is however not the case. For the most part, travel nurses are hired with a particular strategy in mind, a significant portion of which is cost saving to the institution. While the nursing shortage is real in select portions of the mainland, at the present time, this is not the case here.

[nana valley]

AKpilot, talk to human resources at the hospitals. I bet there is no shortage of RN's! There may be many CNA's that can't get work but I am pretty positive that RN's will always be needed! Sometimes, travel nurses are used because they are willing to do the "specialty" areas, such as Obstetrics, emergency medicine, intensive care units, and surgery. Those areas sometimes have problems staffing.

[4antares]

Some more observations about nursing in Hawaii. As is mentioned, the temporary/contract nursing positions are usually created because it is cheaper for the hospital to hire contractors than to pay benefits. It also provides the hospitals a way to give the nursing staff a patient load that unionized nurses would not accept, for good reason. There are a lot of nursing schools in Hawaii that are pumping out nurses. For some peculiar reason hospitals in Hawaii won't hire new grads or staff with less than a year's experience unless they have connections so they have to go to the mainland to get experience. Nursing schools do a terrible job of training for the reality of nursing. They like to teach theory and theory and reality are very different. And the hospitals don't like to train because it is expensive. The hospitals in Hawaii are also notorious for being a somewhat closed society that recycles the same people that have quit or been fired in the past rather than bring in new blood. Lastly, if you are thinking about becoming a nurse primarily for the job security, don't do it. The only reason anyone should become a nurse is because it is something they really want to do. Those who get in to the field for the job security tend to be lousy nurses and they don't last. It is an intense, complex, demanding, draining vocation with a stress level unimaginable to most people. I was a hospital staff nurse for twenty years. Before that I did many things- construction, business, agriculture. The worst days in any of those fields were nothing compared to a typical day as a nurse.

life is short. enjoy it