2008 Greater Los Angeles Area Student Nurse Insights

Many leading employers asked Labor Market Pulse (LMP) to shed some insight on nursing’s next generation. The generation gap - particularly on issues like technology, career goals, and work-life balance - may feel like a generation chasm to many recruiters, hiring managers, educators and health care executives.

Interviews with local nursing and human resource executives provided anecdotal evidence of morale and retention issues among recent graduates. Fortunately, findings in this report suggest this is limited to a small - but difficult - subset of recent graduates.

Nursing’s next generation may hold unique views on the nursing profession, distinct employment preferences, and may aspire to define their personal and professional future in exciting new ways. This new way of thinking about career, family and relationships with employers presents both challenge and opportunity.

With help from LMP research contributors and research council members, LMP’s 2008 Greater Los Angeles Nursing Survey reached more than 300 pre-licensed nursing students. The results provide never-before-seen insights into the behaviors and decisions of nursing students nurses in the local market. Interspersed with “LMP Opportunity Assessments” to help digest the data, these key findings include:

• Employers of Choice rankings and detailed profiles for the highest ranked organizations
• What student nurses most desire from their first employer
• Student nurse job search strategies, resources and expectations
• Student nurse views on retirement and temporary leave

This report sheds new light on how to best find, train and invest in local student nurses to ensure a bright future for your own facility and the local employment market. Employers that are best able to recruit and retain top talent from local universities will have an advantage for years to come.

Colleges and universities in Southern California and beyond should benefit from the unique insights in this report. Educators play a critical role in a student nurse’s initial job search, level of comfort delivering care at the bed-side, and most importantly satisfaction with their chosen profession.

Methodology and Data Presentation

Invitations to participate in Labor Market Pulse’s 2008 Nursing Surveys were distributed directly by research contributors and council members via e-mail. The survey was conducted and data collected using an industry standard online application. Please see the “Acknowledgments” section of this report for a complete list of Greater Los Angeles Area LMP research contributors and research council members.

Where possible, LMP analysis draws comparisons between local students and local novice nurses and nursing students in other LMP research markets. Otherwise, there were no meaningful differences between these groups.

Additional details about the survey sample are presented below.

• 2008 Greater Los Angeles Area Student Nurse Report in Brief
• Workforce Survey Insights: LA Area Nursing Students Select Employers of Choice 2008
• What Makes an Employer of Choice: Novice Nurses Speak Out
• Novice RNs Job Search: Finding the First Employer
• Student RNs Job Search: Comparing Offers – What Matters Most?
• Financing the Dream: Education Debt Profiles, Employer Assistance and Other Funding Strategies