Registered Nurse Jobs in New Jersey
Job opportunities for New Jersey registered nurses in all specialties are expected to be excellent. Employment of registered nurses is expected to grow very fast through 2020, and, because the occupation is very large, many new jobs will be created. In fact, registered nurses are projected to create the second largest number of new jobs among all occupations. Thousands of New Jersey job openings will result from the need to replace experienced nurses who leave the occupation, especially as the median age of the registered nurse population continues to rise.
The fast registered nurse job growth is driven by technological advances in patient care which permit a greater number of medical problems to be treated, and by an increasing emphasis on preventive care. Furthermore, the number of older people, who are much more likely than younger people to need nursing care, is projected to grow rapidly. Employers in certain employment settings such as hospitals and in certain areas of New Jersey are reporting difficulty in attracting and retaining an adequate number of registered nurses, mostly because of an aging registered nurse staff and a lack of younger nurses to fill positions.
Enrollments in New Jersey nursing programs at all levels have increased more rapidly in the past couple of years as students seek jobs with stable employment and decent salaries however, many qualified New Jersey nursing program applicants are being turned away because of a shortage of nursing faculty to teach classes. The need for nursing faculty will only increase as a large number of instructors nears retirement. Many employers are relying on foreign-educated nurses to fill open positions.
Even though New Jersey job opportunities for all nursing specialties are expected to be excellent, they can vary by employment setting. For example, the number of jobs is expected to grow more slowly in hospitals, which comprise health care's largest industry, than in most other health care industries. While the intensity of nursing care is likely to increase, requiring more registered nurses per patient, the number of inpatients is not likely to grow by much. Patients are being discharged earlier, and more procedures are being done on an outpatient basis, both inside and outside hospitals. Rapid growth is expected in New Jersey hospital outpatient facilities, such as those providing same-day surgery, rehabilitation, and chemotherapy.
To attract and retain qualified registered nurses, New Jersey hospitals offer sign-on bonuses, family-friendly work schedules, or subsidized training. A growing number of New Jersey hospitals also are experimenting with online bidding to fill open shifts, in which nurses can volunteer to fill open shifts at premium wages. This can decrease the amount of mandatory overtime that nurses are required to work. More and more sophisticated procedures, once performed only in hospitals, are being performed in physicians' offices and in outpatient care centers, such as freestanding ambulatory surgical and emergency centers.
Accordingly, the number of jobs for registered nurses in New Jersey is expected to grow much faster than the average in these places as health care in general expands. Registered nurses may face greater competition for these positions because they generally offer regular working hours and more comfortable working environments. The type of care demanded by these employment settings will require registered nurses who are able to perform complex procedures.
Generally, New Jersey registered nurses with at least a bachelor's degree will have better job prospects than those without a bachelor's and they are paid a little better in certain employment settings. In addition, all advanced practice specialties - clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, midwives, and anesthetists - are and will remain in high demand, particularly in medically underserved areas such as inner cities and rural areas. Relative to physicians, these advanced practice nurses increasingly serve as lower-cost primary care providers.
Magnet Hospital Nursing Jobs in New Jersey
Did you know that hospitals throughout New Jersey have an outstanding reputation? New Jersey holds 17 magnet hospitals, ranking number one when compared to other states throughout the USA. These hospitals not only offer very attractive places to work for health care workers such as registered nurses, LPNs, and CNAs, but they reward their employees with competitive salaries and benefits. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, New Jersey is one of the top five paying states when it comes to registered professional nurses. In New Jersey the healthcare industry is expanding and it is expected to be one of the fastest growing, providing job security and great salaries for RNs and other health care professionals.
The 2007 average salary for a staff Registered Nurse in New Jersey was $58,839 as compared to the national average nurse salary of $56,785. It is also interesting to note that the more hospital beds a facility has the higher the salary it offers to its nurses. A healthcare facility with fewer than 50 beds will generally pay an annual RN salary of $52,000 while a facility with more than 300 beds will offer a $60,000 annual salary. If you are a nurse seeking employment in New Jersey you should also consider the difference in income due to hospital location. In southern New Jersey registered nurses earn approximately $56,000 while nurses employed in central and northern New Jersey earn more than $63,000 annually.
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