The tenuous domestic economy has generated a rise in unemployment throughout many job sectors, leaving a lot of Penn seniors struggling to find jobs after graduating.
But graduates from the Nursing School are finding themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Nursing seniors are entering a job market in which their services are still in extremely high demand. In contrast to many cyclical careers, such as consulting and investment banking, experts say health care professionals are constantly needed.
University Career Counselor Genny Dunne explained that due to the aging work force and smaller numbers of students entering the field, the demand for nurses is currently at its peak.
"Nurses are in great shape, and hospitals are still clamoring for grads due to the nursing shortage," Dunne said.
While some Penn seniors find themselves fighting an uphill battle to find jobs, Nursing senior Sarah Rinaldi has found her senior year to be relatively care-free.
Rinaldi hasn't started her job search yet and doesn't feel the pressure to start any time soon.
She plans to take advantage of the Nursing Career Day, which will be held next month, but will actually wait to begin her search until the spring.
"I found my summer internship relatively easily, and we've been discussing the nursing shortage in so many of my classes," Rinaldi said.
While Rinaldi remains complacent in her job search, she is wary of the demands that will be placed on her once she does begin working. During her clinical work at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Rinaldi experienced first hand the stress that her career will entail.
"They don't have enough staffing, and sometimes nurses will have shifts longer than 12 hours," Rinaldi said.
Nursing senior Carri Delahunty has found this to be the case as well. Based on the advice of her professors, she expects to have no problem finding a job. But, she said she believes the job itself will pose problems.
"When I worked as a nurse's assistant, I found many nurses to be overworked, but even that was nothing compared to HUP," Delahunty said. "HUP is a mess."
Dunne said that the biggest complaint she has heard from nursing graduates after entering the work force is the long hours and the incredible amount of work required.
"Demands in the nursing practice are enormous, and many newly graduated nurses find it to be especially challenging," Dunne said.
Dunne explained that the nursing field is becoming more technologically oriented as well. Due to many recent advancements in medicine, nurses must demonstrate increased technological proficiency.
Nursing graduate student Barbara Abramek attributed much of the stress to managed care.
"Due to the extremely short stays, I find that nurses are more stressed to deliver increased care in such a short period of time," Abramek said.
Like others, Abramek noted that the responsibilities of nurses have drastically increased. Due to more out-patient services and technological advances, patients that are actually in the hospital are in much more critical condition. Nurses must expand their body of knowledge and expertise in order to effectively service this new wave of patients.
But while the difficulty of the job increases, the average salary for nurses is on a steady incline. Dunne said that the average salary for first-year nursing graduates ranks at the top of the list for Penn students.
She attributes this to the fact that graduating nursing students enter the work force as "a specialized group with specialized skills.
"They come out having had clinical placements and a lot of hands-on experience," Dunne said.
Dunne said she is confident that the demand for nurses will only continue to grow, which bodes well for Penn's nursing students.
