Jobs hard to find for new nurses

By Stacey Burling
Inquirer Staff Writer
When John Jerzak started nursing school in mid-2006, hospitals were offering $5,000 signing bonuses to nurses who promised to stay in their jobs for a year. Predictions that the country faced years of nursing shortages were a “mantra,” Jerzak said.
The promise of that level of job security was appealing to a guy who had spent decades in a blue-collar airline job and was enduring post-9/11 pay and pension cuts.

“I really felt that it would be like picking low-hanging fruit from a tree, and the choices would be abundant,” said Jerzak, who is 55 and lives in Springfield, Delaware County.

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