ADN Degrees NOT welcome? {x-posted}

U.S.A. California

Published

Hello, im currently applying to a nursing program at my local community college and ive been told several times now that NO ONE will hire a Nurse with an Associates degree in California. Im very confused, if there is such a shortage of nurses why is a ADN such a bad thing? Im not just talking about Hospitals, that I understand to a certain extent. Im talking everywhere. The very few places (mainly job listings on CRAIGSLIST) that i have found that will require 2+ years of experience. How can I get experience if no one will give me a chance to GET it?

ONE more question, will employers count clinical hours done as a student as experience?

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Specializes in ICU.

There is not a nursing shortage.

Clinical hours do not count as experience.

Nursing is a tough field right now for new grads (especially in Cali!) -- you're going to have to be very flexible on location and type of facility to get your all-important first year or two of experience.

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I can't speak to the job market in CA, but clinical hours do not count as experience. My guess as to why, is that in clinicals, you're not working on your own license.

They don't want to know how many hours you've spent learning, but how many you've spent working.

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Don't know for certain, but I would guess that there is such an abundance of BSN grads that employers can choose to raise the bar for the moment. At some point the logjam will cut loose and then there will be more openings than RNs of any stripe. But until that time, it's slim pickin's for ADNs.

If you can't find any kind of job, I'd encourage you, if at all possible, to start a completion program, online or otherwise, so that you aren't just sitting on the shelf going stale. If this isn't an option, grab whatever kind of employment you can find and volunteer in some kind of nursing capacity. Or pick up a second job giving flu shots. Do what you need to do to keep body and soul together.

ONE more question, will employers count clinical hours done as a student as experience?

The short answer is no. Clinical time is exposure but not experience as a real live staff nurse. Why? Because there is a world of difference between operating with a limited patient load supervised by an instructor and a preceptor and working independently. Many newbie nurses struggle with relinquishing the student role and assuming their own autonomous practice for this very reason.

I'm sorry you (and thousands of others) are caught in the age old conundrum of how do you get a job without experience, and how do you get experience without a job. That really bites.

Hope you catch a break soon. :up:

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Would externships/interships count as experience?

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Would externships/interships count as experience?

As I understand it, if you were working as a nurse (not a nursing assistant or a nursing student), on your own license it counts as experience.

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There is a nursing shortage. It just doesn't mean what people think it means. i.e. People think nursing shortage means plenty of jobs for nurses but it does not necessarily mean this at all. Local economies support health care institutions and if the local economy is not good then hospitals get fewer patients. Hospital budgets tighten and so instead of hiring and training new nurses they resort to other things like increasing workload of nurses they already have and filling gaps with non-nursing staff.

With that said don't get caught up in negativity before you've even been accepted to a nursing program. Older nurses have pointed out time and again that the demand for nurses is cyclical - the demand is down now but a few years from now things may be completely different. Lots of employers do prefer bsn's now but that may be due to the tight job market - i.e. like all employers right now they can afford to be picky but when the situation reverses that could change. Just take one step at a time. You have to get into nursing school, and finish nursing school (this is not a guarantee) before you start worrying about what the job market is like when you get out. Clinical hours don't count as experience. Your experience as a nurse begins when you get your license then you'll be hired as a new nurse and begin from there.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

There is currently not a nursing shortage.

Since you are not yet in nursing school, keep that in mind. If nursing is really what you want to do don't let it deter you because no other field is getting hired right now either.

I found a job as a new graduate RN with an ADN, but I had experience as an LVN, and a couple extra things. Most of my new grad cohort though had BSN's and some stellar stats. It just depends.

However, if the only reason you were going into nursing was because it was supposedly "recession-proof" i'd look into other fields.

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As I understand it, if you were working as a nurse (not a nursing assistant or a nursing student), on your own license it counts as experience.

oh okay thanks! I figured since some externships paid the student nurses that it would count as actual experience.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Hi Brandee- I was first licensed in California in 1976 and here is my perspective,(not a scientific study by any means) but a pretty close observer of the regional market in Southern California.

There is no nursing shortage. We've been through lots of economic downturns in the past, but throughout all of those, nursing jobs were still plentiful, with the only difference perhaps being the shift in the facility in the specialty you wanted to work in. The supply has caught up with the demand unfortunately around the same time we've had the downturn in the economy, causing something I never thought I'd see - new grads by the hundreds unable to find jobs. It's crazy!

I've noticed that nursing-nursing school tends to be rife with people who talk as if they are the Source of everything true about nursing and in reality have no idea what they are talking about. If you question them further, it could be a "friend of a friend" story. There might be a grain of truth to it, but that's about it. Never base your decisions on anything other than a trusted source, as close to the source as possible. Since you posted your question here it sounds like you've got a handle on that concept already! :) It does makes sense that, everything else being equal, an employer would choose the person with the most education, but rarely is "everything else equal".

I still think nursing is a great career choice! There are specialty areas of nursing that are more in demand than others. There are geographic areas with more demand than others. You might want to tailor your goals to put yourself in the most marketable part of nursing, and it would be worth exploring the opportunities for getting your BSN, as it will make you more marketable all around. If you can accomplish that without a whole lot of extra time and money, I would do it!

Best wishes to you!

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If there is an applicant with a BSN and experience and an applicant with an ASN and experience, all other things being equal, it makes sense that the employer is going to hire the person with the more extensive education. It works this way in other lines of work also. Education level is an easy way to distinguish between candidates, particularly if your institution is a hospital that may be going up for magnet status, where number of BSN-holding nurses is of importance.

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Specializes in ED, Tele, L&D.

I really think the employers looks at the individuals. I got hired as an ADN nurse over a BSN RN.

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