New Grads We Have Hit A New Low...Work For FREE

Nurses New Nurse

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They want you to work for free for 6 months with no guarantee of a job offer. This is outrageous!

VOLUNTEER NEW GRAD RN PROGRAM Catholic Healthcare West Sacramento, CA

This type of modern day slavery has been discussed before. Wonderful to see it picking up in popularity in this country.

Specializes in NICU.

Sounds like the transition programs some of the schools (also in CA) are rolling out with now. Apply to "work" at a hospital for free with no guarantee of employment afterwards. All for the sake of gaining experience.

It's really sad that these hospitals are exploiting all the unemployed new grad RN's out there who are desperate to do anything! Talk about being taken advantage of :(

I even heard of a program that the RN would have to PAY the hospital in order for them to be able to work there for experience...I haven't seen anything about it lately though, so maybe the idea was taken off the table. Can you imagine - paying a hospital so you can "work" there? Ridiculous!!

Specializes in NICU.

The really sad thing is that the 'job' description doesn't even sound like you provide any patient care: Volunteer at least once per week in 3 hour increments providing quality and compassionate indirect patient care? Sounds like a standard volunteer position to me. They are just trrying to make new grads feel warm and fuzzy by calling it a new grad RN program.

Now apparently we are supposed to trip over ourselves to apply to a position that doesn't pay and doesn't require any actual nursing skills?

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you skip town before the 6 months are fulfilled? Do you get excommunicated? I think that's a very important question to ask. I mean, slaves can't be fired. Protestants are already on the bad behavior list. So, what is the penalty? ;-)

Yes, all obedient women need to pitch in and give, give, give. Lord knows, you all have husbands that pay the bills, right? Women should not work for pay; they should volunteer to work for the good of society and the family, and leave all that wage earning to the men. >;-)

People put enough $1 bills in the baskets at every Mass that a Catholic health provider ought to be able to pay at least the $8 to $10 hourly wage that a new grad nurse could get as a McDonalds or Wal-Mart employee. If not, then someone tell the Vatican they need to downsize, have a yard sale, and return some of that money to the people who gave it.

If they'd give you a tuition payment, or a tuition reimbursement, or pay off a school loan, I could maybe see it. But I see this as just another example of mooching and giving (predominantly) women another chance to ride at the back of the bus. Throw the little woman a token of appreciation. If a male nurse grad showed up, do you think they'd find a paid job for him? Are they also asking for volunteer maintenance men, or biomed techs, or CPAs, hospital security, or just for volunteer nurses?

It would be really fun to for some muckraker to send in a male nurse and a female nurse to interview for this volunteer work, and see what stories they bring back.

"This position is charged with assisting staff in providing quality and compassionate indirect patient care to reinforce the perception of MGH as receptive and responsive to the needs of the patients and their family. This is a patient care oriented position that also helps support the nursing staff. "

What's "indirect patient care" and does this hospital have CNAs? I get the impression this hospital wants GNs to work as free CNAs or something, probably just to save some money. It doesn't even seem like any nursing skills will be utilized. I wonder if anyone has done this already and I'd be interested to hear their experience.

Hell no for me! This is so sad...I WILL NOT WORK FOR FREE!

That's what I was talking about!! Why pay money just to keep your skills fresh for a maybe job when you could be looking for jobs. It's dumb, but people are more scared of losing their skills or think that if they do these residency programs, that they'll get hired. There's no guarantee of that happening.

Specializes in MSN, FNP-BC.

Screw that! Talk about giving a blow to the profession of nursing! They should be ashamed asking nurses to work for free! We worked hard for our education and I'll go to hell before I downgrade all the hard work I've put into my education!

*end soap box*

Sounds like the transition programs some of the schools (also in CA) are rolling out with now. Apply to "work" at a hospital for free with no guarantee of employment afterwards. All for the sake of gaining experience.

It's really sad that these hospitals are exploiting all the unemployed new grad RN's out there who are desperate to do anything! Talk about being taken advantage of :(

I even heard of a program that the RN would have to PAY the hospital in order for them to be able to work there for experience...I haven't seen anything about it lately though, so maybe the idea was taken off the table. Can you imagine - paying a hospital so you can "work" there? Ridiculous!!

Taken from the Filipino heathcare facilities playbook. Of course, unemployed nurses should "pay" the hospital for the "privilege" of working for free.

Specializes in M/S, ICU, ICP.

i would think slavery had ended in our country but evidently not. i could agree if a person was deeply into their religion and chose to offer and do 6 months of service as a calling but i think that the eeoc and department of labor would view this as a bit extreme. i don't think it would be very well accepted in the labor department.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

I saw this and was floored that they actually believe that people will go for this! I didn't go to school to not be paid for my services. That's not to say that I won't be volunteering my time in other venues - but you will not use me as even less than a CNA! (No offense)

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