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Specializes in Critical Care.

Greetings ALL !

I'm scribing because I have become slightly frustrated with the process of trying to find my first job after successfully passing the NCLEX exam. I took the NCLEX exam last Wednesday and found out that I passed last Friday. I have been applying ever since I got my results and have applied to over 30 or 40 jobs up and down the FL coast [giggles] applying to big cities and small towns. I have come to realize that its NOT an easy task. Every where that I have applied requires that all important 1 year of experience, but how am I going to obtain that if no hospital is willing to give me that chance? I've tried looking for graduate nurse positions but in FL they seem to be rather scarce, however, I did come across two or three but they were for ICU and PCU. I applied and guess what? I was rejected on the grounds that I did not have experience. I mean do hospitals not see clinical experience during nursing school as experience? At this point, I am just ready to get my feet wet and start doing what I set out to do :)

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Specializes in NICU.

Who knows when it will get better. I graduated in Dec and just started working last week. I think it took me a little over 200 aps to finally land a job.....that and a lot of frustration and tears.

Did you go to school in Fl? I would recommend talking to anyone you know in a hospital and working as much of a network as you can. Also, don't limit yourself to hospitals. A lot of recent grads are finding work in LTC's right now (though in some areas it's even hard to find work there without any experience). I completely understand how frustrated you are, but keep on it, and good luck!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Who knows when it will get better. I graduated in Dec and just started working last week. I think it took me a little over 200 aps to finally land a job.....that and a lot of frustration and tears.

Did you go to school in Fl? I would recommend talking to anyone you know in a hospital and working as much of a network as you can. Also, don't limit yourself to hospitals. A lot of recent grads are finding work in LTC's right now (though in some areas it's even hard to find work there without any experience). I completely understand how frustrated you are, but keep on it, and good luck!

Thanks for the response ! Yes, I attended school here in FL and I'm a FL native. I just came across a GN position in the NICU I have my fingers crossed that I get an interview. I've considered LTC facilities but I kind of hesitant because since I am a new grad I want to hone my skills and I don't think I will be getting all that I need if I settle for a LTC position, but I haven't completely crossed it out.

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Specializes in Endoscopy/MICU/SICU.

Don't give up on acute care, if that's what you want. Call nurse recruiters, and nurse managers if you're able to get names and phone numbers. Do you have any friends that could put in a good word for you in their facilities? This is how a lot of my friends got their jobs. Keep applying. It also took me about 250 apps. You'll get something before too long.

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Actually, LTC facilities are a great place to perfect those basic skills...time management...multiple patient management... you learn A TON of medications (the brand/generic name, their actions, their side effects, their classification)... you learn tons of disease processes (how they show up in different people, how they affect the body chronically, how they are maintained/treated)...charting (how much to write, how to write what)...you learn how to interact with a multidisciplinary team...you gain a confidence about talking to doctors and having your judgment appreciated (which could lead to other jobs)...not to mention your assessment skills. Yes they teach us to asses in school but when you have to FULLY assess 40 pts a night you get to where you can walk into a room for five seconds and have your full basic assessment done perfectly. You still teach and educate your patients and their families. At my facility, we draw blood weekly so there's another skill to perfect (if you can draw blood, you can start a small bore IV). We have PEG tube patients also (if you aren't used to working with those, they can be time consuming) PLUS at a LTC facility it's not some continuously chaotic cluster. Here you have a few minutes to think back to nursing school and process what you'll do next. THEN when you've learned all you can there, you can move on into a hospital WITH EXPERIENCE and a confidence! i know I have been at a LTC for three days and my skills have quadrupled in just that small amount of time.

plus its what you make it....if you look at it like i do (a learning opportunity), its a great job. If you don't see like i do, it will be awful and you would be doing your residents an injustice

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