Can't get a job as new RN

U.S.A. Florida

Published

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone will be able to help me...I'm a brand new RN in Orlando, FL and I've been looking for a hospital job for the last 5 months with no luck. Every job opening I see requires you to have at least 1 year of hospital experience but no one will hire me. I've applied to about 200 jobs and nothing....every recruiter/HR dept tells me it is because I don't have experience. Anyone else around here going through this?? :o

We still have a nursing shortage, just not a new nurse shortage. I talked to my aunt who is a nurse and census is down right now and hopefully, when the economy works out, people will be able to have all those surgeries they need, and new nurses will be worth training again.

Sorry to hear about your luck. I never gave a single thought about where I was going to work while going to nursing school. School was just too demanding plus I had a full time job to support my mortgage payment. On my third day of practicum I was questioned by my preceptor of where I wanted to work once I was done. I honestly didn't have an answer for her except to say I liked the unit we were both on. I found myself later that day talking with the Director. I was sent to orientation the next week for a Nurse Tech position. I am done with school now just waiting on my ATT. Once I recieve that I am being moved up to a GN. All I can say to you is good luck. All I can say to all current nursing students is try to impress the nurses you come into contact with during your clinicals. If you make a good impression on them, they will snatch you up and you won't have to worry about finding a job.

Specializes in Psych, Emergency, Med/Surg.

I'm still working on pre's and getting my CNA/PCT training. My estimated grad. is 2012. I really hope our situation gets better. My Dad keeps telling me the same........NETWORK and get to know your preceptors and do a great job during clinicals.

I wish everyone out there looking the best of luck and don't give up on such a rewarding and fascinating field!!!

I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope by the time you read this you'll have found a new grad position. When I was searching new nurse internships for FL, I found many in the Orlando area. I live in Jacksonville and I can't get an interview graduating with a BSN and honors because I have "no experience." I'm not 20 years old... I've been in the workforce for many years, some in management, yet I keep running into the brick wall of "you have no healthcare experience." I tried to get an entry level position at a plasma donation center, and they asked me why I was applying. The interviewer jokingly said I was overqualified for the job. You think???

I have a strong suspicion that if I do apply for patient care tech jobs to gain experience, I won't get any of those, either. It's a catch-22. I've spoken to several nurse recruiters at the hospitals, several of them on a recurring basis. (I call it "polite stalking" ~ LOL!) They're sympathetic, for the most part, but with several of them there's and unspoken attitude that nurses are a dime a dozen. For example, there was an OR nurse internship at Mayo that required an application fee (what the heck?), references, and had no pay, no stipend, or benefits associated with it. It was a 16 week program. I thought I must have mis-understood the posting, so I called their HR department to confirm. Yes, the posting was correct: four months of training, no pay.

I'm afraid I may just have to give up on finding any nursing jobs within two hours of Jacksonville and concentrate on getting back into the corporate world.

I wish you luck trying to re-enter the corp world right now. There is nothing in Jax right now. One position that I found for myself to open 'sometime this year' the guy said $35/hr in Feb and now says $28.50! 20% cut! When I mentioned that I hadn't been paid that little since '93, his reply was "good luck finding a job if you expect to be paid more than that!"

Be willing to take a significant cut from what you were earning. :crying2:

Specializes in Tele.

It is difficult finding a job.

I'm an RN with a year & few months experience, in peds surgical unit-- where we take care of all these amazing surgical patients-- from face reconstruction, scoliosis surgery, bowel---anything you can think of.

I applied at the endoscopy suite at a different hospital--- mind you, the endoscopy suite is not a difficult place to work at--I did a whole day there during clinical rotation-- and of course, I did not get the job because they said I only have pediatric experience.

can you believe that?!

With pediatrics you have to be more patient & nurturing because these are someones babies & children-- 2 year olds have to be held down for procedures, newborns cry you have to figure out what they need....

Sometimes we have to figure out the meds-- I have to mix my own amp when I'm in NICU.

So they said that the job is "very competetive".

So now I am considering doing NICU only--- but i will always be labeled "pediatric nurse"

Very interesting article about the nursing shortage in Orlando, which all of us new grads know that is not accurate, I emailed her and asked her where all these jobs were and was she aware that they want experience. I think we as new grads need to email her and make her aware what we are being told and that we may have to leave the state to even get a job. Very disappointing article to say the least.

OrlandoSentinel.com

Nursing job prospects bright amid dim economy:banghead:

Check out this article from the Orlando Sentinnel about nursing in Central Florida:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-biz-nurses-jobs-032309,0,6090529,print.story

Thanks for posting this and for contacting the paper. The more I read these articles, the more the whole "nursing shortage" story seems like self-perpetuating propoganda.

I think I will look into working in another state or a more metropolitan area that accepts new Nurses. Thank you for the information.

Hey Everyone,

We are in an economic depression here and from what I've heard from some hospital recruiters some hospitals picked the wrong time to expand and are paying for it now by having to put hiring freezes out there and reduce staffing on units when the pt. census is just barely ok for the nursing ratio. Anyway, the economy is affecting everyone, nursing was "recession proof" back a few decades ago, but that probably meant that a nurse could find a job Somewhere...even if it wasn't the "ideal place to work" that wasn't as wide spread as this is right now. I just accepted a job with the lowest pay scale in TPA because everyone on the unit was nice and I used to do my clinicals there two years ago before I went to volunteer in S. America and quit my good job and the economy fell in the toilet. Everyone that needs a job, all I can say is be open and understand that a lot of these jobs that you are applying for have 10-20 applicants that are just as qualified. Go impress them! Follow up with the recruiters and the managers let them know that you are extremely interested and would be a great addition....Be genuine and hopefully these hospitals will understand that they need to hire nurses to fill these vacancies OR the patients will complain, word of mouth will get around, and the hospital will be worse off than it was before because patients won't want to go there. The economy will get fixed in a few years and hopefully everyone can follow some kind of budget and figure out what they don't need in life to get over this speed bump.

Specializes in LTC, sub-acute care, Hospice.

Hello all,

I am a recent graduate of an ADN program in Colorado, Dec. 2008, got my license in Feb '09, and was pounding the pavement just as you are now for the entire month of Febuary and some of March. All I got were rejections. I also applied out of state: San Diego, North Carolina, Virginia, Portland, Boston, and Seattle. All places I could see myself living if need be. But I got no furthrer out there, only rejections. So I don't think the problem lies in one state alone, I think it is collective.

I decided to stay with my current job as a Hospice nurse and am picking up some extra shifts at a nursing home where I will be trained as a Charge nurse. I am hoping this will give me a step up in the "experience" world and that maybe after a year a hospital will consider hiring me. My fear is that it won't be enough, or the right kind of experience and they still won't hire me and it will be too late for a new grad program.

I wish I could offer better advice. The nursing shortage sure seems to be a lie to me, although if you are desperate, nursing homes seem to always be hiring.

Good luck to everyone!

Question: Has anyone tried applying to their county's health department?? I read somewhere recently that departments of health in Florida will consider new grads or nurses who haven't worked in a hospital for awhile. Anyone find this to be true?

Another question: Anybody have any luck using the website employflorida.com?

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