Jacksonville RN new grad with job woes.

[LadySunshine]

hello everyone. this is my first post so please be gentle. :-p

i moved to jacksonville from birmingham, alabama in may. due to the fl bon jacking up my paper work, i wasnt able to take boards until aug. i passed and now im having a terrible time finding a job! i've applied to numerous positions at shands and still no interview. ive called the hr office but the new grad "recruiter" is only an automated/pre-recorded message. baptist requires you to complete their intern ship(which they only have 10 openings and none are available at the moment). memorial doesnt have any opeing. st vincents and st lukes require the same thing as baptist. mayo clinic also doesnt have any openings.

its reall frustrating that i can finally say that im an rn but im jobless. im just really worried about finding an acute care nursing job here. i would move back to al where i know the demand is high but i recently got married to someone in the navy and that is not an option. someone have any advice?

[carygt3]

Haha, sorry i misread...i didn't see the "Jacksonville" part of your post . Anyways, i hope you find a good job up there; nothing is impossible! :]

[pattylpn54, LPN]

You do not want to work for Orange Park Med Ctr. Everyone I've ever talked to says it's a terrible place to work for & I can tell you from 1st hand experience that they treat their pts. like crap!!! Brooks Rehab is a good place -- don't know 1st hand workwise, but had a friend that was a pt there & the staff was always helpful & friendly & the friend had no complaints. Agencies are another good idea. They pay more than the facilities. There's also now a Baptist South(in Jax.) & a Baptist Beaches. Good luck.

[pattylpn54, LPN]

i personally was there as a pt. for 4 days, before i became a nurse. second day there, i suddently began projectile vomiting dark green fluid over the foot of my bed. it was non-stop and i was panicking because i felt i couldn't breathe. i hit the call bell as soon as it started. in between spewing and trying to get my breathe, i'm yelling that i'm vomiting & can't breathe & need a nurse. i was told to stop yelling and someone would be there in a minute. have you ever felt you could not get a breathe??? it is terrifying, so the last thing you want is someone telling you not to yell.

the dr. ordered a tube inserted in thru my nose to drain the green bile that was building up(i didn't know much about this stuff then). the nurse tried, but i have a sensitive gag reflex and a deviated septum(never knew this before), so this nurse and several others that tried couldn't get it in. they ended up getting the nursing supervisor -- she sat me in a chair, and rammed that tube down so hard and fast that blood started splattering out of my nose. and had the gaul to say to the nurses, in front of me "i thought you said she was being compliant". i've had 2 kids 6 minutes apart lady partslly, and that wasn't as painful or mortifying as this experience was.

on top of all of this, the entire 4 days i was there, not 1 aide, tech, or nurse ever gave or offered to give or help with a bath, bed bath, or any kind of personal hygiene of any type.

maybe part of the reason they are short staffed is because they will only hire rns and not any lpns.

i can give you another personal experience or two regarding that place if you'd like.

so, i'm sorry, but i can not agree with your assessment of the place. do you have any 1st hand experience that's been pleasant or is it only clinicals?

[carnationpixie]

I used to work for Baptist as an RN, and Wolfson's is with Baptist and you can look for any position on www.e-baptisthealth.com within their system, they have 3 hospitals in Jacksonville, one in Ferndina Beach and then Wolfson's in Jacksonville. You will have to do an internship at Baptist, I can verify that. I worked there as a nursing assistant for several years before I went to nursing school even and when I passed my boards I had 3 months of orientation. Orange Park Medical Center, Memorial Hospital, and Specialty Hospital are all in the same group and have access to the same applications but I suggest applying to all 3, and they do not always post their jobs on their websites I found out, the same with Baptist. You can find jobs they do not post on their websites at careerbuilder.com and other such job search sites. Also you can use nurse recruiter companies to help you get a hospital job, however if you have already applied at a hospital you do not want to use a recruiter because it will look bad if you have applied there AND a recruiter submits your resume also. Keep applying to Shands, it won't hurt to try since you don't have a job yet anyways and it's a very good learning experience to work there since it's a teaching hospital( I did clinicals there). So just keep looking at all your options and don't give up. If your husband is in the navy can you get a job at the navy hospital, I don't know if that's possible?

Good luck.

[Sunshine139]

I completely know what you are going through... I had the same problem finding a job! I graduated in December and between surgery and other obstacles I didn't pass my NCLEX until August... I applied all over Minnesota (mostly in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area) but they all required that you were enrolled in their new graduate programs in order to get hired by their hospitals. I missed the deadline for the September rotations so I would have had to wait till Jan. Which is over a year since I've been graduated :uhoh21:... but I was willing to wait till then because it is better than no job. I changed my mind about staying in Minnesota because it was taking so long to hear back that I moved to FL. I just recieved a job offer at Halifax health in Daytona Beach. I have found out from friends I've met around here that it took them months to get a job... so you really just have to hang in there! I know it is soooo completely frustrating to wait!!

When it comes to home health, I was told during my rotations they hesistate on hiring new grads because you have to be so independent in home health. At the hospitals, it is easier to ask questions and have nursing right there to help you out, but in home health you are out on your own in most cases. Some places need nurses so badely that they are willing to take the chance though.

You should also have someone you trust look at your resume/cover letter. I thought my first resume was great because I used resume sites and had one of my professors look at it. However, when I wasn't getting called back or denied positions I had one of my friends who hires people look at it. He actually ended up tearing it apart so it was really not as good as a thought. It was hard to hear, but better in the long run because it helped me get a job. Just hang in there, I know things will work out!

[Ack_RN]

Just don't give up!! I had a friend apply 17 times to Shands for a CNA position before he was hired. He loves it now and says it was worth it. Something will work out! Good luck. :wink2: