My feelings go out to all of you who are having a hard time finding jobs. I feel your pain and know what you are going through.
I graduated in '95, we all had similar issues with new grads having a hard time finding a job. The market was saturated, hospitals only wanted 1-2 years of experience. I found it very frustrating and scary. Months and months of applying, sending out my resumes and applications, and continually getting rejected. Eventually, I came to the realization that my dream of working in a hospital as a new grad was not going to happen.
I began applying at Long Term Care (LTC) facilities, something that did not interest me at the time, but I was wanting so bad to begin my nursing career that I was willing to take any job that I could find to begin getting some experience, etc...
While my goal was to work in a level one trauma center and ICU, or ER, I found myself in long term care, and once I accepted it, I really enjoyed long term care. I found myself learning a ton of nursing assessment knowledge and personal skills. It really forces you to become independent and autonomous, working on time management and so many skills that are essential to all nurses. I learned a ton from so many LVN's and RN's in LTC, they were amazing sources of experience and mentoring. I really felt that my experience in LTC was a wonderful asset to my future working in Critical Care. I eventually ended up working in CCU (Coronary Care Unit), and the vast majority of our patients were elderly, and I felt I had already been accustomed and educated on that clientele, and my experience with that population from LTC, it was a great source of confidence.
After a few years, I began re-applying to the hospitals and with my experience, and the nursing saturation cycle changing, I eventually moved into a long term acute care facility, got hospital experience, all while continuing to apply and follow up with multiple hospitals, eventually was hired by a hospital in telemetry, then CCU and I finally moved into a job that I was wanting from a new grad. Also, during this time, I took every opportunity to get certificates in ACLS, EKG classes and other certificate classes to help make me more marketable and attractive to hospital managers. But it was a long hard journey, but well worth it.
As you all know, the market and nursing shortage (or not so shortage) varies dramatically based on different geographic regions, cities, states, etc... I have no idea about the long term care employment marketplace where you live. But I would recommend you explore ALL employment opportunities, whether or not it's in your overall dream of how you thought you would start your career.
The average age of nurses (upper 40's), the baby boomers creating more demand for health care, etc... all indicate that nursing will be a strong employment arena. I feel that the projected nursing shortage we've all been hearing about for years was and is a legitimate concern. However, the changes in the economy other industry job losses has brought many existing nurses back into the workforce, kept nurses working later in their career than planned before retirement, etc... All of these issues have skewed the projections and the nursing marketplace is not really hot for the time being.
My gut feeling and my hope is that in the next year or so, as our economy improves, more nurses will be retiring, more baby boomers putting more and more demand on the health system, the hiring freezes will lessen and that the nursing marketplace will eventually open up more and all you newer nurses will have many more opportunities.
No one has a crystal ball on when things will turn around, but by historical records, they eventually will. There are so many positive indicators that nursing is still a strong profession and a wonderful career choice.
So my words of advice to all of you is try to remain as positive, do your best to get employment, open your boundaries to acceptable driving distances, possible relocation if that is an option for you. Take jobs that may not be your ideal job, gain any experience that you can, even if it's not what you want. Continue to educate yourselves, certificates and classes (ie. ACLS, PALS, EKG) that are related to the type of nursing you want to do. So when the time comes and the employment opportunities do open up, you are prepared and ready.
Best of Luck!
