What is the fate of the new graduate RN?

[Aubrianna]

Hi Everyone,

I am curious what it is about new grads now that such a resistance is being met. 2 years ago a new grad got out of school and got a job just about anywhere they wanted, and it all has changed like poof what happened?

I am no different than any other new graduate struggling to find one person to just give me a chance to prove myself. Might I say I am from the world where you work hard and how hard you work proves your ability that gains your respect that moves you into positions of stature. I have worked hard for everything and seem to be a fish out of water in this world I have entered. I do not know the perfect sentence to tell someone that will make them say that is the one for me? I am a shower, give me the oppurtunity to show you and I will prove that people can do things thought to be impossible. I am the over achiever of the over achievers. I graduated in the top of my nursing class, with all the stuff that I can show. However, it means enough to be mentioned but my achievements scream worker that works like no one you have probably ever encountered before. Getting to the top of the class at nursing school, winning 4 scholarships, and having fancy paper awards and lots of written accolades has not done what I thought it would and find me a job.

I have always thought that hard work pays off, no fail people notice that. Umm, what happened? I do not know the magic sentence to say that will make someone go, oh she is the one for me. All answers to interview questions are programed really, except me I am honest. However, I just do not know how to say and make a person believe that I would do the best job probably not at first against experience but in the long run, surely. I have never been less than the best, or up with the greatest. I know that as a nurse its not going to happen as fast as I'd like it, but I had to work up the latter when I became the youngest manager in a fortune 500 company to suceed on a trial basis. I chose my staff based on a passion for the job, less on what you did before. I can train anyone to be great, and a blank slate is a good way to do it quickly. I had lowest staff turn over and produced the most promotions and successive managers. How do I relate the way I know how to make an impression to the world of nursing interviews and questions? If I got an oppurtunity to show, that would be all she wrote and I would have been employed by now. I really do everything the best that can with all my effort all of the time, especially when it relates to lives.

Question 1: How do I transistion from a doing and shower, who is used to achieving through being the best and working the hardest to what did you like most about clinicals? What? What did you like least about clinicals? You haven't been a nurses aide? You haven't ever been a nurses aide? Well, if I knew to become a nurse I needed to be a nurses aide I would have passed on nursing school it was much harder to me.

Second Questions: Why is there such a resistance against new grads now, is there just too many newbies out there? How did it go to new grads are great give em a job 2 years ago to all nurses need experience to get a job now? I need experience to get a job that I need the job to get the experience??? I can solve any puzzle, not that one? Why is it like this? Please I want to understand? I mean I have been in interviews it was like they wanted nothing to do with a new graduate, period. They told me pretty much but said they would call me to set up a time to come in and observe the floor? Why all the dishonesty, why not just say I am not interested in you? So much less painful than the email of we dont want you instead of the call you were promised?

My generation of nurses, will only hire new grads I bet because man this is horrible. Has it always been like this in nursing, except for 2 years ago when it was cool to be a new grad? Did the seasoned and experienced nurses have to go through this tumultuous experience trying to get a person to believe in them?

WHY DO RECRUITER's send new grads on interviews with nurse managers that want nothing to do with them? That just puts everyone in an uncomfortable not so pleasant situation. Hopes are up, disappointment sits across from you, they tell you they want experience, and then the false hope with we will call you in "x" amount of days, weeks, for the next step big smiles. Umm, we believe you? Until we get the sorry go away emails that can cause depression for days or weeks to follow.

I wonder if I will ever get a job. I am to the point that I can wait a year, just let me have a confirmation that one day I am going to get a job at some point as an RN. Plus, what is going to happen when all the close to retirement nurses retire and now we have a bunch of new but old graduates with no experience and training from the people we need to gain information from?

What is the reason no one wants new grads when thats all they wanted 2 years ago? Plus, with this 1 year of experience thing going on I know the nurses I know are not staying anywhere and jumping around from job to job. I mean the nurse manager that see's me and hires me has me, I am dedicated to that man/woman for my life.

Just explain it to me? 2 years ago it was okay to train them, and now they are going here there and everywhere.

At some point there are going to be too many graduates? We are pumping thousand of new grads out of each state each year, every few months really? I do not even know if the interviewer can remember who I was when they get done interviewing for the position 2 months later? Whats with all the new required qualifications for us but not for someone who has been a nurse for a year? How come if I have a BSN as a new graduate I might get a shot at a job, but a diploma nurse with years of experience unrelated to my education is okay to be hired but an ADN nurse is not a consideration. Or an ADN nurse with experience trumps a new graduate with a BSN. None are equivilent in any form?

What is going to happen and what is the fate the new grad RN? Its nice to say I am an RN, and I am but am I? Is this all I will ever be?

[Futterwacken]

I give up. Thanks for the kudos though.

[Aubrianna]

Sorry, did I upset you to make you give up? I never know what those letters mean, I am so behind in that kind of stuff. Sorry if I upset you in anyway. I figured by the little guys I got it, sorta. I just dont know what op meant. Anyway, I will ponder it and sorry if I upset you.

[MaheaRN]

I graduated 2 years ago... and believe me when I say it was just as hard to land a job as a new grad back then too. I wasn't an A student, no awards of any kind and kept praying I would make it to graduation. What I did after graduation was literally mail out about 30 cover letters with a dinky little resume, I called each place I mailed my resume to and introduced myself asking them to please consider me for any nursing position that may come up. It took about 2 months for 6 responses. Be humble. Pray A LOT. Stay focused. Don't come across as being a know it all. But be confident. Aloha.

[wazeout]

I suspect that the famous 'nursing shortage' caused a glut of nurses who are under-educated and underqualified- and sadly, there are more of those nurses than capable nurses and it has caused the more experienced nurses to be jaded.

There are too many nurses looking for jobs- they have their pick.

Can you validate your suspicions, because right now you only sound paranoid. Besides, a person has to graduate from an approved, accredited program before they can take the nclex, and they have to pass that exam before becomming an RN. So, your above (highlighted) comment makes no sense at all.

[texvelvet]

You are very verbose....and utilizing the spellcheck might not be such a bad idea. I graduated 3 months ago and had a job in 6 weeks. I went to one of those places that needed nurses. Don't expect whatever you were or had or may have accomplished to make you worthy of a job in your backyard. If you wish to be a nurse, go be a nurse. There are still plenty of jobs out there...if not right down the street

[nursel56]

. . . ..I so hope I get that job, I love it there.

They have no way of knowing all the superlatives about yourself contained in the first post.

Best of luck landing that job at the place you did your internship! I hope for your sake you don't talk the way you write, though. Not meant as a dig at you, just something to be aware of.

Plus, the seasoned nurses were much better to me than any of the younger nurses I came across.

If this is for real I'd like to embroider it on a doily and place it carefully on my coffee table for the world to see.

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

Face it, we are the lost generation.

[nursemichelle80, BSN, RN]

if your at the top of your class than you know how hard it is to achieve that, and for me it was the greatest achievement of my life for many reasons relating to my childhood.

why did you even interject about a topic that you know nothing about, your just a nursing student. this pertains to nurses, not you.

those would be spelled "you're"

from the bit i read, i'd say you are pretty cocky and a turn off as a candidate. yes, you may have all the bells and whistles....but to be honest, they're too loud- and personally, i definitely wouldn't want to work with someone like that. you make it seem as if you know it all, and quite frankly if you did you wouldn't have put up this post.

i suggest you keep trying, but with a more humble attitude. i myself will be a new grad in december, and i know that things are not the way they used to be a few years ago. but again, look around and see all the people with educations, who were in top positions that may be bagging your groceries or taking your order- they may not like it, but i'm sure they are grateful for a job. so be grateful to have the opportunity to interview, even if it leads to nothing. eventually you will get a job and as you say, if you know you will excel, then you will.

i am also at the top of my class, honor society, nsna board member, etc.-but i know i can't count on that to get me a job. hopefully a smile and just a sincere interest to work will give me a chance, and only then will i add the fact that i have a list of acheivements.....a better reason to hire me.

best of luck. if you're such an acheiver then you know you will land a job

she was responding to your original post. whether she is a nursing student or a nurse does not matter. afterall, allnurses.com is a "nurse and nursing student network of 525000+ members...where nurses and

nursing students talk everything about nursing."

"it is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help." ~author unknown

"none are so empty as those who are full of themselves." ~benjamin whichcote

good luck in your search for a job.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

OP, yes it is hard. This situation for new nurses has been going on since I think early 2008. I remember when I was in school, word got out that the classes graduating before me were starting to run into problems finding employment. In my area you have all the things mentioned in prior posts happening.

1. Nurses returning to work who never would have if the economy didn't tank.

2. Huge influx of foreign nurses (this has slowed temporarily) some hospitals in my area are still almost exclusively staffed with nurses from the Phillippines, and are lobbying congress to open immigration to bring more in.

3. No desire by the hospitals to put nurses through residency. Unfortunately this is a must for a new nurse as unlike MDs we do not enter the workforce ready to practice, we are only very minimally trained.

[wetzoo]

I can definitely understand your frustration (recruiters sending you on jobs you're supposedly "not qualified" for sounds rough).

I don't think that you came off "cocky" at all; it sounds like you're just venting. It's easier for some and harder for others. For people to just assume that you're not doing enough isn't fair. I think that the poster above did a great job explaining what you were asking. I guess the only advice I can give is to just be patient and to not give up. There are many people in the same boat as you (lol myself included). It'll happen soon enough.