What nursing shortage?

Nurses General Nursing

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As a new grad looking for positions in both CA and MA I am finding that

new grad nursing positions are VERY hard to come by. Some of my classmates

have gone to interviews were the employer is interviewing 70 people for two positions. I went to a career fair a few weeks ago with people lined out the

door for 6 positions. All of my classmates are asking "what nursing shortage?"

I have to say that I feel mislead by my school and the media into thinking that

there were so many nursing jobs out there. Is anyone else experiencing this?

What part of the country are you living in? At this point I am having to expand my career search to hundreds of miles from home just to find a position as new grad.

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Specializes in ICU, ER.

Philadelphia and surrounding counties are desperate-my hospital just placed 6 new grads in the ER.

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There is hope after all. Maybe I should move to Philly instead.;)

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I'm from MA and around here there doesn't seem to be a nursing shortage either. Not many positions for new grads. I finally found a job here 4 months after I passed boards. It felt like a really long time! I wish you all the best with your job search. I definitely know how difficult it is.

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Im from Tyler, TX and they are hiring graduate nurses right and left and offering huge sign on bonuses. They are even sending alot of us to the ICU classes. Some are going to ICU others to the Telemetry floor. This is at Mother Frances. At ETMC they hired about 5 from my class for the ER. We all got multiple offers for jobs. I even got days. We definitely have a nursing shortage. We have several nursing school programs around but we live within 80-100 miles of Dallas and I think everyone just goes to the big city.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.

I spent about 4 months looking for a job.

When I was looking around, I made it a point to let them know that I have no problems re-locating etc.

Color me nuts - but I received ONE call from LA, California and about a dozen and half calls from the South (actually all of them from Texas and new Mexico).

I received ZERO calls from the East and North East. :eek:

I'm currently in the midwest and all this was about 8 months or so ago :)

I am of the opinion that the "hiring" process and market could use a bit of fine tuning and re-organization. Seems a little haphazard from my perspective.

cheers,

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Specializes in med-surg, teaching, cardiac, priv. duty.

You may have to be willing to re-locate. Different parts of the USA are different in regards to nursing opportunities. Although this was 10 years ago now, my husband had just graduated from RN school in western, upstate NY. His school pretty much told them that they would be lucky to find a nursing home job, let alone a hospital job! At this time, not only were nursing jobs hard to find for experienced nurses but nurses were actually getting laid off, hospitals were closing down or eliminating floors, etc.

We were already planning to move to somewhere in the Southeast USA. My husband found a new grad RN position no problem in South Carolina. He had multiple offers! As an experinced nurse, I found a new job after we moved. And to make things even better, the pay was BETTER than western NY, and the cost-of-living LOWER. It was a win-win situation. We have made a new life down here in the south, love it, and would never go back to NY.

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Specializes in ED.

I'm in MN and every new grad I know has gotten a job, pretty easily. There seem to be jobs for new grads, and you maybe can't be too picky but there are plenty of jobs (from what I've seen). I am in an AD program and almost all the 2nd years graduating this month seem to have jobs lined up already.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery, Surgical/ Ortho.

I'm from Dallas and definitely understand where you are coming from. There are so many schools in this area and too many grads for few positions. I did finally get a job in Denton (about 30 miles north) which is closer to where I live. I guess it just depends on the area. Good luck!

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I agree with MOODYHOTROD -- here in Tyler, Texas there are three hospitals. I had several job offers and I believe other students in my graduating class did also. Basically, it was harder to decide on the job you wanted to accept than it was to get a job. The pay isn't the highest in the State of Texas, but East Texas is a great place to live.

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From what I have seen, there isn't much of a need for RN's and there definitely isn't a need for LPN's in Virginia. CNA's are in CRITICAL need. Most of the hospitals/nursing homes are hiring LPN's and a few RN's to work as CNA's.

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It's good to hear I'm not the only one out there.

I have falled in "love" with the ICU but as a new comer realize and am open to working Med/Surg with the hopes of eventually getting a job in the ICU.

But even those positions are very competative. Being in northern california I am finding more job openings in southern california. Boston, where I am trying to relocate, sounds alot like northern california for job opening for new grads, as in not many. I wonder why the south seems to have more openings for new grads? It seems like the coasts, with more dense populations, would have more openings to meet the demand of the population.

It seems that when the media or whomever states that there is a nursing shortage that they should be more specific. For instance the Bay area market is saturated with NP's. So saying there is a nursing shortage over

the entire country seems to be misleading when the shortage seems to be only in certain pockets. I also am starting to notice that maybe the "nursing shortage" maybe doesnt refer to new comers as much as more

experienced nurses. For example, the hospital where I am precepting says they want to take more new grads but they cant because they already have so many new nurses on the floor. The feel that they cant balance the overall level of experience on the floor to meet the learning demands of the new nurses and to make sure everyone is safe. So there is an issue of balancing out the total experience of all nurses on the ICU.

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