Worried about future job search.

[Tak,LMSW/RN]

I graduated from an associate in nursing & passed license while I was working at an acute hospital as a social worker in May 2016. I knew getting a job as a new graduate with an associate degree would be very challenging but was hoping to be hired by the hospital that I worked. However, the hospital was just merged and major downsizing plan by the main hospital was in progress and I was not hired. I moved to another better reputable magnet hospital as a social worker. I am two semesters away from getting BS (graduate by the end of Jan 2018 or May 2018) but the professor from one of my class was telling me to get a job as a nurse asap since I am losing my skill.

I don't think now and 5 more months would not make any difference and if anything, I would have BS in nursing in 5 more months. I started feeling so anxious about this but its probably too late anyway about my lost skills. If I don't get hired by my current employer I would probably be marketable for nurse care manager since I have been doing discharge planning for over 10 years. I know many bedside nurse become nurse case / care manager but could I possibly get a job as nurse care manager and goes back to bedside???

Having two years of blank (doing RN to BS) as a new grad be a major disadvantage? (Can't do externship because I already have a license...)Any advice or recommendation is appreciated.

[Cvepo]

Start reaching out to your hospital's nurse recruiter/HR team right away and get the ball rolling, as you may be able to start interviewing with managers and such for jobs sooner rather than later.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

You will have a hard time going to bedside from a case manager position if you have never been at the bedside to begin with. If you wish to be in bedside nursing, you should start pursuing that sooner rather than later.

[elkpark]

By the time you finish your BSN, you will be, at best, a year and a half out of your prelicensure nursing program, with no nursing experience. That makes you an "old new grad," which is the least competitive group for nursing employment. It's really a shame that you haven't gotten some kind of nursing job and clinical experience by now. Did you put any effort into finding a nursing job after you were turned down by your previous employer in 2016? How come you've continued to work as a social worker after going to all the trouble to getting through nursing school and getting licensed? I mean, I realize that was the easiest path, but why go to the trouble and bother of getting licensed as an RN if you aren't going to work as an RN?

Also, every nursing care manager position I'm aware of requires significant clinical nursing experience (years) to be considered eligible. I don't know if your SW experience would be considered an appropriate substitute for nursing experience. There's a reason why hospitals employ both social workers and RN care managers -- what the nurse care managers know and do is not the same as what the social workers know and do.

If you are serious about wanting to work as an RN, you need to start working on finding an RN position ASAP, whether that's with your current employer or some other organization in your area. Best wishes for your journey.

[Tak,LMSW/RN]

Thank you for all the advice for me. The reason why I could not get ANY nursing job was that I came to this country by myself and not married so I only truly rely on myself and no other. If I had a mother's basement, I could have taken ANY RN job that could be part time or per diem to get experience. I could not take the risk of ending up being in a homeless shelter, although that is also my specialty to get any nursing job. Having said that, I got to do what I had to do. So if I am and will be an "old new grad without any nursing experience" and won't get a job, it is what it is then. It was time-consuming to get RN, but the study and all that was not that bad. May be I will go back to law school since I did pre-law in my college. Anyway, thank you for your opinions it really gave me of clarity of the situation!

[elkpark]

Thank you for all the advice for me. The reason why I could not get ANY nursing job was that I came to this country by myself and not married so I only truly rely on myself and no other. If I had a mother's basement, I could have taken ANY RN job that could be part time or per diem to get experience. I could not take the risk of ending up being in a homeless shelter, although that is also my specialty to get any nursing job. Having said that, I got to do what I had to do. So if I am and will be an "old new grad without any nursing experience" and won't get a job, it is what it is then. It was time-consuming to get RN, but the study and all that was not that bad. May be I will go back to law school since I did pre-law in my college. Anyway, thank you for your opinions it really gave me of clarity of the situation!

Have you looked into getting a part-time job as an RN (although that's unlikely for a new grad) and doing that plus working part-time as a social worker? Have you exhausted every possibility of getting any kind of RN position? Because your professor is right, the longer you go after licensure without working as an RN, the worse your chances become of getting a job as an RN.

So you're going to throw in the towel on nursing and maybe go to law school now? Before you do that, I strongly recommend you look into the job prospects for new lawyers these days. They are even worse off than nursing grads in many parts of the country, unless they graduate from one of the top schools. You don't want to find yourself, years from now, still working as a social worker with nursing and law degrees you're not using.

Best wishes for your journey!

[Wuzzie]

The reason why I could not get ANY nursing job was that I came to this country by myself and not married so I only truly rely on myself and no other. If I had a mother's basement, I could have taken ANY RN job that could be part time or per diem to get experience.

You do realize that many of us, including myself, started out un-married and on our own and managed to do fine without living in our mother's basement? Using that as an excuse for not getting an RN job is plain ridiculous. Did you only apply at the one hospital? Did you try any long-term care facilities?