Licensure by Endorsement questions

Published Sep 10, 2015

2 Posts

Hi everyone, I graduate in December '15 with an ADN from a school in Houston, Texas and I have a few questions about my upcoming stressful life post-graduation as I apply for jobs.

I've lived in Texas my whole life and would like to move away asap after graduation and have new experiences. States that I'm interested in so far include Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, though I'm not ruling out other options. I'm interested in living somewhere more liberal and scenic that I could hike/bike on my days off of work. I would like to live close-ish to a city but not a far drive from scenic hiking areas so places like Portland, Seattle, Denver, and possibly their suburbs would probably be ideal.

So far my favorite areas of specialty have been the NICU, L&D, and possibly the ER (it's what I'm going through this last semester).

My questions are:

Does anyone know what the hiring field is looking like in these areas of the country for a new grad ADN with intent to get a BSN asap after settling into a job?

If I plan to take my NCLEX in the middle to end of January 2016, and then apply for licensure by endorsement, how long should I expect to have to wait before I can get a license to work in those states?

Do I have to wait to apply to jobs in another state that's not in the nursing compact till after I have a license to work in that state? Or can I be applying to jobs there in the interim while I wait to get my license endorsed?

If I'm unsure which state I want to work in, should I apply for endorsement to several so that I can apply to jobs in several subsequent states? Or is that somehow frowned upon?

Thanks to anyone out there that can help me! I really appreciate it!