Nurses who can't find work.

Nurses Job Hunt

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Specializes in Psychiatric/ Mental Health.

Hello everyone, hope everyone is well.

Im writing this post so that I can 1. Send PM's :p, and 2. Because of my current situation.

So like you all, I thought there was a nursing shortage, wanted to heal the world one individual at a time, amd went through the torture of nursing school...come one, you know nursing school was HORRIBLE! Anyhow, 3 years out of school, and I cant land a decent paying job. I make less than a new grad at my current job. Ive sent out many applications, but all Ive gotten is no each time thus far. I've considered getting out of nursing as we say. Thought about working for Cerner, doing entry level consulting, marketing, real estate....but Im a nurse at heart, Ive found my identity in being an RN.

I guess my question to you nurses who are out of work, or those forced to take drastic pay cuts is this, how do you cope with being out of work? Did you get out of the profession, did you stop looking for work...I would love to hear your stories, Im sure others in the same situation would love to as well. Thanks :)

Pardon typos please...typing on a phone.

I would take a lower paying job at first. Better than no money coming in at all. This will give you experience, and further, I would take well advantage of any and all clinical experience I could. Once you have a good clinical base, then think about where you want to be, and have conversation with nurse manager of ideal unit on how to get there. And this could be applicable at your current job. Get as much experience as you can, then you can move accordingly.

I would look at facility systems, and see where you are the best fit. If you are unhappy with how things are run, then chances are that a different unit would be no different.

Worst case scenario, go per diem at a facility you like. Sometimes that is the best way to get your foot in the door.

Yes, as an LPN I took a tremendous pay cut due to phasing out LPNs in acute care. This was after 10 plus years. I am old, I am not willing to go back to school at this point in my life, so I needed to do what I could with what I had. As a BSN, you may have more choices, just be willing to start where you can, at what salary you can, to gain experience.

Some facilities have tution help. You may decide you want to get certified in a specialty. You may decide you want to manage. You may decide a number of things, but you need to get in there first.

Look on local hospital websites. See if there's PRN RN positions available.

Best of luck to you and your endevours!!

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

Have you considered flu clinics? It's seasonal and per diem, but it's nursing experience. OccuVax and Summit Health are hiring right now.

Substitute school nursing could be another option.

I know what you mean. I graduated 2010 with a BSN. TOTALWASTE OF TIME. Degree has proved to be useless and has opened ZERO doors.

Let me stop some of you before you spew the following rhetoric:

  • You need to lower your standards and apply jobs at a LTC/SNF”: I did and no dice.
  • “You need to be more assertive”: I was. Literally went into offices to speak to floor managers only to have the “1-2 year experience required” motto affirmed over and over again.
  • “Do volunteer work”: Sorry, working two crap jobs to pay rent and college loans. No time left to work for free doing tasks irrelevant to nursing.
  • “Move out of state”: No can do. Further, where is this magical state that has endless jobs for new grads with no paid experience? I haven’t seen it.
  • “Just be patient..baby boomers (BB) are going to retire”: LOL!! Do you think ALL the BB are going to retire at once? WRONG. The BB generation spans from 1946-1964. Do not expect a mass exodus from the nursing floors anytime soon. Further, has anyone considered the influx of foreign nurses? Every RN floor I was on was majority Filipino RN’s, and none of them were BB with the exception of some floor managers. Also, the BB generation has, in general, over extended themselves financially to the point that they CAN’T afford to retire.
  • “Again..be patient, things will open up” Ok, let’s ignore predictions of worsening financial stability in the coming years and say things will open up. Do you really think they will open up enough to employ the RN stale grads and the fresh RN grads? Who would you hire: A fresh grad right out of preseptorship or a stale grad 1-3 years removed from a nursing floor?
  • “Take a refresher course” I am not eligble for the only one in my area (120 miles away at a community college)…too long out.
  • “You have entitlement issues” No….I don’t. I worked hard in school—got accepted into an impacted RN program with high competition—excelled in my program both academically and in clinicals receiving accolades/stellar references from my instructors. After all that I am told, by the very hospitals that used me on their floors for my clinicals and preceptorship, that I am not qualified for an entry-level position in their institutions. The question begs: What is the point of the RN program then?

Truth is: it is a lost cause for a lot of us. Funny when I think back to my RN instructors literally telling us about all the opportunities upon graduation we were pretty much guaranteed. How we could walk right into a specialty and “write our own tickets!” Oh how naïve I was. At this point I have really lost interest in nursing—with the door being slammed in my face at graduation and all. Giving your life to something only to be told to go away for 3 years takes its toll. Pretty soon the flame burns out. So to nursing I say farewell. You gotta know when to fold em'.

--The RN that never was.

The RN that never was,

You sound like a nurse who would always be miserable on the floor.

Maybe those floor managers sensed something about you.

Maybe you gave off a bad vibe.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be for you.

Best of luck with everything.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

[*]“Move out of state”: No can do. Further, where is this magical state that has endless jobs for new grads with no paid experience? I haven’t seen it.

Apparently, South Dakota has jobs for new grads. The oil boom has led to a severe housing shortage, so you may end up living in a camper in a Wal*Mart parking lot, but you'll have a nursing job.

I can sympantize with jobless nurses. I graduated with an ADN in 2008, just before the economy collapsed. Even nursing homes wanted 1 year of experience, and hospitals said flat out "no new grads." Between my husband's sick father and my mother's cancer diagnosis, moving wasn't much of an option. After 10 months of searching and a cancelled job, I found a job in assisted living, 250 miles away. After a year there and 6 nightmare weeks in a SNF, I ended up in home health, making less than a hospital CNA.

In response to CRNA13

Wow, what an insitefull comment. I guess the 60% of my still unemployed graduating class suffers from the same defect. You are right. The problem has nothing to do with the following:

1. Over saturation of the market with a flood of RN new-grads form colleges who INCREASED their class size along with the many private RN expediate 1 yr programs that opened in the last 6 years to capitalize on the mythical RN shortage.

2. Mass insourcing of RN's from abroad.

3. 2008 Economic recession that has not recovered. Actually gotten worse with no end in site.

4. Elimination of RN new grad programs by Sutter/Kaiser and other major hospitals.

What a critical thinking, sympathetic and altruistic CRNA you must be to completely ignore what I said and judge me and toss me away like unwanted refuse. Like what I have to say is completely in-valid because it is tinged with notes of frustration. How would you expectmy tone to be? Jolly? Whimsical?

What area of the country are you in?

In response to CRNA13

Wow, what an insitefull comment. I guess the 60% of my still unemployed graduating class suffers from the same defect. You are right. The problem has nothing to do with the following:

1. Over saturation of the market with a flood of RN new-grads form colleges who INCREASED their class size along with the many private RN expediate 1 yr programs that opened in the last 6 years to capitalize on the mythical RN shortage.

2. Mass insourcing of RN's from abroad.

3. 2008 Economic recession that has not recovered. Actually gotten worse with no end in site.

4. Elimination of RN new grad programs by Sutter/Kaiser and other major hospitals.

What a critical thinking, sympathetic and altruistic CRNA you must be to completely ignore what I said and judge me and toss me away like unwanted refuse. Like what I have to say is completely in-valid because it is tinged with notes of frustration. How would you expectmy tone to be? Jolly? Whimsical?

Unfortunetely, then of COURSE you have the students loans to pay on a job that never comes to be. Sorry that this has happend to you, and the other 60% of your class. Hence why, as a long term LPN, I would not be in any different shoes salary wise as I am right now.

Here's just a throwing it out there....as an RN, you can, in some states and please check, be able to take the EMT exam. Just the exam, and the clinical portion--which is not a long process. It is not the highest paying job ever, however, would give you some money to live on.

Good luck with everything. These for profit schools should be ashamed of themselves.

I am right there with you. I graduated with a BSN December 2012, passed my NCLEX in March 2013, have a Pa AND NJ license and cannot find a job anywhere!!! I am starting to lose hope :( I thought I would have no problem getting into a hospital in Pa. I have had my clinical adjuncts refer me and nurses who loved me on the floors I worked on and...nothing. It's not due mostly in part to inexperience, it is the lack of positions for new to practice nurses. All the positions are for NP's, coordinators, educators, or nurses with 1-3-5 years experience.

I am now a year out of school and feel like I cannot remember anything. I try to keep studying and reading, but I'm a married 36 y/o with 3 boys and BILLS! My husband has his own contracting business and I have become his best painter! Seriously? ***! A painter?! I suffered working f/t while busting my ass in nursing school with a 3.7 GPA and I'm a *******' painter! Who feels like reading after a day of grueling labor! UGH, I am so heartbroken with the fact that I cannot use the knowledge and skills I have obtained. I have applied for everything under the sun. I have just recently contacted the NAVY since they accept ages up to 41. I am waiting for a recruiter to contact me back. In all honesty, what will that get me? I certainly will not be in active duty and part time is only 1 weekend a month and two weeks a year! I seriously do not know what else to do. I have begged, pleaded, cried; everything short of holding a nurse manager hostage, which I have been contemplating... I am now at the point that I am terrified of being contacted because I do not feel like a nurse at all anymore. Everyone says, "Oh just hang in there, it will all come back!" Of course, they didn't have 5 years of information shoved in their brain in 2 short years! It's very disheartening. I was a CNA, but since getting my license, I am no longer eligible.

So obviously, as you can see, I should read up on my coping skills! I go through all the stages of grief everyday and just when I start to think positive again and accept that I am not practicing, I wake up and start all over again. I know exactly how you feel and it's a terrible feeling. I pray that you have since found something. I will keep you in my thoughts and send you best wishes.

I am finished with my rant! And please people, do not criticize me and tell me I'm negative or have a crappy attitude and that's my issue. It is not at all the case. I am a very pleasant person, but like I said, it is very disheartening to not be doing the one thing you worked so hard at to accomplish and struggled through all-nighters, missed football games, Mother's Day tea, and many other important events in my children's lives to have no reward in the end other than a license that has become useless. I am still trying to stay positive and believe the right opportunity will come along when it's ready...one day...hopefully soon, even if it is in the Navy :)

Specializes in public health.

get some nursing experience, then you can become a nurse consultant. everyone has to pay their dues.

Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, PCU.

It's too late for both the OP and RN that never was now.. but I got my job by working at the hospital as a CNA while in nursing school. They knew me and then prioritized hiring me once I passed boards. Looking at how hard it is out there for everyone else, I can't help but believe luck played a huge part. The university I graduated from, and whose hospital I did my clinicals in, rejected my entire nursing class too (except 1 girl) - so I have to agree with that from RN that never was. It's crappy. I haven't really followed up with my class about them getting jobs, but I know a couple people took several months of applying everywhere before getting an interview. Not to deny that the graduates from my class are gifted and capable GNs, the market near me seems to rely more heavily on "who ya know" than "what ya know."

My floor has actually been taking on a couple new grads recently, however I'm not sure if it's because so many staff members have left recently or what. Usually they say units with high staff turnover are pretty bad work environments and will burn you out. True that it's pretty difficult for me, then again it is my first year. It's also not a nursing home and they took me as a new grad so to me it was a no-brainer.

I feel terrible for NGNs who can't find work. Nursing school was a pain in the *** and so many of them demand excellent GPAs prior to admission only to damage it with the challenging coursework. Truly capable students and very intelligent individuals are being shunned. The waste of talent perpetrated by the nursing job market right now is a travesty and it breaks my heart to see peoples' dreams dissolve because of it. Sorry I can't offer you any more advice than my empathy and best wishes.

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