lost, need your advice

[iamlost]

hi! i am a registered nurse with a California and New York license.

i graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing from the Philippines in 2010 and came here to the US to be with my family. It took me a year to get my NCLEX since it was taking forever for my school to prepare all my papers. etc. Passed the NCLEX on June 2011 after doing self review. I am currently residing in San Francisco with my family. I was able to work at a skilled nursing facility that same year for about 4 months but had to resign to take care of my grandmother. For the whole year of 2012 I did not work in any healthcare setting and mainly focused on taking care of my grandmother. This year 2013, I have been volunteering at a public hospital and trying to look for RN jobs. I need some advice on what I should do to get a job. With my lack of experience it has been difficult looking for an RN job. It is okay for me to relocate to other towns or cities. Where are they hiring? I heard that hospitals in Fresno are hiring and need nurses. Is that true? I need your advice. Will there still be a hospital willing to hire me? What are my other options? Thank you.

[UPSgirl]

Definitely relocate if you can. Heck I have 7 years experience and I'm relocating. If they treat you well and the pay/benefits are good you won't regret it. You have your NY RN license? The hospital I will be working at is a level 2 trauma center in Plattsburgh. They are opening new units and they desperately need nurses. They are NYSNA affiliated and my rate of pay will be what I used to make as a traveler. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the good jobs.

[jlpolec]

HI i'm new to this site. But I have been reading post and i came across yours. I am in the similar situation, although i have 3 children and the youngest is only 3 months. I have been an RN in So. cal for a little over a year and i quit my SNF job after maternity leave was up. To go back to your question, it does not hurt to apply else where. I applied to places where no one wants to be and I have been getting call backs from So. Carolina, and other parts of the Mid west. They don't pay as much as Cali or NY but its experience. I would do it if my infant was not so young. But best of luck to you.

[UPSgirl]

It's very easy to land a job in the Midwest, in fact I had to take a job in Oklahoma and relocate for 3 years back in 2010. The market is extremely competitive, so much that I just accepted a job 2 hours from where I live, and I've been a nurse since 2006 and am very proficient in more than one area of nursing. I hear it's actually harder to find a job in California than it is in New York, and trust me it's pretty flipping impossible here so I can only imagine.