I'll try to make this as short as possible. When I was a brand new nurse I kept making mistakes on my first month on the floor. My manager had then fired me and reported me to the board of nursing. That was back in 2008. I received my orders this year in May. I am currently looking for a job. I have looked everywhere and applied everywhere - nursing homes, clinics, home health, agencies, hospitals, etc. I am told that my work experience is impressive but the moment they discover I have stipulations on my license they give me the "we'll call you" line. I've been hired and let go because managers change their minds with "taking a chance"( problem with at-will states). Or the other way, managers want to give me a chance but the company or the CNO doesn't. Majority of people flat out have a requirement that licenses be "unmarked" so to speak. I talked to a board of nursing representative and she said that yes, people with stipulations gets hired but it seems to me that people that receive stipulations are already employed and their employer just decides to keep them knowing what kind of employee they have on their hands(rabbit I had to chase, sorry). I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I have to be employed for one year for my stips to be removed but nobody will hire me because I have stips. Anybody been through this or know of anybody who's been through this? Is it time to throw in the towel and get another career? How do nurses who have worse than a warning on their license manage to get a job? Don't mean to sound dramatic but I've been unemployed for almost 3 months now, forgetting how to think or even be a nurse, receiving unemployment, possibly returning back to live with my parents, extremely discouraged due to constant rejections and negative comments nurses and CNO's have told me, and just sad because all my dreams regarding nursing have seemingly been dashed to pieces.
