Nursing graduates find tighter job market

Surely you jest.

The region flight service here takes nothing but highly experienced ICU nurses, certainly not new grads.

I don't know about an agency but it's a little hard to imagine that agencies would be willing to take on the risk of a new grad nor does it seem likely that a hospital would hire them.

I am obtaining my license to treat the patients, not for the money. As long as I can survive I'm good. I know in the long run the pay will increase. In this economy you have to look at the bright side and just be thankful to have a job.

Karenchad- Your I'm very sorry/interested in your situation, how long have you been outside of nursing. How large are the hospitals in your area? Have you followed up with any of the people you have interviewed with? What do they tell you?


♪♫ in my ♥- nurses do not get pigeonholed in one specialty (experienced nurses please jump in and correct me if I'm wrong!), take a look at the information under the user names of the people in this forum. It is RARE for anyone to start and finish their career in the same specialty. Nursing is notorious for lateral movement among specialties.

I would be interested in hearing from any recruiters/managers/HR staff- is it better to wait for the exact position that you are looking for or just get ANY job that you can and build your resume and network connections? This sounds like a rhetorical question to me, but I want to hear your opinions.

Stephenf- I stopped working fulltime Telemtry in Jan 2008- my young manager and I had a difference of opinnion re: the treatment of a new grad asian male nurse by some of our nursing assistants and the tele tech- he was bullied on several occassions through the refusal of their assistance and their opininion of him was HE's STUPID. In reality this kid could speak 3 asian languages fluently- Vietnamese, Cambodian and Manderian Chinese, his accent was difficult but if you took the time to try to understand the accent you would see- HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT! the population of this inner city hospital was a large asian community, this male nurse was my savior and the ONCOLOGIST's one day when my patient was newly diagnosed with leukemia and needed chemotherapy and needed transferring to a larger university hospital- the patient only SPOKE and UNDERSTOOD vietnamese so guess who was the only RN on the floor with the language qualification. the ancillary staff would requarly refuse to help him- on day he had a patient go into cardiogenic shock and noone would help him. The final time- he got a new admission from the ED with active GI bleed and hgb of 5.0 needing blood- again he was refused help by the nursing assistants who refused to answer one of his patient's call bells, I spoke up and went to the manager who believed the Nursing assistant so I asked her to terminate me- as I had been to her several times before about this situation, and to the VP of Nursing- NOTHING was done. In july 2008 I got a perdeim position in a small Speciality Heart Hospital- the one that has laid off all it's senior RN's the time was there up until march 2009, so I signed up with an agency in april 2009- did a short term travel assignment in the northern part of my state( I did local travel from 2004-2006), get approx 1-2 day/week at LTC facilities, I will be starting a CCU stepdown on the 27 of this month- parttime/24 hours per week- it was because of my experience at the Heart hospital that I got the position and the manager is a former travel nurse himself(travel/agency says FLEXIBILITY to an employer!! HINT HINT) Ypou are absolutly right- nurses are notorious for lateral movement- I've done- med/surg, oncology, same day surgery, endoscopy suite, 'briefly" ICU/CCU, travel/agency, Telemetry, specialized Cardiac, LTC,now going to do a Progressive cardiac care unit- over 30 years. I will do that for 6months and then I'm going to do travel- or may be a nice quiet clinc- I hate floor politics!! Arounf my area we have small general community/suburban hospitals (150- 300 beds) and large awsome university teaching hospitals with level 1 trama(700- 1000 beds) right now all is very hard to get into with and with out experience- we have been on a hiring freeze since 2008 which I was not aware of when I boldly told my manager to fire me. One hosital- a snobbish surburban community hospital I was sent to called me the "getto nurse" because I had worked in the city for 4 years prior- That inner city hospital taught me more in 3 years than I would EVER learn in any suburban hospital in 30 years- the experience was wonderful and the nurses were so talented- they did not have fancy equipment but had to rely on their assessment skills when gunshots came in, stablize and transport( to the large university trauma centers 15 min away) some of those patients were dumped off at our ER doors or thrown out of cars at the doors- it was exciting. I loved it!

I graduated in 2007, not one hospital here in Massachusetts had a new hire program. It cost money. They just have the nurses they have work overtime, or end up getting nurses from other hospitals, nurses who are unhappy where they are. But not new hires. Hospitals here will only offer a new hire orientation program when they can't find nurses to work the overtime. Hospitals are taking advantage of the economic situation. Unsafe staffing is the result.

I was fortunate and was hired by the state as my friend is the Director of Nursing. I definitely would suggest going into LTC for a couple of years. A classmate of mine, did that and she just got hired with a visiting nurse association. They all want 2 years experience....even the temp agencies. So, the LTC is one way of getting some experience and then move on. Many of these LTC facilities have rehabs and they are quite involved...offering experience.

It is tough out there. I get so angry when people say there is a shortage of nurses....there are too many schools producing too many nurses....with no jobs.

I am also a dental hygienist and I see the same thing happening there also. Too many schools with not enough jobs for the graduates! Schools are the ones making money...what a business.

That's what I'd always presumed but how does that reconcile with all the positions requiring SPECIFIC experience in a like unit, not just general experience?

If you go ahead and get experience in a variety of areas, the hospitals are sometimes more likely to take a chance on you in a new specialty and hire you. This shows them how flexible and adaptable you are and how quickly you can learn something new. I was asked the question last week on an interview for a clinic position, I have No experience in a clinic - (the interview was called a Structured interview and includes SKA- skills, knowledge and ability- nursing positions for the government conduct their interviews this way and some hospitals do also. ie. " Name something new you had to learn in your present position;" You name whatever. they respond "how well did you do and would you be able to do it independently?" ) These interviewers look at everything: how you are dressed, are you on time, how you present yourself, your body language, how interested in the position you are by your asking questions about the position you are applying for, how knowledgeable you are about your current position- ie. I was asked to site an example of my most difficult patient, what I did and the outcome, If you participate in problemsolving at your present job- I was asked to think of a problem on my current unit and did I offer a solution to that problem and was it being implemented. Hope this helps

lol, I think we were interviewed by the same people. I tried to answer all of the questions with a "customer service" spin. I attended all the staff meetings as I could as a CNA and that seemed to be about 90% of my manager's focus. It was also told to me that the people that were doing the interviews were- at least for new-grads- more worried about what type of person you were than how refined your nursing skills were. The rational was that they could teach you skills but couldn't teach you how to be a nice person.

I have no expectation of getting a job in ICU or ED straight out of graduation. In fact I have no expectation of getting a hospital based job straight from the gate either. This is because there are few industries where you could expect to get a job in the area you want immediately. Also, the shortage that has been predicted is supposed to be more in SNFs, LTC and the like (something I don't think is stressed enough).

That being said, I am positioning myself to be a great pick should the opportunity present itself for a hospital based first job. If I need to work in long term care or anything in order to "earn my stripes" I will do and will do so with good grace.

I know a few nurses who "ended up" starting in LTC and they loved it so much that they have stayed in it. I figure that once I am a nurse and get experience, my thoughts on specialty may change. So I will also try to keep an open mind.

As a nursing student im very discouraged reading this..... im going for a RN-BSN i currently work fulltime in health insurance (will go to part time when clincials start)
basically i have 2 1/2 years before even think of graduating ....im in philadelphia, and im disheartened to hear of everyones hardships, I actually wanted to get in field right away and just get enough credits for ASN-RN then stay in school for BSN, but basically it would be a waste of time?