Ok so I oriented a 4th semester nursing student from the local community college last week and this was for her "trends" class. I work in a state facility for DD population. We got to talking and she of course wants to work in a ER. I told her it is really competitive to get into the ER as a new grad and they are hiring mostly BSN's. she said she was going to work on that ... also eluded to being a single parent "so it might take me a while" she said. We are in a rural area and she said based on her clinicals she didn't want to work on the M/S units in the local 2 hospitals. She then said she might relocate to another state and I told her to check into the local job market - some places it is really difficult - if not impossible- to get nursing jobs. I told her that is why I relocated was b/c if the saturated job market in the neighboring state. She was like "really?" She said she didn't know that - she thought nurses could get jobs anywhere. She also stated that she was graduating from a class of 36 students - the class size had been increased from 24 previous year. Later she quietly asks me "so you think I'll have a problem getting a job?" I said "honestly, I'm not sure this area will absorb that many new grad nurses - a lot of times they only want to hire nurses with experience. She was a nice girl and I wish her the best. I told her my facility has a opening coming up and I would put in a good word for her if she was interested - however my manager just hired an experienced RN.
I know some schools are warning students - I worked with a BSN new grad last year who said the instructors warned the class "your best options right now for employment are the rural areas" as they knew most of the students wanted to move to the city.
Do you all think nursing students/ potential nursing students are being misled about the job market? Oh and I do say ADN students because we hear so much how hospitals are only hiring BSNs.
