Dallas Jobs for New Grad. Interested in Women's Services

[newgal14]

Hey y'all!

I just graduated this May and I've been having a hard time landing a residency program in the L&D department in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I don't want to wait until the next round and I figured I'm not being selected to the next process for a reason...

Should I just apply for a residency program in inpatient rehab (which is where I did my Capstone) or med-surg (I HATE med-surg tho) just to get started? Or should I stick with women's services and maybe find a clinic job so that I can stay within that patient population? I can't really find women's clinics in this area that would hire new grads. Anyone know of any?

Thanks!! And best of luck to all the new graduates out there!

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

The likely reason you are not being selected is that women's services is a low turnover, high demand specialty. There are hundreds of new grad nurses vying for one of those spots, of which there are very few. It is very difficult to get them unless you have local connections in those departments or are willing to get out of the major metroplex area and into some of the rural Texas areas.

You would be better off taking a position in acute care (such as med-tele, med-surg, ICU stepdown or just about any other acute care position) over rehab or a clinic. Right, wrong or otherwise, if you don't get acute care experience your odds of ever breaking into acute care go way down, including into L&D or women's services. Also, if you are an ASN graduate, not BSN, your odds are even lower. You did not say what kind of degree you graduated with.

Congratulations on graduating and best of luck on your job hunt!