Frustrating job search in Wisconsin

U.S.A. Wisconsin

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When I graduated in May, the hospitals were telling us to look for jobs in LTC to get experience before moving on to the hopitals. The frustrating thing is the LTC are not hiring new grads. They want at least one year of experience preferably in acute care.

Acute care is telling us to get experience in LTC before applying and LTC is requiring acute care experience. Is that a parodox?

I have found through my job search that everbody, except private duty nursing, is requiring at least one year of acute care experience even to get an interview. I have tried, home care, hospitals, clinics, LTC, every place that I can think of in the central Wisconsin area for a job. I do understand the market is tight rigt now, but for years we heard about the nursing shortage. The nursing shortage only seems to apply to those with experience. I get job announcement daily for experienced positions. Employers are desperate for experienced nurses.

My questions is.... How do new nurses get experience without being able to get a job?

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Specializes in ER, Oncology, Travel Nursing.

I feel your pain!! Don't think experienced nurses have it all that great either!!! I have been a nurse now for 10 years....working ICU and ER. I have all my certs...even have both CCRN and CEN. I have applied for at least 15 ER and ICU jobs since the beginning of the year....only had one interview and never received anything from the hospital....and they are quite well known medical center in Wisconsin. I left my job earlier this year because i was so miserable..and the new boss they hired with no ER experience was after me to get me fired. I have been able to manage to get 2 travel assignments in Wisconsin....but thinks look pretty bleak for anything permanent in Wisconsin. Hospitals in the state have stopped hiring... mostly because the number of paying customers are on the rise... not the actual number of patients being seen!! Which in turn, less money, for the hospital...so cut staff right away, which usually means nurses....so the hospitals are playing the profits before patients. And the frustrating thing with Wisconsin is that there never has been a true shortages of nurses. There are plenty of nursing schools pumping out new grads every 6 months. Three years ago, way before they economy tanked, I read an article that Wisconsin would be the only state like in the 2010 with a nursing surplus! That is actually bad for us nurses...wages and benefits would go down..and compared to other states...Wisconsin is a bit low paying to start!!!! But hopefully something comes up for you!!

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I'm going through the exact same thing right now. I'm an ICU have been for 12 years. Anyway long story short I'm so miserable because of the manager I'll be quitting. I live near the Illinois border so hopefully be able to find something there.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
When I graduated in May, the hospitals were telling us to look for jobs in LTC to get experience before moving on to the hopitals. The frustrating thing is the LTC are not hiring new grads. They want at least one year of experience preferably in acute care.

Acute care is telling us to get experience in LTC before applying and LTC is requiring acute care experience. Is that a parodox?

I have found through my job search that everbody, except private duty nursing, is requiring at least one year of acute care experience even to get an interview. I have tried, home care, hospitals, clinics, LTC, every place that I can think of in the central Wisconsin area for a job. I do understand the market is tight rigt now, but for years we heard about the nursing shortage. The nursing shortage only seems to apply to those with experience. I get job announcement daily for experienced positions. Employers are desperate for experienced nurses.

My questions is.... How do new nurses get experience without being able to get a job?

*** I feel very sorry for all you new nurses out there who can't find jobs. However there never was a nursing shortage. At our hospital when a lot of people in the community got laid off from their jobs a whole bunch of our part time and casual RNs went to full time. A bunch more put off plans to retire.That filled nearly all our open positions. There have alwasy been plenty of nurses, just not enough willing to work for the current pay and working conditions. Now there are.

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It also is very hard for new nurses to not only obtain full time positions, but even try to work part time on the side via per diem.

Many agencies require at least one year experience before accepting and submitting a nurses profile to their facilities.

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Unfortunately, you might have to relocate..... no shortage of nurses here!

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Specializes in Hospice.

Sorry for your struggle, I got my job through a connection. Anybody can be a connection I could of had a job at a nursing home through a friend of my dh. And some of my preceptors tried to make connections for me to. The thing I have learned is it's all about who you know. They hired 2 nurses for my shift at my acute facility both of us had less experience than the other applicants but we knew people. My advice is to network all the time. It's not always fair how people are getting jobs but it seems to be the way it is.

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Sorry for your struggle, I got my job through a connection. Anybody can be a connection I could of had a job at a nursing home through a friend of my dh. And some of my preceptors tried to make connections for me to. The thing I have learned is it's all about who you know. They hired 2 nurses for my shift at my acute facility both of us had less experience than the other applicants but we knew people. My advice is to network all the time. It's not always fair how people are getting jobs but it seems to be the way it is.

This is very true. I see more and more nurses connecting with agencies and such through facebook, twitter and linkedin.

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