Frustrating job search in Wisconsin

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!!

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.

*** 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.