A ? For DFW Nurses!

As a new grad (ADN) what do I need to do to (help) insure I will be able to get a job when I graduate?

To be honest, most of the major DFW-area hospital systems prefer hiring new grads with BSN degrees who performed clinical rotations at their facilities. As an ADN grad, you would really need to develop some inside connections through networking, which is difficult for a person to accomplish if they have no local connections to the area to begin with. The local nursing job market has changed for the worse since the economic downturn of 2008.

Also, are all new grads forced into med surg as a first job? My ultimate goal is L&D. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

The med/surg new grad residencies at DFW hospitals are ultra competitive to get into. Several hundred people apply and only a few get accepted.

Realize that Dallas, Fort Worth, and the surrounding suburbs are being flooded with thousands of new grad RNs who are graduating from multiple local nursing schools each semester: TWU, TCU, UTA, El Centro, TCC, TVCC, Hill College, Weatherford College, Southwestern Adventist, NCTC, Navarro College, Grayson, Collin County College, Tarleton State, and many others. All of these nursing programs are churning new nurses into a local job market that cannot absorb them all. There are not enough jobs for every new grad who wants a job.

In your opinions, would I be better off getting some experience under my belt before making the move? Would a year or so really make that much of a difference?

Almost half of my graduating class from this past December still do not have jobs and many from the May graduating class before us don't either. Each internship opening posted for a start date of this January had on the average around 600 applicants from what I was told when interviewing. Many of the hospitals are picking up BSNs only and none of them will hire direct to the floor outside of an internship. It has gotten to the point that some hospitals tell graduates who graduated more than a year ago and are not employed not to bother applying. It is that competitive. Some hospitals are only leaving the postings up taking internship applications for a day or two; some only for hours. They are inundated.

From what I have seen here on AllNurses, most of the hospitals in DFW also will not consider an out-of-state new grad applicant. The pickings here in town are so numerous, there is no motivation for them to deal with the headaches of someone who is not even here to be interviewed. However, if you are willing to go extreme rural (more than 1.5 hours outside of a major city) you could probably find something.

I graduated in last year May in Houston. I am ADN RN and am working in a skilled nursing facility for 8 months at this time. I will move back to north side of Fort Worth in June of this year because I own a townhome over there. It is so much stress renting a house to someone else so my family decide to move back. I really wish that HR of any hospital counts my experience. anyone has any idea? Thank You!!!!!!

Recruiters and HR personnel will not count your time in the nursing home as acute care experience. They'll count it as experience, but not acute care experience.

Acute care experience (read: hospital experience) is what many recruiters, hiring managers, and HR personnel seek in an applicant when hiring for the D/FW area hospitals.

Wow! I knew the job market was competitive but I didn't realize it would be SO difficult! I am currently living in Nebraska and I suppose we are in a bit of an economic "bubble" because new grads here have very little problem finding jobs. That said, the main reason I went back to school was to help support my family so we could move down to FW where my family lives. :heartbeat

In your opinions, would I be better off getting some experience under my belt before making the move? Would a year or so really make that much of a difference?