I will graduate from a 2-year RN program in December. For my first year of school, I didn't pursue employment as I wanted to put all my focus on my studies. This semester, I have been actively looking for a patient tech or internship position so I have hospital employment experience (outside of our school clinicals) before graduating.
My school did not require getting a CNA for admission, so I never got one. I have applied for lots of tech & internship jobs and used every networking connection I have, but I have yet to land an interview. The positions I am applying for do not require a CNA (especially the intern positions), but I still haven't gotten an interview. I have been doing very well in school (4.0 GPA), but I am nervous that I may have a hard time finding my first RN job after I graduate. I have even wondered if I'll have to go back and get my CNA after getting my RN and work as a tech for a while to "earn" my way into a hospital. I have about a year of previous experience working in a children's & adolescent psych facility/hospital, but my goal is to do med-surg or something similar in a hospital, not psych nursing.
I'm almost to the point now that I'm not sure how much energy I should keep putting into finding a tech position since I don't want to be just starting a job, doing orientation, etc., when I hit the hardest courses in our program this summer & fall. Some of my peers & teachers say "don't worry about it, you won't have a problem finding a job, especially since you're a guy (as discriminatory as that might be)". Others say that it is important to have employment experience.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, experiences & advice. Thanks!
I suggest if you cant find a job in a hospital, you should perhaps turn to LTCF. Its not a bad place to start and at least you can add it to your resume. In LTC you will learn time managment and how to prioritze when you have 15-50 patient at once, with no doctor on hand if a patient were to crash. Some skills are better than none. In LTC you will get familiar with trachs, g-tube, foley caths, IVs, etc. Expand your job search until you land that hospital job.
but as far as getting an entry-level RN position, it doesn't seem like grades matter at all. In fact, the people from my class who were hired immediately, were the ones who also passed each semester by the skin of their teeth because they were working at the aforementioned tech/cna jobs. All I know is what I've seen, and what I see is that in the real world, outside of the classroom and the nclex, grades don't matter.
That is similar to what happened with my graduating class. The hiring managers didn't care about grades, and hired based on experience. BSN programs (if you are going bridge ADN-BSN) want you to have the minimal GPA required, which is not as competitive as Graduate programs. I would think grades matters more at the graduate level....and experience. Letters of rec. and work history at the graduate level is really a priority.
I'm in Hawaii at the moment and got my license in Feb 2010 from California and moved straight to Hawaii. I will say that getting a job at the hospitals here is very difficult, actually getting ANY RN job here is difficult.
Juwon
192 Posts
I suggest if you cant find a job in a hospital, you should perhaps turn to LTCF. Its not a bad place to start and at least you can add it to your resume. In LTC you will learn time managment and how to prioritze when you have 15-50 patient at once, with no doctor on hand if a patient were to crash. Some skills are better than none. In LTC you will get familiar with trachs, g-tube, foley caths, IVs, etc. Expand your job search until you land that hospital job.