ADN nurses Los Angeles

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2015

The employment market for new grad RNs with BSN degrees is bad in L.A. The market for new grad RNs with associate degrees is absolutely horrible. It is best if you accrue a year of acute care experience before relocating.

ChrisB718 · Dec 21, 2015

Thank you for answering so quick. Why is it so hard? do they mostly hire nurses with experience or is there a problem with saturation?

13grad71 · Dec 21, 2015

Saturation. When I applied for my position I was told later on when I was already working, that for the med surg night spot I applied for, there were over 100 other applicants. How I got picked for the interview, I have no idea. 12 interviewed and I got lucky to be the only person offered the position

caliotter3 · Dec 21, 2015

Again, saturation. There are many nursing schools in the area that pump out crops of new grads on a regular basis. The area attracts all kinds of people, many that will compete with the already placed populace for a finite number of job openings.

db2xs · Dec 22, 2015

I live and work in Los Angeles. What everyone else is saying, I will echo: California's nursing programs are oversaturated, with massive lines of people waiting via lottery to get into them. It is highly competitive here to get a job, and although there may be a gazillion BSNs, they will more than likely be hired over the ADNs, at least in an acute hospital setting.

I think everyone should follow their dreams, but imbibe some practicality as well. I am from California but went to school out of state, came back to Northern California after finishing, and it took me eight months to get into a new grad program in Southern California (getting a job as a new grad in Nor Cal is next to impossible, but not entirely impossible). I am a second-career nurse so I was working my previous career while looking for a nursing job, so that is how I was able to survive.

I think getting experience in New York is a sage decision. The only ADNs at my hospital are the ones who have been nurses for a gazillion years.

TC3200 · Dec 22, 2015

I have two friends who finished the diploma RN school in Pennsylvania that I attended but didn't finish. Both were grausated in Dec 2012 and passed NCLEX-RN soon after.

One stayed in that town, got a RN job in ER, and finished her BSN while working fulltime. She became a travel nurse to pay off her school loans. She took an assignment in South Carolina, I believe, as her first travel job. Then she went to LA. The pay is good and there is plenty of work. Experience + BSN worked for her.

Another didn't find work in PA immediately after school and NCLEX. She lived in a small town and worked for Krispy Creme and Victoria's Secret. She used those two retailers to relocate (at her expense) to Texas near Dallas and began working two retail jobs there. Then she easily got an entry-level RN job at a nursing home with just her diploma RN. After a little more than a year, she had enough experience to land a hospital job. As far as I know,m she has taken no steps to start a BSN. Obviously she's not in Los Angeles, but she overcame obstacles and lack of jobs in decaying PA and moved to a more prosperous urban area.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Dec 22, 2015

Look on the CA forums. It should be helpful

muirite · Dec 22, 2015

I am from Los Angeles. There are so many BSN's most of the hospitals only hire BSN's and most ADN are lucky to get in to LTC/SNF. There are lots of BSN working in LTC/SNF.

The only lvn I know that work in hospital are people that have been there for years and most of them are in the clinic's.

If you want to go to Los Angeles I would get BSN plus experience beforehand.

ChrisB718 · Dec 22, 2015

Wow this is very heartbreaking. I really wanted to leave NY immediately after obtaining my ADN. Travel jobs only want nurses with experience as well. ugh! I can only imagine how much harder it will be by the time I graduate. Perhaps gaining experience while I'm in school? but what kind of position would I be able to obtain while being a nursing student?

muirite · Dec 22, 2015

If you can get cna and work as a cna in hospital that will get your foot in the door

db2xs · Dec 22, 2015

Wow this is very heartbreaking. I really wanted to leave NY immediately after obtaining my ADN. Travel jobs only want nurses with experience as well. ugh! I can only imagine how much harder it will be by the time I graduate. Perhaps gaining experience while I'm in school? but what kind of position would I be able to obtain while being a nursing student?

In school you can either be a CNA or PSA. But that is not the same as being an RN, so if you change to California, that will just mean you have CNA or PSA experience. I would say to apply to new grad programs, but I don't think any new grad program in California accepts ADNs.