I recently had to quit my job due to my husband being transferred across the country in his job. At our new city, the unemployment rate is higher than average, 10% but, I thought being an experienced nurse with great references, national certification and leadership experience that I would have no problem finding a job. Well as far as I can tell right now, I was wrong. There are lots of jobs posted and I have applied to about 35+ jobs in the past 5 weeks and 50% of them have sent me rejection notices thus far. The remaining jobs I have not heard anything from or they tell me that I meet the minimum requirements and my "application is under review" (and has been for 2-3 plus weeks). Other than what I mentioned, I have not heard much. Also, these hospitals are mostly large and all say essentially, "Don't call us, we'll call you" although I did call a few of the numbers to enquire since they had a nurse recruitment number posted.
In the meantime, I signed on with a staffing agency per diem and Have been cancelled 90% of the time even though this particular agency has ads posted all over saying they are in dire need of experienced RN's (so frustrating)
Am I overreacting? Do I just need to be patient? Is anyone else in the same situation? This is so frustrating.
It is so crazy how people with little or no education can make millions as a rapper; Or, a real estate agent can sell one house and make sometimes more than nurse's yearly salary. I hope this is not the case by the time I graduate (2011) because if so I really should focus more on my music. What happen to "education is the key to success," I guess this stands true for a select few of people. Maybe all the members from this website should protest and ask for a hospital bail out, then jobs for educated folks may arise ( Just a idea ). I wonder if Doctors are experiencing the same thing many nurses are in our current distressed economic status. After all, America may not be the land of opportunity.
Im in the same boat unfortunantely. Never thought it would be this hard. I dont have tons of experience, just five years. Most of my experience is in med-surg. I have applied almost everywhere. I am saving Home Health as last resort because I have been having problems with my car and dont wanna kill it or make problems worse at this fragile time in my life. Most of my friends are nurses and I have them scouting out managers with positions open but so far only one iinterview. All I can do now is pray and go fill out for unemployment.
Nurse80'sbaby- yup, sounds like we are in the same boat. I never thought it would be like this either, when I was hired at previous jobs, the main requirements were a pulse and a license for excellent job opportunities and I was offered jobs on the spot. Not like this anymore.
I applied for unemployment as well. Fortunately I am in one of the states that allows you to collect unemployment if you quit a job to move with a spouse but, they have to investigate it and it will be over a month until I see any money. It is depressing how little the unemployment check will be but hey, at least it is something.
I am looking into other areas of nursing as well such as subacute and home health. I do fear that it could be hard to get a job in an acute care setting again after being out of acute care but hey I guess it is worse to have no experience in the meantime.
Thanks all for your support. I really appreciate people sharing their experiences.
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
Thank you all for the replies, it is nice to know that I am not the only one in this situation.
My specialty is med surg, maybe that is not the right specialty to be in right now? Critical care seems to be the specialty that is more heavily advertised as needing nurses in my area. On the same token though, there seems to be lots of med surg jobs but either they are not filling these jobs or they are not prioritizing hiring during the holiday season.
Thanks again everyone for the posts, and keep them coming!
Are there areas of the country where travel nurse contracts are more plentiful? I am considering doing this if I do not find anything in the next few months. I would basically travel anywhere in order to preserve my skills, my sanity and to get a bit of money in my bank account. ( I have a license in a nursing compact state)
South Florida is desperate for OR nurses. WE have sign on bonuses right now. and yes, any intensive care unit RN will get hired on the spot.
South Florida is desperate for OR nurses. WE have sign on bonuses right now. and yes, any intensive care unit RN will get hired on the spot.
Many moons ago I applied to south and gulf Flordia and the pay was $5-$8 per hour less than NC for comparative experience. Any issues that have raised Flordia salary to be more competive? Would be interesting to learn how Flordia is aggresively competing, and other areas are so stagnant.
South Florida is desperate for OR nurses. WE have sign on bonuses right now. and yes, any intensive care unit RN will get hired on the spot.
Keep in mind that for those positions they want your current experience to be in that speciality. I know in Florida that is a biggy right now as no one wants to train an experience nurse to go into a new speciality. If your a M/S nurse looking for a new job in OR then you are not likely to be interviewed unless you are coming from OR. I've been job hunting for 6 months now and this is what I found to be true of hospital positions. I have extensive background in Critical Care but left it for 3 years to pursue working in Dialysis. Now I cant even get an interview in Critical Care because I have been away from that bedside for more than 1 year. Florida salaries are horrible!! I make half of what I did in PA and being an "at will" state there is nothing to protect the worker, only the employer. You may get lucky in one of your major cities like Orlando, Miami etc to get these positions but they are rare and few inbetween.
VegRN, I live in a rural area with limited opportunities. I called all of the nursing homes and told them I'd take any hours as long as it was a benefitted position. Started on nights in a small LTC and within 5 weeks became a unit manager.
Too funny! I guess I aught to be grateful (sans income) not to have to be contending with pneumonia season!
Sometimes life in the hospital is like farming or the beginning chapter of Ecclesiastes (a time for MI and a time to love, a time to feast and a time for SBO, etc etc) , thanks for your light hearted trump during a depressing subject, TittytatRN!
Unfortunately I will also be looking for a new job pretty soon. My 2nd job is private duty and the gig will be up the end of June. So I've started looking to scope out the prospects and things look good if you're already a critical care RN with 2 years experience and looking for a FT job. Uggh I just want a non benifitted PT- 2 12's a week little job!
:lol2:
Mr I Care
157 Posts
It is so crazy how people with little or no education can make millions as a rapper; Or, a real estate agent can sell one house and make sometimes more than nurse's yearly salary. I hope this is not the case by the time I graduate (2011) because if so I really should focus more on my music. What happen to "education is the key to success," I guess this stands true for a select few of people. Maybe all the members from this website should protest and ask for a hospital bail out, then jobs for educated folks may arise ( Just a idea ). I wonder if Doctors are experiencing the same thing many nurses are in our current distressed economic status. After all, America may not be the land of opportunity.