anyone go from LTC to hospital?

[lalalalexi]

I am going to be a new grad RN in May and the hospitals in my city and surrounding areas are mostly on hiring freezes. Pretty much no where is hiring and if they are, they want at least 2 years of experience and prefer BSNs. I am afraid I wont be able to find a job in nursing at all, let alone in a hospital. So I have accepted the fact that I will most likely be hired in a LTC facility or clinic before I'd find a position in a hospital. So I'm wondering if there are people out there who have eventually transitioned from a LTC position into acute care. My long term goal is to be a wound care nurse, and to get into a WOCN program, you need acute care experience. I do plan to do a RN to BSN online program over the next year or two, but I don't want to be shut out of nursing. I want to get some experience and use the degree I've worked so hard to get. What do you all think?

[rotteluvr31, ADN, RN]

I worked as an LPN in an LTC while completing my ADN. As others said, the experience really helped me with my time-management. A huge learning curve for new grads. The experience also made me more employable because a couple of managers I spoke with viewed me as having nursing experience and not just another new grad.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

That's encouraging! I'm wondering though if the hospital that this nurse got into, has a school affiliated with it?

I know that for me, even though there's more than a dozen hospitals it will depend on when that rush for more nurses emerges and if there's any graduating classes out there. The hospital that is connected to the school I went to, told me that the new grad positions they post are for the up and coming grads and aren't even budget approved as they're looking to fill in the summer. She said not to apply for positions that state at least a year exp...but I'm no longer a new grad either, so that leaves the positions that say it's okay for "temp permit/or license". I guess the big thing in all of this is and will be, timing.

This hospital has contracts with 3 schools to agree to hire up to a total of 25 new grads a semester,(as of right now) but she did not go to a local nursing school. She went to a school in another city not affiliated here, moved here right after graduation. had trouble finding a job at the hospital and so she got the Nursing Home job and then got in at the hospital a year later.