Are there enough "New-grad" positions in your area?

Nursing Students General Students

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We are getting ready to graduate this spring and the hospitals are offering about half as many new-grad positions as my class needs (here in Corvallis Oregon). Are you guys seeing the same thing in your area or are there plenty of jobs to go around?

Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

They are scarce. I am going to apply for PRN positions if I can't find anything else and just work on my BSN until have some sort of options.

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I'd love more clinical classes but the problems with that idea is that while it's a great idea, it takes a little more than to just talk about it. They'd need more hospitals willing to teach students and in some cases, hospitals aren't so keen on letting some nursing students wander around with them. Also every clinical class has a lecture attached, so there would have to be more lecture classes and I don't think we need to state the need for nursing professors again. It's why most programs don't have enough seats

for more than maybe 100 students a year.

At the end though, clinicals can only provide so much. You may know what you're doing when you're being watched by a professor and a RN but that doesn't prevent someone from not being nervous or making mistakes when they're out in the field on their own. That's the only way for people to get true experience.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

jpeters,

I enjoyed reading your thoughtful and articulate response to this issue. You are absolutely correct - slashing support for new graduate development is very short-sighted. But when hospitals are struggling for survival they may not have much choice.

Educating nurses is exactly like educating airline pilots, train engineers, crane operators or physicians. These are "practice professions" that require experiential learning to make the transition from novice to competent. However, there seems to be a general tendency on the part of nursing students or potential students to seek programs that will push them through the process as fast as possible; this explains the overwhelming attraction of "accelerated" programs. However, as an educator I know that no matter how fast you push information at a person, competency develops at a much slower pace. Nursing is a very complex profession and we have loads of evidence that it takes an average of 2.5 years of experience for a new grad to achieve overall "comptence" in MedSurg. This is not failure in the educational process, it is an immutable characteristic of human beings.

My own frustration -- why in the world are we providing $$$ subsidies to "teaching hospitals" to provide physicians with post-graduate training when they do not do the same for nursing or other health care professions??? This would make all the difference in the world. Hospitals that provide nurturing and supportive environments for new grads would not be effectively penalized as they are now.

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Specializes in ICU, Informatics.

At my school we have two eight hour clinical shifts per week and two two and a half hour lectures per week. The last term is basically a five week 120 hour internship in a local hospital (or nursing home for a few of my unlucky...or crazy classmates). We also have the option of signing up for "Cooperative Work Experience", which is where you get paired up with a RN for a 40 hour clinical experience. If one takes advantage of the extra learning opportunities I think you can get a really solid clinical foundation. However, I think the transition programs, even if they are for a month or two are priceless.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

I would love to see a transition to a precepting/intern position that is paid after graduation. I think this explains why new grads leave the profession in droves.

We take 2 years to cram in theory, expect proficiency on skills which students have had few opportunities to practice on a live human, and then are shocked when new grads are overwhelmed and quit when the reality of floor nursing rears its head. I would like to see a more gradual transition to practice- one where a new grad feels safe to develop skills and competency instead of being thrown out there. I try to limit my course content to the essentials, and teach students to focus on what is key to patient safety. It scares me, to be honest, that clinical slots become more limited each year, and we have to fight to retain them.

I have read "Nursing Against the Odds," which is a great read, and it has a lot to say about the treatment of nurses. I think it should be required reading!

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Specializes in Home Health, Med/Surg.

No jobs in Phoenix :down: Mayo put up thier "New Grad Program" application for only a few hours a few weeks ago - luckily I got mine in...but they had almost 200 applicants for 24 spots. No one else is hiring either. The ads literally say "no new grads please". Makes you feel like crap. I am at a complete loss. If somone would just give us a chance! We have tons of energy and are eager to work and keep learning...it's ashame how this is heading around here...I'd consider moving, but doesn't sound much better elsewhere... *sigh*

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The market in Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia is awful. New grad positions are extremely scarce, due to hiring freezes, hospital closures, hospitals being unwilling to spend the bucks to train a new grad, etc.

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Specializes in Orthopedics.

I think it's going to be difficult up here in Portland too. Many of the hospitals up here have hiring freezes (I know of Tuality, OHSU, and Providence for sure). I'll be interested to hear how hard or easy it is for the next group of graduates to get jobs. I thankfully don't graduate until August 2010, so I've got my fingers crossed that things turn around by then!

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

Dallas is the same...very few new grad internships available. I am applying everywhere possible.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

It is awful in Michigan, too.

However, I managed to land a part-time night position as a GN (I am graduating next month).

I am thanking my lucky stars at this point, even though it is part time...

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
I'd love more clinical classes but the problems with that idea is that while it's a great idea, it takes a little more than to just talk about it. They'd need more hospitals willing to teach students and in some cases, hospitals aren't so keen on letting some nursing students wander around with them. Also every clinical class has a lecture attached, so there would have to be more lecture classes and I don't think we need to state the need for nursing professors again. It's why most programs don't have enough seats for more than maybe 100 students a year.

At the end though, clinicals can only provide so much. You may know what you're doing when you're being watched by a professor and a RN but that doesn't prevent someone from not being nervous or making mistakes when they're out in the field on their own. That's the only way for people to get true experience.

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I placed the points in your post that I want to examine with you-all, in bold print. It takes a lot more than "just talking" about "new grad" positions, it takes comittment, stamina, and the intention to see better care given by more nurses!

Experience occurs when you're assigned patients and care for them, not by "wandering around". You need to have someone close by who isn't so busy they can't catch their breath, much less talk to you - but not necessarily a professor. A mentor/preceptor nurse on staff will do. They know where stuff is that you'll need, and what you do with it.

I imagine you're in a 4 year program, because your clinical classes sound removed from actual patients, while LPN and 2 year R.N. programs usually have clinical experience at the bedside. Am I right? The "new grad" positions that are so scarce require a more thorough orientation because "new grads", especially from 4 year programs haven't had the realistic application of theory to practise.

That costs the hospitals money, which administrators like to keep so they can build larger, grander facilities and have more in their own pockets. As I wrote that, I was reminded of a short lived TV sitcom decades ago, wherein a hospital administrator went everywhere with an architect's model of the new wing or whatever, with him. It shocks me to see how blatantly over gorgeous hospitals are, here. It's like the community would think that as long as hospitals look like 5 star resorts, the care received there will be great, too. Not so! Does wearing cute scrubs make someone a nurse?

When nurses are running so fast they can't do care as it should be done, and medication errors are rampant, no fancy cover on a facility will do it. Interior designers and furniture makers earn megabucks, but what the patient is there for, isn't done! We finally have someone in the White House who wants to renovate health care, not the walls of facilities, and he needs your support to get the proper priorities set.

Please go to www.mybarackobama.com, and find the "pledge", so that your support will be counted, among those agreeing that his plans are good for the economy, health care, and energy; and that will be an improvement over what exists now. There's tremendous energy coming from the old guard who want things their way, with such expensive premiums for health care that many too many Americans can't get it. We need to keep the momentum of change up, to succeed in providing health care in a meaningful, less expensive way.

On March 21st millions of people will be canvassing their neighborhoods and commercial shopping areas, to get people to sign pledges to do that. Count yourselves in, and I know this nightmare will be resolved. (sorry for getting carried away from the thread's topic, but getting jobs budgeted for health care facilities is the new health program under Obama!

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I'm in NW Ohio, and the new grad RNs that I know aren't getting jobs. I did a LPN program (finished in Dec), and started a regular RN program in Jan. A nursing "mentor" NP guided me to do this so I'd be able to work along the way of earning my RN, BSN, and eventually MSN. She said that NS doesn't provide enough clinical experience, so do it yourself, plus get paid. I'm very thankful for her advice. I do have a job at an assisted living place, but have to drive an hour (Ann Arbor) to get there. Even long term care for LPNs is competitive here in Toledo.

I just responded to a thread about a guy who lost his job and was considering nursing because of job security! :D

It would be nice if these people plus all the media people who make it seem like nursing is booming would broaden their research so they hear what's actually happening! Hopefully things will change for the better very soon. Lots of people huring right now due to the economy, and I guess if going to be doing anything, health care really is one of the better professions to be in right now.

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