Can't get a job as new RN

badphish · Oct 1, 2010

network network network. I got this job because I made myself known to all the RNs in the ER during my emergency transports to their ED. I also did a four hour shadow with the Department Nurse Manager. Even though they are applying for Magnet Status and werent really hiring ADNs my persistence paid off. To those who have just started nursing school go get a tech job or unit secretary job something at the place you want to work. So your name stands out during the hiring process and they can see the kind of work ethic you have.

good luck

peace out

brett

NightNurse876 · Oct 1, 2010

What's wrong with the nursing homes? I'm working towards a BSN myself but I'm preparing myself for a struggle. I'm going to try to manuever my way into the hospital and pull as many nepotist strings as I can. *laugh*
I've a few tricks up my sleeves!
But - the bottom line? Everyone has to pay their dues. Sometimes you have to work your way up and create opportunities for *yourself*.
Unless you're experienced, they probably won't be handed to you.
Good luck everyone and STAY POSITIVE.

Where in Florida are you located and please PM me the nursing homes that want new grads. I've just left an interview asking for 1 to 2 years experience for the nursing home and home health. If you got some info please pass it on. Im in the Ft Lauderdale area and have no problem travelling an hour south to Miami or North to West Palm Beach.

I would think my 200+ free hours of Senior Practicum in the ICU would help me land a job but it hasnt really. I did have an interview yesterday at a hospital I LOVE not bc I've always wanted to work there but bc they treated me like a person and a nurse, new grad or not. I hope it comes through! But I'm still looking so send on any info you've got please!

Not Your Nurse · Oct 27, 2010

Sighhh

Ive been applying for NY jobs for about 2 months, Im so excited to start my career as a RN....it would be nice to be given a chance, hopefully soon

I keep hearing the same thing from recruiters and peers (volunteer/network)...then I heard a Nursing Professor say that when you state you are a RN as a volunteer people in charge take advantage of that

Guess the best thing is to find out for myself and protect my license, best of luck to us all in this quest to find a place in our career field :nurse:

studentnurse2175 · Dec 8, 2010

Has everyone tried indeed.com. Went there the other day and they had almost 900 jobs posted for RN. This was West Palm Beach, Florida. Also try searching for RN new Grad.

annedoxia · Nov 21, 2011

Hello all,
I'm hoping someone will be able to help me...I'm a brand new RN in Orlando, FL and I've been looking for a hospital job for the last 5 months with no luck. Every job opening I see requires you to have at least 1 year of hospital experience but no one will hire me. I've applied to about 200 jobs and nothing....every recruiter/HR dept tells me it is because I don't have experience. Anyone else around here going through this??

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Tankweti · Nov 23, 2011

The situation is the same in New York State, where I lived. Grad in 2010, BSN, 3.5 GPA, still no job. Told by local hosp my grades not good enough to be hired, need a 3.9 or a 4.0. Have to be in top 1% of class. Yet, they hired 10 of their CNA's who had graduated from nursing school, some of whom I happen to know failed nursing courses and had to repeat which certainly does not make them a 3.9 to a 4.0! The dirty secret with hospitals is that to be in the running for a new grad position you have to be a CNA there first. This is because they want to see if you come to work on time, how you interact with patients, coworkers, patients families. Even then, they may not hire you. I know some people whose education was actually funded by local hospitals under long running grant programs to attract new nurses (with the caveat that these new nurses had to work a certain amount of time to pay the hospital back) and then did not hire these new nurses for whom they had paid. It is almost like they have no clue what they are doing. In addition, this is not something most nursing schools will tell you re: the need to be a CNA to get your foot in the door. Because they know that there are not enough CNA positions to accomodate all the new grad students they are pumping out. We were told that it was advisable to be a CNA but not mandatory. I happen to know, on good insider info from my local hosp (i.e. a nurse manager) (the same one who said my grades werent good enough) that this last go-round they had 212 applications and only hired 12. 10 of those were hires from within. The other two were from without and must have fallen into the 3.9 - 4.0 GPA. This almost smacks of a violation of Equal Opportunity Empt Act, to have one set of criteria for insiders and a different set for outsiders.

This situation has been persisting for years, at least since 2007-2008. In 2009, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in NYC had 7 new grad positions for the entire hospital. They received 1,600 applications for those positions and obviously they did not hire 1,600 new nurses. The Visiting Nurse Service of NY recently had an article written by them, in which they admitted they only hire and train 18 new nurses per year. I dont know how many applications they receive but it is probably in the hundreds. When I graduated in 2010, Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, NY only hired 3 new grads but I know they had hundreds more apply. NYS has 25 nursing schools throughout the state. If you figure that each graduates 100 new nurses per year (50 students x 2 graduations per year, May and December) then that is 100 x 25 = 2,500 new nurses per year. Most of these will pass NCLEX and get licensed. If institutions are hiring less than 20 people, where are the rest to go? Nursing homes, in general, now all want nurses with 2 years acute care experience as they will have to supervise others.

The big problem is training. No one wants to be bothered to invest.

Please see this article, which I am attaching the web address to access it. It talks about new attorneys, who are essentially in the same boat as new nurses.

It explains that law school does not prepare new grads for practice just as nursing school does not prepare new grads for practice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/after-law-school-associates-learn-to-be-lawyers.html

This is essentially the same problem and it is why hospitals do not consider clinicals as nursing experience.

FLmomof5 · Nov 23, 2011

This is essentially the same problem and it is why hospitals do not consider clinicals as nursing experience.

With all due respect, I am going to disagree with most of your post. The situation with lawyers and nurses is not the same. There is not now, nor has there ever been a demand for lawyers. There IS a need for nurses.

You got it right that this started around 2007-2008. That was the start of the economic collapse. Next came Obamacare. Since Obama place the implementation into 2013, no business could possibly determine the cost impact until AFTER the next election. With the combination, businesses - including hospitals - did not start hiring even though the official recession ended and many have millions that they could use to hire.

It is expensive to train a NG. Let's say their are 4 hospitals in town. Everyone stopped hiring in 2007 as every thing collapsed. [Census' were down everywhere because folks cancelled elective surgeries and/or lost insurance coverage.] As everything settled down, elective surgeries were started again. Now you had a need to hire. If you hired NGs and the other hospitals didn't.....then you would pay to train them and they could jump ship to the other hospitals AFTER you invested in them. So each hospital waits until the OTHERs start hiring NGs again.....

There was a saying I heard long ago. "A" and "B" students work for "C" and "D" students! Why? Huh? Well, "C" and "D" students can't get hired so they do something silly....they start their own business! Then THEY are smart enough to hire the best! :lol2: Yes, right now with NG positions slim pickin's, in many places, the employer CAN and WILL take only the highest grades.

Now... you read in FL there are "no" jobs for new grads and that has to be crap.... Why? Because every nurse who passed the NCLEX in my graduating class of 2010 got a job! Some were CNAs at the hospitals while in nursing schools and got their foot in the door that way. Others didn't. I was one that didn't. I did get my first job because a classmate referred me where she got a job. We both left that nut house pretty quickly. She got a hospital job that she had applied to 6 months before. I left the state (hubby is military and not in FL). I applied at ALL the hospitals in the area. Only 1 advertised NG jobs, but it is a university hospital so you pretty much had to get a BSN at their university to get hired and their were 200 apps per slot. I got calls for interviews at a LTC, a corrections nurse position and a hospital. I got offers from 2. That hospital had an interim director who believed in NGs. They didn't advertise that they would hire NGs. The ad said 1 yr exp preferred. ALL the hires were NGs. You never know!

Friend your classmates on FB. Ask for their help. Apply for ALL openings regardless of what they "prefer". Be willing to relocate. If you are hung up on living in NY or FL or wherever you are right now.....relocate, get the experience and THEN move back!

You can get a job with a 3.5. I had a 3.5 in nursing school, but my complete GPA (including my EE degree) is only a 2.89. I didn't have CNA experience. I did work a FT job while in nursing school....so that shows I can manage time! You have assets...you have to sell yourself in the cover letter. I am 49 and a NG and I have been hired as a NG not once but twice! You can do this! :nurse:

sofiamcclain · Mar 25, 2012

I am trying to find a job in southern Ca as well. I was a nurse in Russia and just got my license here.

Unfortunately I had been told if i don't have a recent experience( even though I was a nurse for 6 years of Oncology and Hematology unit) I would be considered as a new graduate student.

There is another dilemma that I am having, most hospitals only wants to hire nurses with a recent experience, but how do you get experience without being hired.

I was thinking about to obtain some specialty certificates like Advanced EKG certificate, or chemotherapy in order to improve my skills. Any suggestion where to apply with higher chances of being hired?

fsingh · Apr 1, 2012

Yes, working in hospice or rehab is the best . its a starting point. No body can go from graduating from working with surgeons or crna's if you have no experiience. its all about working your way there and learning along the way. education in nursing is a lifelong learning experiecne. that ppl should love. I am also cnsiderin nursing but I make it a passion to help others as well

ltcarter · Jul 3, 2012

I just graduated a highly rated nursing program in Tennessee with a BSN, very good grades and passed the NCLEX on the first try. I also have a BA and have many years experience in medical sales. Though there are a number hospitals here, I can't find a job. I have applied everywhere I know but have only had one interview. My age may be a factor but this is getting pretty desperate. Does anyone have any stories to tell about how they found a job?