Data on New Grads: Program, Degree, Location

Nurses Job Hunt

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I've been reading the latest posts about new grads being unable to find jobs... and have been hearing this for a few years now (growing worse, it seems.) There seems to be two stories: One where new grads quickly find jobs or at least within six months and another where new grads cannot find any jobs.

What I see lacking though in these kinds of discussions is basic information such as the new grad's nursing program, degree, and location.

My theory is that those who are having a difficult time finding a job either do not have a BSN/higher or the issue is location. Of course, the issue is not that simple, but I am curious. So here are my observations on what happened to the recent nursing graduates in my life... they all have BSNs and they are all currently employed.

BTW, I'm not sure if this is crossing any privacy lines... I tried to keep it vague, but still factual. I'm just a student who would like to see data on what is really going on among new grads.

New Grad Nurses who graduated within the last 5 years (2008-2013)

Friend #1

Nursing Program: Accelerated BSN

Location of Program: Southern CA

Degree: BSN

Employed Yes/No: Yes

If Yes, where: S. CA

#2

Nursing Program: Accelerated BSN

Location of Program: S. CA

Degree: BSN

Employed Yes/No: Yes

If Yes, where: S. CA

#3

Nursing Program: N/A (don't know)

Location of program: S. CA

Degree: BSN

Employed Yes/No: Yes

If Yes, where: S. CA

Friend #4

Nursing Program: Accelerated BSN

Location of Program: PA

Degree: BSN

Employed Yes/No: Yes

If Yes, where: S. CA

What have you observed in terms of program, degree, location, employment from the new grad nurses in your life (including yourself, if applicable)? What patterns do you see?

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic.

I live in Tucson AZ, graduated in May 2012 from an ADN program. I was hired into a new grad program in the ER 1.5 months after graduating and can also say that a good number of friends in the same program also are working, most in hospitals in a variety of settings--ER, ICU, Neuro, Oncology, Cardiac. Most of us started within a few moths of graduating. I know of a few others who have had a harder time, but found employment a few months later. A few of those are in hospitals, a couple in psych and ltc. A classmate moved out of state and also found work in the ER in a new grad program in GA.

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I graduated from an ADN program in Maryland and have been looking for employment in N.Carolina for about three months. I've had three interviews that all went really good but no offers . What I'm seeing is graduates who had some kind of work in healthcare are finding jobs quicker than those with no healthcare experience such as myself. I've seen openings in just about every field of nursing but only a handful of new graduates positions. The majority of nursing positions I've seen have been listed for months but prefer at least 1 year experience.

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Even with a BSN, if you are in a saturated market like Northern California you are in for a wild ride looking for a new grad position. That is, unless you know somebody who will give you a job. And if you graduated 2008-2009, and could not find a job, then you appear really unemployable because everybody believes there is a nursing shortage. So glad CNN is researching this new grad/old grad no job delimma. I HOPE they get the story correct.

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I believe ultimately that having prior experience in healthcare is key to finding employment after graduation. This is something that I have been very concerned about. As much as I would love to have experience in health care when I graduate (I graduate in 5 months) there are just not too many places that are interested in hiring me for a few months before I get my RN license (I currently have an LPN license and also have CNA certification). I'm in the RN program full-time, so I don't have very many free days.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

people who worked in the hospital got jobs right away. (to my knowledge) only one new grad got a job in houston's huge med center. many got jobs at the "branch campuses" of the major hospitals, memorial hermann, methodist, etc. a handful work in suburban regional hospitals and about 5 work in a very rural (almost critical access ) hospital in er/icu/tele.

womens services, med surg and tele were the major areas.

we got out adn from a very respected community college outside of houston

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Specializes in ED, trauma.
I believe ultimately that having prior experience in healthcare is key to finding employment after graduation. This is something that I have been very concerned about. As much as I would love to have experience in health care when I graduate (I graduate in 5 months) there are just not too many places that are interested in hiring me for a few months before I get my RN license (I currently have an LPN license and also have CNA certification). I'm in the RN program full-time so I don't have very many free days.[/quote']

Apparently not always!!! I have almost 3 years of hospital experience under my belt and I can't get hired on at any hospitals!!!

Going to have to call in favors. Must be about WHO you know not WHAT you know! Yikes!

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I haven't start working yet, but I graduated in August of 2012 with a BSN and I ultimately got 3 offers - an offer from each hospital I had an interview with. They were all for some kind of new grad program in my choice specialty. Although it seemed to take a while to get any offers and interviews after graduation, I think it had a lot to do with the timing of graduation in the middle of the year that affected me and a lot of my classmates who also graduated that semester. A majority of the ones who graduated in May or December already had offers prior to graduation. It's pretty much all evened out now since the August people now have offers for new grad programs starting this month/next month.

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