Dear Nurse Manager, why won’t you hire dialysis nurses

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It is the same story for many of us. We graduate. We can’t find a job. Our first offer is a dialysis nurse job. We take it became student loans. Then we are marooned for life.

Within a year of starting as a dialysis nurse I began looking for something else. And no one will hire me. I got a bachelors degree because magnet hospitals require it.

Nothing.

I got a masters degree hoping I could move into an administrative role.

Still nothing.

I thought maybe I could get a couple years of experience on the floor so I can put my masters degree to good use, but no one will hire me. I can’t even get a job in a doctors office!

So let me ask you, why won’t you hire us? Did you have a bad experience when you hired a dialysis nurse? Are we unteachable? Do we have a hard time making the switch? Do we have knowledge gaps? What is it?

Please tell me what the secret is so that I can get out of this rut and move on to something else.

Thank you

Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
4 hours ago, JKL33 said:

I don’t know what else to say. I send out resumes and never hear back. I did get one interview with a company that does audits for legal cases but didn’t get the job. It was a group interview and maybe I just didn’t interview well.

I do have a resume and cover letter. The alumni program at my college has a job assistance department. They looked at my resume and said it was fine. Whenever I apply to a job a write a cover letter specific to that position. Evidently I’m not doing s great job of writing it.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
1 hour ago, not.done.yet said:

Dialysis is highly highly specialized, making it more difficult to represent yourself in the light of universal skills and knowledge.

Look for positions in in-patient dialysis and then seize opportunities to fill in on the floor.

Look even further outside of your major metro area. All the major cities in Texas are saturated with nurses needing to train. All of them. We have more new grads than we can possibly employ, making a dialysis nurse even less likely to get a glance. You may need to consider moving, at least temporarily - Indian reservations, Texas/Mexico border towns, rural areas. You also will need to count on it taking anywhere from four months to a year to get nibbles on jobs.

Consider reworking your resume to highlight your renal experience and apply specifically for renal floors.

Consider reworking your resume to highlight your diabetes experience and apply for diabetic educator positions.

Consider returning to school for a postgraduate certificate as an NP.

This is very helpful. Thank you. It helps to know that Texas metropolitan areas are so saturated with nurses. It makes me feel better that it might not be me. In another time and place I might be a desirable candidate. It makes sense because just about everyone work with has had this same experience - they took a job in dialysis because no one else is hiring. Now they can’t get a job doing anything else.

I would consider moving temporarily to another area that has a need. I am on the fence about taking a travel gig at an Indian reservation. Once I get there I could apply at a hospital there.

I did work at an inpatient dialysis unit and expressed being cross trained in ICU, but you know how that goes. “I know we said we’d train you in that area, but we are short staffed and need you to take some patients” and so it never happened. And besides the commute killed me. After a couple of years I was so exhausted that I had no life outside of work. Any hospital close to home outsources dialysis. I guess I could go to acutes and get my face in the hospital and get to know the nurse managers on different units. But the last time I worked acutes I worked 80 hours a week and was on call constantly. It might be worth it if I can just do it temporarily as a way to change course.

Thanks for weighing in. This gives me something to work with.

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Specializes in PMHNP.

WGU offers alumni assistance with resumes, including shaping a resume for a specific job you are applying to. They also offer interviewing assistance and will help with polishing your Linked In page. Definately take advantage of this. It's a great perk of being a student or grad of WGU.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

I have already used their services. It hasn’t made any difference.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I'm sure it's been very frustrating, and you're not in the only area where nurses feel they are stuck. Unfortunately, so much of nursing employment becomes a who-you-know-not-what-you-know. I worked in long-term care for about five years before transitioning to acute care, and it's also a misunderstood environment for transitioning jobs. Every nursing job has its challenges and skill sets, so if you can highlight the skills you have that will translate to other care areas, that might help. You've already gotten some good feedback here, wish I had the magic answer that would work, just want to offer you some hope that you can make the transition, many others have! Good luck.

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The nursing field has been saturated across the country by utilizing the false propaganda that we have all heard a gazillion times, and rolled our eyes a gazzillion plus 2 times ...the "nursing shortage" ...which duped people , including me 20 years ago, to become a nurse due to the growing need. Now, the industry has been basically ruined by too many nurses, and not enough jobs to support the available pool of people seeking work.

The result that I have now seen as the norm, is that any hospital, doctors office, nursing home, home care agency, nursing staffing agency, drug rehab, community health company, etc will find 6 ways to sunday NOT to hire you, simply because they can. Supply is higher than demand.

I decided I will not fall into the higher ed trap, of constantly seeking more and higher degrees , certs, and letters behind one's name, that lead to nowhere except a pile of debt. The employer "goal post" keeps moving to the right, because they have their hefty pick of dozens, if not hundreds of nurses

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On 5/14/2019 at 3:34 PM, Natkat said:

I don’t know what else to say. I send out resumes and never hear back. I did get one interview with a company that does audits for legal cases but didn’t get the job. It was a group interview and maybe I just didn’t interview well.

I do have a resume and cover letter. The alumni program at my college has a job assistance department. They looked at my resume and said it was fine. Whenever I apply to a job a write a cover letter specific to that position. Evidently I’m not doing s great job of writing it.

You are not alone. Its not you. I send out dozens of resumes. Sometimes I get an interview, sometimes not. I know I have been to more interviews that led nowhere , than most people. And I refuse to blame myself for just not interviewing well. I did fine. Its the employers who are constantly running fake job ads and fishing for fresh meat , ad finitum, so they can gauge how much they can reduce pay for current and starting pay rates. One area hospital has had a hiring freeze for 2 years, yet that does not stop them from littering the job boards with dozens of fake job ads per day. Another one near me holds job fairs every two months. A mob of unemployed nurses show up, so you cannot even fit through the door. They hire no one, but have another fake job fair a couple months later. Its demoralizing.

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