Do places hire more CNAs in the Fall/Winter?

[gymnut]

So even though I didn't start my CNA courses yet I decided to take a peek at what was being offered out there in ways of unemployment and it looks pretty grim. There are a lot of home health care jobs available but they are part time and paying almost minimum wage. I want to work in a LTC or a hospital because I feel I would be most comfortable in those settings rather than alone with a person in their house.

I was talking to a friend about my predicament and he said that hospitals will probably start hiring a lot in the winter because of cold and flu season and that nursing homes will probably want more help due to having more patients because 'grandma or grandpa can't live through another winter home alone."

What he says kind of makes sense, but I figured I would ask you guys. Is there an influx of CNA's being hired at your places of employment during these times? I would be graduating in November so it would put me right around that time.

[juliaann]

I don't know if my hospitals hiring trends adjust along with this - but there is definitely some truth to the fact that (at least at my facility) inpatient census goes up in the winter.

Of course, my hospital almost always has openings for CNAs. It's a high-turnover job.

What area do you live in? In some places the job market is just so bad that it doesn't matter how many patients there are. I'm very fortunate to live in an area that is still hiring CNAs (and nurses, lol) at hospitals.

[DarkBluePhoenix]

oh where r u from?

im in so cal...theres like no jobs

[juliaann]

I'm in Oklahoma. It's not the most exciting place, but I think it's more about what you make of it. My husband and I have lived here for 3 years now, and it's definitely growing on us. The stable job market is a big plus.

[gymnut]

I live in the Lehigh Valley area in PA.

The job market up here is weird and frustrating from the research I've been doing. The major places of hire here are Genesis health care and ManorCare along with a lot of temp agencies looking for home health aides.

We also have a TON of nursing homes here and a few new ones being built but I have yet to see job openings for any of them.

I plan on volunteering at a local hospital and I hope that will lead me to a job somehow.

[NiquiCNA]

Ususally they end up hiring CNAs when school ends.. graduation means many CNAs end up as LPNs and RNS. Also... many nursing homes do NOT advertise, you can just go and ask, fill out applications. In SC someone is always hiring CNAs.

[CoffeemateCNA]

We tend to hire a just few new CNAs at the start of summer, since many of the regular staff want to go on vacation and someone is needed to cover for them. Most of our new hires though seem to be in October and November, as resident census starts to increase. In the winter, all of the beds are usually full, since there are elderly people getting the flu, falling down on ice and breaking bones, etc. More residents require more staff. During the spring, management usually pulls back on hiring so that we have slightly fewer staff during summer (when census is lower).

[Sally Lou]

September.

I actually talked to a woman at an agency local here. She gave me tons of good info.

Since hosp/nursing homes want someone with some experience they are more willing to hire LPN/RN's at a CNA payrate. Once all these nurses go back to school (starting around now) they will be hiring new CNA's.

I'm pretty sure i'm being offered a job on Tuesday at a place where i put my application in months ago.

[CNA2day]

We hire a ton in the fall when many go back to school, seems to be that we are always short staffed that time of year.

[azcna]

We have a lot of tourists in the winter where I live, so more staff is needed at those times. It's pretty slow in the summer, nurses and aides get cancelled pretty regularly.

[gymnut]

Thank you all so much for your information as it is really giving me the confidence that I will be able to find a job after I graduate and pass my boards.

Also NiquiCNA stated many nursing homes DO NOT seem to advertise. I was looking on a local ones website and they didn't anything on their website that was job related. However I just talked to an old friend and she just got hired as a Patient Care Assistant there and that she had to go in and ask.

[gymnut]

Well I just found out that my friend that I mentioned above only got the job because her best friend worked at the facility. She said she only had to go in and ask if they were hiring and fill out an app as a formality.

On the plus side if she is still there when I graduated maybe I can do the same thing!