Employment in California for LVN's

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 24, 2011

The employment picture for LVNs in California is absolutely atrocious. It is extremely difficult to get hired as an LVN in most parts of California due to multiple reasons...

1. The state has more than two-hundred LVN programs. The vast majority of these are for-profit trade schools that accept new students all the time and produce masses of new nurses that enter their local employment markets when there are few, if any, jobs for new grads. Also, new LVN programs are opening up for business all the time in CA, which is worsening the situation.

2. Since California has many higher cost-of-living metro areas, displaced workers enroll in these for-profit nursing programs because they assume that an LVN license is an automatic ticket to a guaranteed job, good income, and enough cash to maintain their standards of living. It seems that everyone in California (and their mama) has been enrolling in these programs because they actually think there's a nursing shortage.

3. The economy is still crappy. We see less patients during rough economies because there's more unemployed people than ever. Unemployed people are unlikely to have health insurance. People without health insurance are unlikely to visit the doctor, go to a hospital, or schedule an elective surgery unless it is an absolute emergency. If less patients are seeking healthcare, then healthcare facilities can operate with less nurses.

4. Healthcare facilities are running a tight budget with what they already have. The people who oversee hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, clinics, etc., would rather work their current employees to the bone (and sometimes overwork them) than hire new grads who cost valuable time and a plenitude of money to train.

5. Many facilities would rather hire experienced nurses. The truth is that an experienced nurse can be up and running with minimal orientation, whereas the new grad needs time to get trained, costs money to train, and often quits before the facility can recoup any return on their human investment. This is why you see requests for nurses with at least 1 year of experience.

Barbara Hessinger · Jan 24, 2011

Is the Department of Corrections actually hiring new grad LPNs in CA?

Here in AZ, they want the one year experience like everybody else.

caliotter3 · Jan 24, 2011

I moved to SoCal four years ago because I grew tired of being unemployed in NorCal. Now I go weeks and even months at a time being unemployed in SoCal. I did not become a nurse to be unemployed. If I could afford to be unemployed, I would leave nursing.