how to get into an acute hospital

[perfectnurse11]

ive been an RN with a bsn degree who graduated in the Philippines since 2010. ive had no luck getting into am acute hospital here in california, bay area. my first two jobs were in a LTC facility which i did 3 years. i am currently an acute dialysis RN and i am being offered a job by a big hospital as a home health RN. my goal is to get i and work in tje hospital. i am anxious whether to stay in my current job or work as a home health RN or this big hospital which has great benefits. i want to go into home health but im afraid this would drive me farther away from my goal which is to work in the acute hospital? also which job will give me a better chance at gerting into a hospital? acute dialysis experience or home health experience? your advice is much appreciated. thanks

[Britnursecalibound]

Hi Perfect Nurse,

Where did you get a job in LTC. I'm coming from the UK?

[perfectnurse11]

hi. are you in california? im in the bay area. LTC i applied and got lucky. but im sure out of the bay area applyjng isnt hard at all. bay area is sf, sacramento, oakland, etc those areas.

[RunBabyRN]

The Bay Area has the most impacted market in the US. Either of those jobs will help, but what kind of nursing do you want to do? Try to align yourself with that. I want to be an OB nurse, and I started working at a freestanding birth center. I got some lactation experience under my belt before that, got NRP, ACLS, fetal monitoring, all that. I've interviewed on several OB units (I have since realized what I was doing wrong in those interviews, and landed a different FT position in a specialty clinic). Dialysis is a lot of time management, prioritization, but a very specific area with a narrow scope of what you see. Home health would give you a broader experience, but you'll be focused on one patient at a time (still time management, but very different from dialysis). Also consider what the benefits are of each, in terms of full time/part time, salary, benefits, turnover, etc. The specialty I'm in right now (urology) is far removed from my end goal (OB), but in a couple of months, they'll be having me floating to the OB clinic, because I have OB experience. That will help keep me that much more appealing when I AM ready to start applying for hospital jobs again. In the meantime, I have clinic hours, full time benefits, no canceled shifts for low census, flexibility, weekends and holidays off... You never know what might be the magic ticket.