Getting a Job While in IPN

Look for jobs in low income/underserved populations/community health type clinics. Every city has at least one. Assuming you are close to Tampa/St Pete, I can assure you that they have them. These are family practice type clinics that are deceptive in their name. They will look like a normal name for a clinic, so you must go to the website to be able to see if it serves lower income/underserved populations. When you go to the website, be sure to check for things on the front of the website related to immigration services help, LGBTQ services/HIV services/free women's services, etc. This is often a give away that this clinic services underserved populations. These clinics do not pay well and they often have a high volume and high turnover of staff. These clinics are generally very friendly to those in recovery and a significant portion of the staff may have a history of addiction themselves. I worked at one of these types of clinics when I re entered nursing as my first job back while in a monitoring program and I loved it. I worked there 2 years.

They often don't advertise open positions on job search engines because they have limited funds to advertise. Therefore, you have to literally search for these clinics and go to the website and look under their human resources/open positions area to apply. 

Here are a few in the Tampa Area.

Judeo Christian Health

Tampa Family Health Centers

Red Crescent Clinic

Suncoast Community Health Center

San Jose Mission Free Medical Clinic

Calvary Community Clinic

I did a quick search on one of the organizations above at selected Tampa Family Health Centers. Tampa VA Health Centers has 4 open LPN positions at their different locations.

These Clinic jobs are easy. As an LPN, you basically check the patient in to get ready to see the Doctor or PA or NP. You get their vitals, a brief history of why they are and thats about it. Easy job even for someone who has been out of nursing or has little experience.

Regalnurse said:

Look for jobs in low income/underserved populations/community health type clinics. Every city has at least one. Assuming you are close to Tampa/St Pete, I can assure you that they have them. These are family practice type clinics that are deceptive in their name. They will look like a normal name for a clinic, so you must go to the website to be able to see if it serves lower income/underserved populations. When you go to the website, be sure to check for things on the front of the website related to immigration services help, LGBTQ services/HIV services/free women's services, etc. This is often a give away that this clinic services underserved populations. These clinics do not pay well and they often have a high volume and high turnover of staff. These clinics are generally very friendly to those in recovery and a significant portion of the staff may have a history of addiction themselves. I worked at one of these types of clinics when I re entered nursing as my first job back while in a monitoring program and I loved it. I worked there 2 years.

They often don't advertise open positions on job search engines because they have limited funds to advertise. Therefore, you have to literally search for these clinics and go to the website and look under their human resources/open positions area to apply. 

Thank you very much! I previously reached out to an STD/HIV clinic to no avail. I will start looking further into this subgroup of employers. Are you an RN? I feel like being an RN and applying for LPN positions isn't helping me. Someone in my IPN group had luck getting an LPN job as an RN, but she's in a different part of the state. 

Regalnurse said:

Here are a few in the Tampa Area.

Judeo Christian Health

Tampa Family Health Centers

Red Crescent Clinic

Suncoast Community Health Center

San Jose Mission Free Medical Clinic

Calvary Community Clinic

I did a quick search on one of the organizations above at selected Tampa Family Health Centers. Tampa VA Health Centers has 4 open LPN positions at their different locations.

These Clinic jobs are easy. As an LPN, you basically check the patient in to get ready to see the Doctor or PA or NP. You get their vitals, a brief history of why they are and thats about it. Easy job even for someone who has been out of nursing or has little experience.

Thank you, Regalnurse- I really appreciate it. I previously submitted an RN application at one of these locations (still under review) and am looking into the others. God willing I'll get something soon. 

purplewalrus0 said:

Thank you, Regalnurse- I really appreciate it. I previously submitted an RN application at one of these locations (still under review) and am looking into the others. God willing I'll get something soon. 

You are welcome. I would recommend the following. Now......I know, this is scary and a bit awkward and is not easy. It's called the backdoor method to getting a job which is basically doing your starting point by going AROUND human resources and NOT starting with them first, but starting first with the nursing supervisor. Let me explain..... when nurses re-enter/get that first job back while in a monitoring program, hundreds of them across the country in many situations (not all, but many) get that first job back by directly approaching the nursing supervisor. It takes some investigating such as finding out who the supervisor is and that could be done by going to the facility and asking the front desk who the nursing supervisor is. Then you start calling a day later to the front desk and asking for "Nurse Jones-the Supervisors" phone number, and you go from there.

Important to Know! Every hospital, every medical clinic, every dialysis clinic, every job in medicine/nursing has a risk manager as part of that organization. The risk manager in a hospital is always located within the hospital and for a medical clinic, the risk manager may be located inside of that clinic or located outside of that clinic, BUT there is a risk manager. Risk Managers are apart of Human Resources and thats the people who do the hiring. What COMMONLY happens across the country is that a nurse applies for a job and its clear the nurse has a history/is in monitoring, etc, and the person in human resources who sees the application has been instructed/protocol by the Risk Manager to toss in the trash/delete any applications for nurses with a history/substance abuse/monitoring program/restrictions. This is common. The nurse supervisor never sees your application and never knows you even applied. So, often its a 23 year old young human resources or IT type person that tosses your application and they aren't a nurse and the nurse supervisor at the facility never even knew you applied and doesn't even know your name. This is why, many nurses who land those first jobs go AROUND the human resources/risk management people first Before they apply. When getting in touch with the nurse supervisor first, the nurse supervisor has pull for you. She can go straight to the human resources/risk management people and say, "There is an application coming in from a Nurse Smith and its important not to discard it, and please ensure I see it."

Hope this above helps. You would be shocked how many nurse supervisors actually WOULD give you a chance and would hire you when they hear your story, but they never see your application or know you applied. Many nurses in recovery will say, "that place doesn't want and will not hire nurses in recovery and they don't want me." That thought is often NOT entirely true. What is happening is that often, your application is being tossed out by a human resources person who is the first to see it, and they aren't a nurse, and their protocol instructs them to toss it based on you having a history and human resources people are like robots. They simply follow protocol and know nothing about nursing.

Critically Important. YOUR STORY! You better have one. You need to practice it verbally. You want a 2 minute spill that you have prepared verbally for a nurse supervisor when you get that brief moment to set down or talk to one. That 120 second story needs to include that you ADMIT to your past and that it was wrong. You don't say, "I made bad choices." Thats too easy and not enough. Say, "I did wrong and chose wrong." Next, you make it clear how long you have been in recovery and how it has changed your life and thst you are doing well and finally you include how you are helping other human beings in recovery.  A supervisor wants to hear 3 components.

1. You did wrong. 2. You are clearly on the path to healing and doing well in recovery and are clearly sober now and that your life is changed. 3 You actually help others in recovery and recovery is central to your life and the you are not simply "complying with the monitoring program to get by." But, you have actually embraced monitoring and recovery as central to your life.

Best wishes to you.

Great insights by Regalnurse.  Can this nurse go directly to the Nurse Manager as well?  Or are you meaning Nurse Manager when you say Nurse Supervisor?  The Nurse Supervisor at my hospital doesn't hire anyone.  They just watch the hospital and are "in charge" of the whole hospital for any major nursing incidents. The Nurse MANAGER does the hiring specifically for whatever unit that is.  Maybe at a Clinic the Nurse Manager IS the Nurse Supervisor (they are the same thing)?  BTW, this going directly to the Nurse Manager or Nurse Supervisor & bypassing the HR people is a great idea for any nurse who really wants to get a particular job at a facility and feels the HR people are trashing their resumes. 

The nurse manager/nurse supervisor. Interchangeable in some facilities and different in others, but the point is the same.  I'm getting at this......if we are talking about an outpatient medical clinic/office, there is one nurse who is the highest ranked/highest positioned nurse and they may be called nirse manager or supervisor or Chief, etc. Go to that nurse First.

If we are talking about a hospital and a med surge ward. Their is a  nurse Manager or Chief or Leader of that med surge Ward. See That Person First, and its not about whether that person directly hires. Its about that person having pull with the human resources dept and senior (Chief Nurse of the hospital or Chief Nurse of that division in the hospital such as Outpatient or Inpatient, etc). 

Many nurse supervisors or managers do not directly hire and some do. It doesn't matter if they do or not.. But.......they have pull and sometimes do the interview or they set in on the interview and that Nurse has great pull with Human Resources/Risk Management who is the ultimate final decision on approving your hiring. The resistance will be with them, not nursing. If a hospital, do not see the Chief Nurse of the hospital, but go to the Nurse Manager for the given area you are applying such as Med Surge-2nd Floor.

On occasion at Outpatient Med Clinics, the Nursing Supervisor/Manager or Senior Nurse will often double down as the risk manager. This is to your benefit if you can find this situation but its uncommon. At the end of the day in Most Small Hospitals, the Chief Nurse of the Hospital is who actually does the hiring and in some medium size to larger hospitals, the Nurse Manager-Senior Nurse in Charge of that specific unit such as ambulatory surgery does the hiring, but in Every Case, there is someone from Risk Management/Human Resources that can say NO, and override the nursing department. But again, you want to enter the door First on the nursing department side Before you reach the human resources side. The human resources/risk management people are the very first to see an online submitted application and often.....they are the last as they discard your application and nursing never knows you applied. You want to put a bug in nursinga ear first, then the nursing dept puts a bug in human resources ear to be looking for your application and to Not discard it.

So, don't get to caught up in the words nurse manager/supervisor/dept chief/head nurse, etc. If you see an opening on med surge at Hospital A, call that med surge floor and ask which nurse runs that floor/who is the manager of that floor? Then, call or walk in and see that nurse who runs that floor (whatever their title is.) Your goal.....speak with nursing Before you speak with HR and when you place an application online, you ARE speaking with HR because thats who receives the application. The goal is to have the bug in H. Resources Ear from someone in nursing who holds a little power (some nurse that is a supervisor at some level) and you want that bug in human resources ear before you click Enter to submit your application.