Grad Nurse In Need of Employment Advice!!!!

[P31Nrs]

I am a recent grad, May 2011 from an BSN program. I was not sucessful at boards the first time around, but I got it on the second go around!!!!! I live in the Houston, Texas area and I have not been able to find employment, most of the hopitals have closed their internship programs and they are really looking for nurses with one yr of experience or more, I have none. I have applied to all the major hopitals as well as the others around the Houston area, no answers, I feel like HR is giving me the run around when I call them because they say something different every time. If anyone has any advice, suggestions, ANYTHING that might possibly help me can you please let me know because I am loosing hope at this point.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I know, it's really grim out there. I know of a few community hospitals in the area that have recently stopped hiring new grads because they have no funding to support an extended orientation & training program. This is all being driven by the impending decreases in reimbursement. Everyone is gearing up so they can survive when the bottom drops out.

Have you tried the LTACs? There are a lot of them, and the clinical experience is similar to high-acuity med surge.