Graduating in May

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I will graduate in May 2013; hoping to take my NCLEX in July, but that depends on school. I will have my BSN and 2+ years of experience as a PCT at a rehab unit tied to one of the major hospitals here. I am hoping to move to a large city within my state (midwest), but I don't know when I should begin applying and what I should do to prepare/stand out? All of the discussion of people taking months to get a first job makes me nervous. Any advice is appreciated!

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You should be fine!!! You will have BSN coupled with experience as a tech. This last semester is known to be the worst. Hang in there and finish strong. I would also recommend taking NCLEX as soon as you can. I graduated May 2012 (I'm guessing that you meant to write May 2013) and I took NCLEX the first week in June. I passed with 75 questions. You definitely don't want to wait too long. You want all the book knowledge fresh in your brain!

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FLmed, oops, yes, 2013, haha. Trust me, I will be taking the NCLEX as soon as school lets me, however, we have to go through a whole ATI process before my college will "approve" us to take the NCLEX, horror stories suggesting that some people had to wait up to four months. :no:

Thank you for your positive thoughts and words! It helps a lot! :)

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I will graduate in May 2013; hoping to take my NCLEX in July, but that depends on school. I will have my BSN and 2+ years of experience as a PCT at a rehab unit tied to one of the major hospitals here. I am hoping to move to a large city within my state (midwest), but I don't know when I should begin applying and what I should do to prepare/stand out? All of the discussion of people taking months to get a first job makes me nervous. Any advice is appreciated!
since you mention wanting to work in a large city, many of those hospitals have specific start dates for new grads and specific application processes for new grads. look it up now. they are very competitive
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It honestly all depends on where you live and what nursing school you attend. I thought senior year was the easiest and I went to a pretty competitive/difficult nursing school in PA. I just graduated with my BSN in August and moved from PA to Hawaii and I still haven't found a nursing job yet. I even applied for nurse's aid jobs to get my foot in the door and I'm getting rejected from those because it's that competitive here. I would definitely look up the different hospitals you are interested in working at and see if they have a new grad residency program and when the application deadline is so you know. If you aren't sure, then you can always call the nurse recruiter and ask. All of my friends back in PA who were PCT's for a while got RN jobs right after graduation so I'm sure you will have no problem. I also agree that you should take your NCLEX asap after graduation so you are already in the studying mindset and remember everything. I graduated August 15th and took and passed my NCLEX with 75 questions on August 27th.

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