Graduating Soon...Specialty???

allnurses Guide · Dec 3, 2020

Jobs are not plentiful in SA for new grads. Jobs are plentiful for experienced nurses. Most hospitals in Texas will not hire a new grad without going through a residency. Many residencies have been curbed due to the COVID-19 crisis.

You will want to watch for new grad openings/residencies and apply for any/all of them. Hiring is very competitive and getting an acute care position is not guaranteed. There are more new nurse graduates in San Antonio and other major cities in Texas than there are jobs.

Research when the residencies are posted. If you are graduating this month, for the most part you already missed the boat for a position this Spring (Hiring is going on right now) and you will want to look for Summer start dates. In the meantime consider looking outside of acute care, since it sounds like your family very much needs you to be working. That will include LTACH, SNF, prisons/jails, clinics and others that are not hospital based.

Good luck!

JadedCPN, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2020

On 12/3/2020 at 11:52 AM, Nurse SMS said:

Jobs are not plentiful in SA for new grads. Jobs are plentiful for experienced nurses. Most hospitals in Texas will not hire a new grad without going through a residency. Many residencies have been curbed due to the COVID-19 crisis.

You will want to watch for new grad openings/residencies and apply for any/all of them. Hiring is very competitive and getting an acute care position is not guaranteed. There are more new nurse graduates in San Antonio and other major cities in Texas than there are jobs.

Research when the residencies are posted. If you are graduating this month, for the most part you already missed the boat for a position this Spring (Hiring is going on right now) and you will want to look for Summer start dates. In the meantime consider looking outside of acute care, since it sounds like your family very much needs you to be working. That will include LTACH, SNF, prisons/jails, clinics and others that are not hospital based.

Good luck!

This, ALL of this.

Any place is a good place for a new graduate to start, provided that proper orientation is present. In this climate with COVID-19 and your area being saturated with new grads even before the pandemic, you likely will not have the luxury to be picky. I second what Nurse SMS said to look outside of the acute care/hospital setting and you're more likely to find a job.

Sour Lemon · Dec 5, 2020

On 12/2/2020 at 6:39 AM, TiffanyE88 said:

Hello all,

I am graduating from an RN program in 2 weeks and being 100% honest, with everything going on this year, I have not even began to look for a job. Due to COVID, our final year of nursing school was almost completely online. I have only gotten to do rotations on med-surg and telemetry floors and watch 1 chole and 1 TIPS procedure so I do feel like there are probably many opportunities out there that I may not know of.

My question for all is: where is a good place for a new nurse to start?

I live in San Antonio, TX so jobs are plentiful right now. As a side-note, I will say that I am almost sure I want to work nights. My husband lost his job this year and we have kept our 4 kids homeschooled. I am open to pretty much anything right now that will foster my growth.

Thank you for your time & any responses are greatly appreciated!!
Tiffany E., SN

When deciding where to start, it's best to consider your final destination. You haven't shared your long term goals here. ?

But for now, at least, your tough decision is an imaginary one. You need actual offers before you start worrying about which offer to accept.

If you don't have a long term goal yet, med/surg is a great place to start and allows "easy" transition into a lot of other areas.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Dec 5, 2020

apply to a dialysis clinic; the work is stable and lots to learn. You get a good orientation as a new nurse as well as you will be trained as a tech prior. This happens whether you are a nurse or not, so may as well get it out of the way. Hours can be long, but they are predictable

apply to acute dialysis and you will be in the hospital learning, yet not working for the hospital. You will be able to network with hospital staff and that may help land you a job. Hours are unpredictable and on call is usually a big part of the job

I've heard TX towns have plenty of jobs for experienced nurses, not new grads, so go where you can find a job. Once you get some experience under your belt, you can work on deciding what your goals are

Psychnursehopeful, ASN, RN · Dec 20, 2020

I'm in San Antonio as well. The market for new grads seems decent here except for those coveted specialties like critical care, nicu, PICU. I would suggest you use your school and instructors as a resource. What school did you attend?

gere7404, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2020

Apply to new grad programs on med surg or telemetry units... critical care specialty new grad programs are usually restricted to new grads that did their clinical rotations on those kinds of units.