Help Finding My Place After Graduation

[nightnurse21]

I am a current student at Cedar Crest College due to graduate this May. If you know anything about Cedar Crest it is a private, very expensive school known for their nursing excellence in the area (which is why I chose it). I poured so much time and energy into this education expecting so much in return.

Now the time has come to find a job. I made the mistake of not signing a loan agreement with LVHN because I really wanted to move back home to the Poconos and thought my position was secured at Pocono Medical Center since I completed my nurse externship there. Well I was wrong.

Flash forward to now. I am completing my internship for the last 3 months of my senior year on a L&D floor in LVHN CC, which is my true nursing passion. It is what I love to do and I am a fast learner and feel like I truly excel in a fast paced environment. Medsurg really tends to bore me.

I applied to PMC thinking I was going to get into the NICU since there were openings and I previously spoke with the manager who said it was an option. However, I was told it wasn't available to me as a new grad. The only opening was medsurg float, in which I would be required to stay in for 1 year.

I might be very naive in saying if I was placed here I don't think I would enjoy nursing as I do now.

I also contacted a friend of mine about possibly getting into the ED at PMC (although not my first choice, I feel as though it would peak my interest more than float pool)

In addition I applied to Easton Hospital, and was offered a job on L&D which is exactly what I wanted. However, this hospital is very small and dated, and only has approx 500 births per year, so I'm not sure if I'd really be getting the experience I want and need.

Lastly, I applied to the Atlantic Health HIRE Residency Program and hoping to get a call back and potentially get into L&D in Hackettstown, NJ. However I heard this year they may not be hiring for that in the residency even though they have openings in L&D separately.

If anyone can help me and give me some insight anywhere here it would be greatly appreciated. I don't know where to go from here.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

Well, it doesn't sound like you have many options and, above all, you need to get *a* job.

Since you want to be an L&D nurse, take the proffered L&D position. Sure, it doesn't have the census nor acuity that would be ideal but it will still offer you learning opportunities and experience.

When I started in nursing 7 years ago, there weren't many jobs to be had. I figured that I would take the first one that was offered which turned out to be a med-surg position in a tiny, rural hospital with mostly sub-acute patients... lots of pancreatitis, diverticulitis, and cholecystitis. I saw one chest tube in the course of a year, accessed two ports, and put in 2 Foleys... not much.

After the first year, a position suddenly opened in their ER and I was offered the job (despite being unqualified... tells you how desperate they were... and I was). Over the next 2 years I started learning ER nursing though our typical acuities were pretty low. It was experience, though, and it finally led to an opportunity in an urban level 1 trauma center where I really grew as a nurse.

It wasn't the ideal way to launch but the ideal ways weren't available to me so I took what I could. I spent three years working 200 miles from home and earning $27/hr (compared to the $55/hr that I got when I finally got the level 1 job). Sometimes you have to sacrifice and make your own opportunities.

[caseyuptonurse]

I'm from around the same area and honestly I would accept any offer given to me. I graduated two years ago and it was hard to find anything, let alone get an offer.

I took the first job that was offered to me and now two years later I am switching to my preferred specialty. If L&D is definitely what you want to do then I would jump on the opportunity you were given.

[nightnurse21]

Thank you both so much! (funny I'll be starting out at 27 an hour, I can only dream of 55!, what area do you work in?) I took the Easton position, mainly for the experience I will be gaining. I plan to soak up as much as possible and go where life takes me. Thanks sooo much! Start date is June 13th!

[ashley_bird]

nightnurse21 said:

Thank you both so much! (funny I'll be starting out at 27 an hour, I can only dream of 55!, what area do you work in?) I took the Easton position, mainly for the experience I will be gaining. I plan to soak up as much as possible and go where life takes me. Thanks sooo much! Start date is June 13th!

I stumbled on this post because I was looking to find current students at Cedar Crest since I am in pre-nursing this January. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind giving an update on where you are now and how you think your education from Cedar Crest helped or did not help once you got into the field.