I am a recent BSN grad, with prior BS in Biology in 2000. I graduated from my college in May 2010 with 3.5 GPA and departmental honors. Have applied to Vet Admin and they responded that they got my resume but nothing else. Have applied to many other facilities and have received either no response or been told no available positions for new grads. Like many, I have spent a good deal of money getting through the program and now have no income and may become homeless if this drags on much longer. I am contemplating suing my college. We were informed in our last semester of school in an off-handed way by one professor that it costs $22,000 to train a new RN. i still have my notes from this class and it is right there in black and white. (In fact it was a test question on the first exam, so it must have been important information). Yet the college itself never informed us in a timely fashion about this. I remember when the teacher told us this info in class we all looked at each other in horror, knowing full well what this meant. As it stands now, of my graduating class of 47 students only about 10% have found positions and are working. Of those, all of them either had worked at the facility as a CNA during school or had parents who already worked there.
I have spoken to an attorney about this potential lawsuit and he claims it would go nowhere because colleges are not required to provide such info about costs of hiring on the other end. I don't believe this. And just because it has never happened in the past, that they are required, does not mean that it should not be required. That is what legal precedents are for. To establish things in law that have not been established before. I feel that, if the cost of hiring was important enough to put on an exam, then it should have been important enough for either nursing or university admin to provide us with up-front. Colleges do financial planning way in advance and do not wait til the last minute to figure out how much financial aide they can anticipate, how many students, etc. No one can tell me that the college was unaware of problems re: nurses getting hired.
I feel that colleges should properly DISCLOSE information to students that is relevant to their continuing in the program. Appropriate disclosure is something that everyone does by law. Why are colleges and universities exempt? Had we known this info as soon as possible at least some of us might have elected to either postpone nursing or find another career. The particular college I graduated from runs about $15,000 per semester for a full course load. That is $120,000 for a full 4 years. This, of course, is very good for the school in that they get loads of tuition money and get to keep THEIR JOBS. I would be interested to get some feedback from others on this forum. Most of the people I have talked to about this seem terrified to even approach the subject. I guess we are all so conditioned to think well of our schools or perhaps, by conditioning, we are all afraid to speak out.
It took 9 months from the start of my job search to starting at the VA....
Government jobs in general seem to take awhile. I applied for a local government job in a neighboring state. FOUR MONTHS after I interviewed (and had long since stopped following up with every week), I got a phone call, casually saying, "hello, we're the SECOND step in the process." Among other things...they wanted me to go get a license for that state (they're non-compact) BEFORE my application would even be considered further. Having a couple of other promising prospects by then, I decided to pass on shelling out 200 dollars for a license that I might not ever even get an opportunity to use.
Employers today have the luxury of being able to take their good old time hiring...and they are!
Here I am, just starting nursing school in another month and I assumed it cost closer to $100,000 to train a first year nurse in acute care. I worked as an insurance adjuster and in that field, it cost $20,000 or more to train and mentor a new candidate. There are several careers out there where you aren't worth a pinch until you have a year or so under your belt. What does the cost of hiring a new nurse have to do with you not getting a job?
If you haven't already signed off forever, please don't! I, and I am sure I am not alone in this, am extremely interested in hearing whether our smidgins of advice have been helpful! I sincerely hope you are successful in your job search, and feel very deeply for you in your current predicament...
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
I'm going to apologize to OP because I think that she must be in a dire position to have posted this.
I'm putting myself in her shoes. You have to be desperate to get to this point. This is all I have to say.
OP, reflect for a moment and then when you are in a calmer place, take some of our advice (if you should choose) to see where this type of thinking may get you.
I do not think anyone is disparaging your education, nor your intellectual faculties.
I do think that if you were to be open to seeing that others are in the EXACT situation you are in, you will see that you are NOT alone.
Sometimes we have to remember that what we post here is missing the most important part of communication--the tone, the body language..that may have indicated to us that you are just looking for some sort of relief. We can't "hear" it in the words posted, just in our own minds. So I am taking the "adult" step here, and putting myself where you are...afraid, and looking for support. I am listening and I hear you.
Specializes in multispecialty ICU, SICU including CV.
OP, please don't leave. If you found my post personally hurtful, I'm sorry.
I can see that you are very frustrated. Only a very frustrated person that didn't feel like they had anywhere to turn would likely entertain the idea of legal action in this situation. You probably feel totally powerless over your future, and I think that is the sort of situation that most of us can relate to from some point in our lives. However, I think it is probably not a good idea for you to go looking to pin your problem on someone else (your school) as opposed to trying to fix your problem yourself.
If you truly believe this is a problem you want to get involved in changing, then, go for it -- but give yourself some time to find a job and get back on your feet. It sounds like your financial situation is serious. Take care of yourself before you try to take on the rest of the world's problems, at least. By the time you get yourself squared away, I would guess that this situation with your school is going to feel a whole lot less awful, and you might not even want to go there.
If you haven't already signed off forever, please don't! I, and I am sure I am not alone in this, am extremely interested in hearing whether our smidgins of advice have been helpful! I sincerely hope you are successful in your job search, and feel very deeply for you in your current predicament...
Yeah...c'mon. Don't run away.
I too think my school should give ME my money back.
I have had my days of boohooing over this crazy situation we're in...and you sound like you are having one of serious indignation over it. I really do get it. But from one who is sympathetic...it is kind of over the top...so I hope in a day or two you'll be in a better place. However, when you get a number of similar reactions from people that aren't what you had expected...you do have to self-examine a little.
first, i am sorry you have not been able to find a job yet. however, it took two months to hear back from my new facility on a na job, another two months to be hired, and i will not start until mid august, for a total of about 5 months. next, i will tell you i do not think you should sue, and i think you would permanently screw your employability up if you chose to do so. now onto some of my thoughts on this subject, please skip if not interested, as they are more for fellow students, than someone who has already completed school. i am not trying to bash you or make you feel bad; i am trying to prevent this from happening to other nursing students.
i personally am amazed by how much priority people place on gpa alone. is it important to get into graduate school, yes. is it important to get a job, no. my gpa has suffered greatly because i have had to work and attend school at the same time. however, it is still a respectable 3.5. an interviewer is looking at the whole package and i probably would be more appealing than someone who had a 4.0 and whom did not work in school. managers understand that work, and family hampers a persons school time. they want the type of people that can multitask and balance busy schedules, without issues.
almost all of my teachers have highly recommended finding some type of job at a facility before our last year. even without their recommendation, i had planned on doing so. i just took a $10 per hour pay cut, to take a na position for my final year of school (overall $15 an hour cut in the last year, so i could attend nursing school). i am now hired at a local large hospital, on a busy floor.i will have the next year to learn, practice and prove that i am an excellent investment as a new hire. the hospital gets the next year of my labor at a cheap price, and they save substantially on training a new grad. i will learn their systems, protocols, procedures, and other intricacies of their facility. they get a chance to see my work ethic and decide if they want to hire me as an rn. it is a win-win situation and why you keep hearing existing employees getting the rn positions, and why they do not need to hire ng's.
it is sad that the job market is in the state that it is in. however, the top performers almost always have a job. there are reasons that they have jobs. it is because they make plans, implement them, and do not let issues get in their way. to me you should have been applying the year before you graduated for an entry-level job. as the one common theme, you keep hearing about, from all new graduates, is how people already working at a facility are among the first to get jobs.
Ok, say you do sue the school--and you make the news---what are the hospitals going to think??? I'm fairly certain if they got wind of it, they sure would not hire you!
Does it say anywhere in your paperwork that the school gaurentees you employment??
I talked on the phone and through emails with a VA rep, and he stated they rarely hire new grads, as they do not have any type of training set up for a new grad. And when they do hire them, they start off at a very low GS rate, around $30,000 a yr. I work with a travel RN and she works a lot at Walter Reed, and she stated its very hard for even experienced RN's to get hired.
Good luck on whatever you decide to do, but maybe your efforts should be put towards moving to another State if you can!
Tankweti, In one of your earlier posts on a different thread, you mentioned a trust fund that helped you pay for school. Hopefully that has not run out and you can hold out till you get a job.
llg, PhD, RN
13,469 Posts
Oops. Posted in error.