Hospitals to apply for with 1 year experience in California

Specialties NICU

Published

Hey there,

Currently working in a great 50 bed Level III facility out in the midwest. I have little over 1 year of experience (not much I know).

So I am moving back to my home state of California, at least trying as I am all alone here. My girlfriend and family are all scattered around CA. I prefer to work at level III or IV facility near Sacramento to Modesto, but I am open to a lot of areas throughout the state except Bakersfield or Fresno.

However I have been applying for 2 months now, and no luck even getting an interview. No recruiters are contacting me at all. I have my CA RN license as well.

Any ideas?

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Specializes in NICU.

Would you mind changing your username? People will start confusing us.

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you got it.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

Are you a BSN? If so, I don't know what the problem is. If not, that, most likely, is the issue.

UC Davis comes to mind. I worked for UC--great benefits. A google search got me these:

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=BQVAXNnLJq-50PEP7a6vkAM&q=level+iii+nicu+near+sacramento&oq=level+iii+nicu+near+sacr&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.33i22i29i30.1151.15038..17757...1.0..0.134.2570.12j14......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..35i39j0i131j0j0i10j0i22i30j35i304i39j0i13j0i13i30.1F3uEnWOAMo

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Specializes in Neonatal.

Would you be willing to work down in Southern California? 5 years ago, I was able to move back home from Iowa with less than a year's experience, but I am in LA County. I have no idea what the market is like up there in Sacramento, and my one contact up there is no longer in the NICU setting.

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Check out the Sutter system. There are currently quite a few NICU positions open throughout Northern CA at different Sutter's.

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Specializes in Mother/Baby.

Hi! I’m from California - Sacramento to be specific and I went through the exact same thing as you a few years ago. I had about 1.5 years of experience working when I moved home and was not prepared for the difficulty in getting a hospital job. What I learned was that northern CA is heavily saturated with nurses which means that if you don’t know someone and don’t have years of experience it is extremely difficult and pretty much impossible to get in.

that being said, I applied to every system in the area and I got 2 interviews which in and of itself was a miracle. They were with Sutter and then Marshall Medical Center in Placerville. I recommend trying those if you haven’t yet.

Also know that I had no trouble getting a job as a nurse in a clinic or outpatient setting. It was just getting into a hospital that was difficult, even for nurses who graduated nursing school and did clinical rotations there. I know many nurses who commuted to Nevada (Reno) to get more experience and then tried applying again or they moved to central or southern CA and were able to get into a hospital there.

From what I have gathered, because the Sacramento area doesn’t have the appeal that SoCal does with the beaches etc, they pay very well which adds to the difficulty.

Best of luck to you! I hope you are more successful than I was in regards to getting a hospital job! If you have any questions I’m happy to answer. ?

Also, don’t stop applying. It took awhile before I got those call backs. If you haven’t been and there’s a way to call - try and follow up on your applications. I know sometimes that isn’t an option but it can’t hurt. The jobs I had in Sacramento weren’t what I had foreseen myself getting or doing but I wouldn’t trade the experiences or the people I met from those jobs.

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