How bad is an employment gap?

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I've been unemployed for 16 months, due to having a baby and then a move across the country, among several other reasons. I'm finally able to get a job again, but it's looking like my only option right now is going to be PRN work. My clinical background is almost a full year of telemetry nursing, and then 2.5 years of working in a CVICU. I am really nervous about jumping into an ICU with minimal training, but I'm worried I might not even be able to get a job because of my gap in employment. Will it count against me too much? I live in an area that usually has a pretty good job market for nurses, for what it's worth.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Nah. It only hurts when there is no logical explanation, in my experience anyway.

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Only ever been asked about a gap once and my canned response that I had prepared in advance seemed to work as they didn't continue down that path.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.

If there is an explanation there is usually not a problem. I have a gap (about 6 months) on my resume from being a family caregiver and another 16 month gap from returning to school and not working at the same time. Neither gap prohibited me from finding work. Most places didn't even ask why they were there.

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Well that's good to hear. I'm nervous enough as it is about trying to be a nurse again in some random ICU, lol.

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