Indianapolis RN jobs?

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Hello all! Thanks for reading. Sorry if this sounds like a pathetic cry for help, because it sort of is. Here's my deal. I live in Indianapolis, IN. I'm 26, and I'm a new RN with ZERO healthcare work experience and a previous BSN in another field. It's been 6 months since graduation, and I currently have no job of any sort, and the grace period on my massive student loans is quickly coming to an end. By last count, I've applied to about 500 positions in every sector imaginable: hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, assisted living, schools, prisons, home health, non-profit, etc. I'm a non-clinical volunteer at a hospital whenever they need me, which is once a month. A friend offered me a part-time non-medical job, which I think I simply must take just to barely survive. Most of my nursing school classmates - some of them close friends - have landed jobs, which makes this hurt all the more. I'm feeling jealous, cynical, depressed, hopeless, and worst of all, regretful of my decision to become a nurse. It just no longer seems like there are many opportunities in this field. The stress of these months has raised my blood pressure to pre-hypertensive levels, I've dropped a lot of weight because I've lost my appetite (I was already a skinny guy), and I've become self-absorbed and consequently lost my long-time girlfriend. In essence, it seems that becoming an RN has been one of the worst decisions of my life and it's done terrible things to my sanity and self-esteem.

Anyone been in a similar situation? How long did it take you to find work? Where are the Indy jobs? How can I gain experience if nobody is willing to interview me? Please give me a reason to venture on. Thanks.

P.S. My suggestion to anyone currently in nursing school: Get a patient-care tech job now! All my school peers now have RN jobs because they worked during school OR because they had graduate degrees.

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Specializes in NICU.

I graduated in August andI have put out numerous applications to Riley and St. Vincent's and got nothing. Two classmates of mine sent out a hundred applications for adult positions in Indy and no interviews. They sent out applications to Louisville and got 2 interviews within a few weeks with one accepting a position at Jewish Hospital. I sent out 4 applications to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville and I have an interview Thursday. Indy is saturated with new grads and displaced nurses that I was told that there are 100 applicants per opening.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Have you applied to the smaller hospitals outside the city? Indiana has dozens of critical access hospitals in small communities who do have positions for new grads.

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Thank you for this tip! Financially, I have no idea how I could move out of state. But, in the long run, maybe I can't afford not to.

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Thanks, meanmaryjean. I've tried jobs far outside Indy. No luck so far. My limit is a ~1.5 hr drive from my home in downtown Indy. I don't think I could handle a longer commute than that. For example, I'm willing to drive to Bloomington for work, but not any farther. Any more than that, and I wouldn't have time to fully sleep between shifts.

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Specializes in NICU.
Have you applied to the smaller hospitals outside the city? Indiana has dozens of critical access hospitals in small communities who do have positions for new grads.

There are very few jobs posted west of Indy (Hendricks Co., Putnam Co., Clay Co. and both hospitals in Terre Haute). That is why I have given up on looking for jobs in Indiana and started looking south to Louisville.

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You said you have a BSN in another field, is that a mistake or did you mean a BS degree in another discipline? Why did you not attempt a BSN degree through an accelerated BSN Program instead of an ADN?

Was the ADN Program from a For-Profit School and if so, which one and are they well respected in the Indianapolis Healthcare Community? Is it possible that the school you attend might be what is holding you back from getting a job, although you mentioned that some of your peers have gotten jobs because they have some healthcare experience or graduate degree?

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Hey Psata,

Sorry, I meant a previous BS, not BSN. (Thanks for catching that.) I then did an accelerated BSN program at Marian University, a private Catholic school with a pretty strong reputation and one of the older, more established nursing programs in the city. I had a really great time there and felt like I received a good nursing education. (The only thing I regret is having to pay private school tuition, lol.) I think what's holding me and many new nurses back is the current state of the healthcare economy in which organizations are spending conservatively, hiring less, and reshaping corporate structures. There is a big push to keep patients out of the hospitals because the costs are so high for acute illnesses; so instead the drive is toward preventative and/or low acuity care in small clinics that require a smaller staff. Just look at IU Health - it laid off 800 employees last year, and so did St. Vincent. And last I heard, IU is basically consolidating the University building with Methodist. (Don't quote me on that.) Add to this mixture that many, many (gosh, maybe 40 different) accredited nursing schools around Indiana are churning out LPNs, ASNs, and BSNs in droves. Some will graduate cohorts once a year, others more. My accelerated program (which is just one type of nursing program at Marian U) graduates about 180 new nurses a year, in three different cohorts. So every few months comes the end of another academic semester and the start of another wave of competing job applicants statewide.

Again, I really think the key to success here is knowing people. This is one of the reasons why my peers who held tech jobs have been successful. They know people AND they have real experience. Heck, I've even tried applying to tech jobs to get my foot in the door, but my RN license disqualifies me.

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Specializes in NICU.

If it is difficult us BSNs (ABSN grad from ISU) to get new grad jobs, I can imagine the grads from the quality ASN schools like Ivy Tech are having an even more difficult time. Then there are the grads from the far from stellar schools (ITT, Medtech, etc) who are going to have an extremely difficult time.

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I graduated from ivy tech in May and a good portion of my class have jobs in the hospital setting. I am a LPN-RN transition student and I've worked in long term care for about 4 years, I was offered a position at a local hospital recently. I've applied to about 100 jobs with few interviews before accepting this position. I did not know anybody to get me the position. This hospital is magnet so they do know I am working on bsn. It's tough out there and easy to get discouraged. Try to stay strong and keep pushing through.

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The larger Indy hospitals are still trying to recover from the changes last year that led to layoffs. It is starting to pick back up, however, as you said patients aren't staying in the hospital as long and reimbursement sucks causing hospitals to work with less staff.

In all the positions you've applied for you haven't gotten one single call back or interview? Are you applying for positions in a certain specialty or a broad spectrum of positions?

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Specializes in Critical care.

All of this makes me so, so nervous. I graduate next August with my BSN and I have no choice but to stay in indy- yikes!

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