Is there a feeling of entitlment among new grads?

[MesaRN]

I posted this is the New Grad forum, but want to post it here as well to get some thoughts and feeling of those with experience and different perspective.

I am in the grad class of May 09. As a class we are facing difficulty in finding jobs. As I hear the stories on these forums and the complaints of my classmates I am starting to wonder if nursing students have taken on a feeling of entitlement.

This is my second degree, my first was in Biology. When I was in my first degree program we all found every opportunity we could to secure a job upon graduation. We took unpaid internships, worked after school, TA'd, networked, what ever it took. What I have scene in my class is that paid externships from the local hospital have gone unfilled. When I attend out of class lectures and seminars at the hospital there is not a single other nursing student there.

I had two full time offers upon graduation, both in the department I wanted to be in, due to the extra effort I put in. Only one other student in my class has a job. However most did not even start applying until recently and are complaining of the lack of jobs. Jobs are not entitlements, often they must be earned. I know that many of us, my self included, entered nursing in part because of the security and good pay, but when did that mean we stopped working hard to find a job and just put in a bunch of applications and hoped for the best?

An article in our local paper showed a grad nurse with a stack of scrubs with price tags still on stating she graduated last semester and still no job. Why did she go out and purchase scrubs without a job yet? A job is not a guarantee, not should it be. Nursing as a profession should be billed more as 'it takes a smart, strong person to get in' and not 'anyone who graduates has a guaranteed perfect job'. Most professionals do not expect to get the perfect job in any place they want immediately out of school, so why should nurses?

I am not try to anger anyone by making statements, I am just putting some thoughts down to see what other have observed. Think critically of the current situation facing new nurses. How does are attitudes affect how we go about obtaining jobs? Are we expecting to much, are we expecting more than other professional new grads do? What do we want the image of nursing to be? Not passing judgment, just asking questions that I really am trying to figure out.

Advice that was given to me by nursing directors is to first call the organization you are applying for and find out who will be reading your resume. Address your cover letter to them directly. DO NOT put to whom it may concern or nursing director, a fast way to get it thrown out in a competitive market.

Don't do blanket applications, take time and care to each one. Your cover letter needs and resume to address each postion individually. This takes time and care and a little research.

Keep in contanct with the orgs you are applying for. Call and ask questions, show enthusiasm for the position. Don't bug them, but keep in contact. Always reply promptly and formally. If you have a funny signature on your e-mail make sure to delete this before sending. Every contact should be professional.

Check the local hospital website for free educational opportunities. These are a great chance to network with hospital administration. Find out what the local status is from you area hospitals by asking directly, not through hearsay.

The first job may not be anywhere near where or the department you want to be in. That's OK, this is just the start. Gaining experience starts at the bottom and works up. The recession in temporary, these hiring cycles have been in existence long before we sought out jobs. It will get better. Hard work, a good attitude, and the willingness to work up will go a long way to securing a good future in a great profession.

Good luck to everyone out there, and go that extra effort to get that job you really desire!

[Irene joy]

Many of us in our class have gotten nurse tech jobs. We are at the point where we have learned all our skills, have done well in balancing time and can take on the extra time a jobs entails. We also know that we will not be handed a job just because we graduated. With hopspitals having hiring freezes, I'm more than happy doing CNA responcibilities while getting my foot in the door!

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Everyone is entitled.

Sure I chose nursing because I am intersted in it, but it is in the end, just a job, in no way to be held in higher regard than any other I've had. We all are entitled to want the best situation we can get. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you feel some sort of entitlement you will tend to strive for the things you want proactively. The chances are higher you will get them as well.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

is there a sense of entitlement among new grads? in a word, yes!

in the past ten years or so, the new grads -- and let me make it clear that i'm speaking mostly about new grads who are in their first career, not second career grads -- seem to disdain working nights, weekends, holidays. they want to start out in the specialty of their choice, don't think they should have to work christmas or new year's and expect straight days from the get go. if they don't immediately get what they want, they threaten to leave. some have left, and regret it because the job market has dried up and they're not getting the fabulous new job without nights, weekends, holidays or bodily fluids that they seemed to think was going to miraculously open up for them. many went back to become nps or crnas, and i'm told that in their new careers they exhibit the same sense of entitlement. (i'll never forget the brand new np who threw a two-year-old's temper tantrum when informed that she would be orienting on nights because her preceptor was working nights, and she'd be expected to work nights once she was off orientation. she no longer works here.)

i guess i can't say that new grads feel entitled, but i'll certainly vouch for the fact that many of them act as though they feel entitled!

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

If you call "expecting to find a position in the profession you just spend 3+ years and thousands of dollars training for" a sense of entitlement, sign me and my classmates up.

Luckily, I've been more fortunate than most of them.

But this is nothing different than what every nurse has done to become a nurse. No one can help what the economy is right now....I know where I am, we don't have the positions. For anybody. Someone just graduating is not going to be more likely to get a job than someone who ALSO graduated, and has put the time in to the facility already. That's just the way it is.

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

...paid externships from the local hospital have gone unfilled.

Where are these unfilled extern positions? I'd LOVE one!

[libnat]

seem to disdain working nights, weekends, holidays. they want to start out in the specialty of their choice, don't think they should have to work christmas or new year's and expect straight days from the get go.

yeah i think it's more most people not just new grads.

i on the other hand would love to take a night position and weekends. my weekends are whenever i'm off, not sat. sun,

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

It's the "millenial" generation effect. I think they are in shell-shock when they realize that they're not always going to get what they want.

Life's not fair. *shrugs*

[hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN]

][/b]is there a sense of entitlement among new grads? in a word, yes!

in the past ten years or so, the new grads -- and let me make it clear that i'm speaking mostly about new grads who are in their first career, not second career grads -- seem to disdain working nights, weekends, holidays. they want to start out in the specialty of their choice, don't think they should have to work christmas or new year's and expect straight days from the get go. if they don't immediately get what they want, they threaten to leave.

it's the "millenial" generation effect. i think they are in shell-shock when they realize that they're not always going to get what they want.

life's not fair. *shrugs*

is the generation effect of past generations a lack of reading comprehension or something?

i feel like i'm talking to a brick wall when i try explaining that no jobs are physically extant. i'm not just talking about cushy, no weekend, daytime internship programs in a specialty area. the night, weekend, med/surg and ltach jobs are nowhere to be found, either. trust me, my class has cast the net far and wide. applying for hospice, home health, school nursing, all levels of acute care, clinics, and so on. the jobs are scarce and the ones that have jobs generally have them through actively working there in a uap role (like me).

i have friends that've been night shift lvns for 5+ years who bridged to rn with me. they can't get even med/surg jobs despite past med/surg lvn experience because of a hiring freeze on new grads (even when jobs for "experienced nurses" are available).

i have friends that've been mid-level managers at places like hp for years before entering nursing. one guy in particular is hitting every job fair in a 50 mile radius. he can't even get an interview because he's a new grad and there's an absolute lockdown on new grads.

[whoknows56]

A couple of weeks ago the local news channel went to the local big hospital talking about how there is a hiring freeze and they won't interview any nursing student graduates (three schools in a 50 miles radius). The person they interviewed for was scared the nurses that are graduating now are going to leave the field because there aren't any jobs for them. Where are these nurses going to go? Last time I checked the only "in demand" jobs these days are for med lab tech, customer service and green jobs (if you have specific degrees like accounting). Even some people that work in a hospital for a living lack a real world perspective. The nurses that you are talking about, OP, is not lazyness, its a factor of the job market and ignorance upon their part...........thinking there will be a job for them at the end just because they went to nursing school. The media has been talking about nursing shortages for years and years. This translates to young people going to college for nursing school because they will have a job at the end (lol). That isn't reality anymore.

I'm going back to school to take a few classes, take the MCAT and apply to medical school. When I was in college, I worked as a CNA 3rd shift of Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. I also cleaned toilets for $11/hr during the late weeknights and I also worked a student job. I worked 55 hrs/wk. Most of the students in my class (and before and after) just went to class and got drunk every weekend. A couple of them actually worked. They ******* and complained about not getting their job in Arizona and now ***** and complain about having to take a job in Milwaukee. These nurses are still acting like its the end of the world and they will never get to Arizona and never get back to school for that CRNA schooling (almost all of them want to be come CRNA's). I'm sure most will leave nursing when the job market improves.

[Straydandelion]

Looking at it logically, you have a whole class of graduates ALL hunting jobs wanting ones with certain specialties/hours/pay. Then you have the work-force that have experience ALSO wanting certain specialties/hours/pay, the facillities are going to hire their own first in fact most have internal jobs posted a week or two before they are even posted outside the facillity. I never thought I could get a job with exact hours etc. I wanted and crossed my fingers I could get one at all. I started working part-time at the place I wanted to work when graduated the last year of nursing and had NO problem getting a position at that place. If "entitlement" means you expect to be handed something with no effort, then those that DO expect that in the modern work-force are going to have problems.

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

I never quite know how to reply to these "Those OTHER people do THIS negative thing, but *I*....GLORIOUS ME!, would never do that. Instead, I do all of THIS , and I AM LOVEEEEEEEEEED!" posts, so I usually find it best not to respond at all.

Oops.

[LockportRN]

I am not a new grad but have been a nurse for 18 years. The last 6 years as a DON. I would like to comment on this to benefit those that are still seeking employment and especially for those still in school.

A few years ago I had an experience where all the new grads would come to me for a job, only want to work days, no weekends or only 1 day on the weekend and they wanted $6 - $8 more than I could pay them, with all the benefits! To top this off, they were very unteachable, after they did go to school!

Now, I don't blame them, after all the whole country has been told over and over again what a terrible nursing shortage there is. In order to get people to get into nursing, the instructors had to really pump them up for their 'demands'. And yes, they did demand!

Todays new grad is having a much harder time. They come to me almost pleading. They are much better prepared for the interview process (including bringing endorsements from the nurses that they got to know during clinicals and sending a thank you note!). I rarely see those demanding. behaviors anymore. And if I do, I simply thank them for their time.

I do hire new grads . . . one at a time. This is simply because I have been burned too many times. I put extensive time into training. The preceptor is hand picked. A proficiency exam is given (actually, I have them take it with them with the expectation that by the end of orientation, they will have actually completed all tasks with another nurse to watch). Too many new nurses have not completed so many clinical skills, so this is why I do this.

Advice for the nursing student, listen in report for any procedure that you have not done and ask that nurse if you could do it while she watches. I can't stress this enough. The more procedures that you are comfortable with, the easier it will be to get a job.

I send them to every training class that I believe will benefit them. All too many times, after the training is complete, they quit to 'get a better paying job' now that they have 'experience'. Later, when that job didn't work out (there is a reason that some facilities pay very well and them beg you to come work for them and they aren't good reasons) they come back to me for a job. Something that should never be done is to burn bridges, which several of these nurses did.

There was another post by a nurse that just kept calling and did get the job. Sometimes you have to be politely persistant and check back after a month. I wish you all the best of luck! And hang in there, the jobs will open for you.