Is the nursing shortage over in the Bay Area?

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Here I am in nursing school in San Francisco and all I hear from my teachers is how hard it is to get a job when you graduate. I would love to work at Lucille Packard when I graduate but the message is that unless you already work for them, chances to get into the internship program are very slim. Apparently there are hundreds of new grads applying for few internship spots. Can someone ease my fears a little here. I am working really hard to go through the school while having a family, maintaining a very high GPA. Am I going to graduate and not be able to find a job that I like?

Specializes in NICU.

You want to work at lucile packard, here is my suggestion. One keep an eye on the deadline and apply early. Packards deadline is usually 2 months prior to december and may graduations.

Also, Im not sure which school your at in SF but try and get clinical there. Make good connections with your teachers so that they will want to advocate for you. I went to USF and we got to pick our top 3 choices of what we'd like as our final semester preceptorship and theyd try to get it. If your school has something like that, gun for packard.

Also getting a job as a CNA or HUC there is a brilliant idea. Charge nurses and managers will know you and your work ethic. One of my roomates became a CNA at the hospital she wanted to work at, got to know people and because she knew the floor she was given her final precptorship on the floor. They then offered her a job half way through her last semester and she happily accepted.

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Specializes in ICU.
Here I am in nursing school in San Francisco and all I hear from my teachers is how hard it is to get a job when you graduate. I would love to work at Lucille Packard when I graduate but the message is that unless you already work for them, chances to get into the internship program are very slim. Apparently there are hundreds of new grads applying for few internship spots. Can someone ease my fears a little here. I am working really hard to go through the school while having a family, maintaining a very high GPA. Am I going to graduate and not be able to find a job that I like?

i have heard that new grad programs are hard to come by; b/c it is competitive, they can be strict on the selection process. i found out i got hired in icu as a new grad, and only 4 trainees were hired out of countless applicants. be prepared for your interview. it is a competitive process.

hospitals are more likely to hire you when you have done a clinical there. i did my mental health rotation at the place i was hired, and i described reasons for why i chose this hospital (b/c of the supportive environment towards student nurses).

another tip, keep in contact with your preceptors, clinical instructors, professors b/c they will be the ones who can provide good letters/references. be flexible, and be willing to help out, whether you are just another person turning the patient, dropping off a specimen, or translation. the nurses on the unit will be very happy and may provide your preceptor with positive feedback! having a supportive preceptor is great! if she thinks you are great, she will go out of her way to ask around for open positions.

I have also noticed that when positions are posted, and applicants apply, they stop accepting once a certain # has been reached. so check for postings frequently and apply to many!

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Specializes in Trauma.

I've been searching for a job for close to a year now. I was employed here and moved 3000 miles away from NYC to work here. I failed the boards one week before finishing my orientation and working as an RN. I had to resign. The worse thing about this whole thing is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a job here in SF as a new graduate. The positions for new grads is something like 20 slots per training program which are ONLY HELD 2x per year.

Students who have this dream of coming to the bay area, making a ton of money and living fine, are saturating the job market. At least this is what a nurse recruiter told me today when I called to see about my resume.

One of my friends who graduated from Samuel Merritt with highest honors, has 35 applications and resumes out and has only had 2 call backs. Another example of how difficult it is.

At this point, I am seriously considering law school. I never expected this and I'm running out of money and all together, patience.

I keep hearing "hiring freeze" from the city hospitals. I know in other states, there are training programs held more than 3x per year.

Oh well, what do you do, when rent is going up and jobs are slim to none in this city that once offered it all to me?

Leave, I guess. Sad, very sad.

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Hmmm...I have heard of graduates of Samuel Merritt getting jobs before they even graduate. Yeah, it is tough, but certainly there are still jobs from what I hear. Maybe it depends on who you know...

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Specializes in Trauma.

Yeh, it is true, there area jobs. But they are far, few and in between and you have to be just what they're looking for. I have an excellent resume, I have excellent references and I finished a critical care training program in the ICU, sooo...

I have friends in high places, but even they cannot get a new graduate in the door all the way. I've heard it's mainly due to the money it costs to train us. That's why they have these training programs with a small amount of spaces with an over abundance of applicants.

As far as Samuel Merritt grads having jobs b4 they graduate. I interviewed in Vallejo last week and at least 50% were Samuel Merritt students or graduates from a year ago. The five that were in my group all graduated last May, like me.

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I'm in CA as well. I went to school in Sacramento but am from the bay area. I applied as an IP to some new grad programs in the bay area and never received any call backs. I think I made a mistake in starting a little late. Sacramento is worse. I have a good resume, letters of recommendations, and graduated with honors with a BSN, but it is so competitive. I agree w/ a previous post that you have to be exactly what they're looking for or you won't even get an interview. I'm starting to get scared that I'll have to wait until January when the next new grad programs are offered!

I just found out that I passed the NCLEX RN on Friday. I don't know if it will be easier or not since all the positions are filled. I just don't know where to look anymore. I call the recruiters to various hospitals with no luck. It is better when you have a foot in the door. You have to have been an employee there or have interned or precepted there. I will take a position in any unit right now. It's so bad here.

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My understanding from an SF Chronicle article is that there are about 65% more graduates in 2008 that in previous years. The governator threw alot of money into schools to attempt to end the nursing shortage. The effect?Too many of us for too few new grad positions. Alot of hospitals seem to be scrambling to create "new grad programs" that they didn't have a year or two ago. They just don't know what to do with us.

I graduated from an ADN program. It seems BSNs are popular right now: especially if the hospital is trying to make Magnet status.

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Specializes in Maternity, Cardiac Care.

The fact positions are being posted does not mean they are being filled.

The greatest fear for every hospital and nursing program is word getting out how many new grads, saddled with student loans, are not being hired period, regardless of excellent study, work, and preparation.

And this includes, happily and gratefully, being willing to work ANY shift. Wanting to work ICU and not accept a night shift are not the problems why new grads throughout the country are not getting jobs.

The fact the economy is contracting, has sent hundreds (more?) of actively-licensed RN's, who had left healthcare, back to it in order to provide health insurance for their families when their spouses have been laid off and lost needed health insurance benefits. This is a nation-wide phenomena that was cited in the Wall Street Journal back in April 2008.

The nursing shortage, for new grads, will not return until the economy improves and experienced nurses leave the profession again as they previously had. The same thing happened with the "shortage" in 1992.

There have ALWAYS been enough licensed RN's in the US. The problem has been keeping them practicing when the economy is good.

The number of positions being posted, whether CHW, Sutter Health, CPMC, UC or county hospitals, that are not being filled and then reissued despite very flexible, qualified applicants has grown substantially in the past 9 months.

The hospital staffs themselves only see the unfilled positions, perpetuating the perception that it is a shortage causing the problem. While this is a nation-wide problem, in the Bay Area it is particularly acute.

This is seriously important information for students to consider, especially before taking loans to pay for training.

Student loans are for life. They don't get written off like a house loan does, and the damage to one's credit score and, possibly, hireability based upon FICO score, make it important for anyone considering taking on debt to pay for a nursing education.

Nursing is a great profession, but not because of pay or endless entry-level opportunities. The nation needs more nurses. It just doesn't need very many more new grads in acute care until pay comes down enough for hospitals to be able to afford to train them.:specs:

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Specializes in ICU.

The same thing is happening to me in Phx. AZ. I just graduated and no one has called me back. Taking by boards today. My sister is a nurse and her manager told me that he couldn't hire me because the hospital will only hire Apollo College new grads first and then if spots are open, they'll hire new grads from other colleges. What a slap in the face. There a too many schools for nursing here, and the hospitals won't fill the open positions with new grad RN's. But yet it's on the news that there's a shortage of nurses here. Thought about moving to another state, but it seems that in CA, AZ and CO it's all the same. No one from Vegas called me either. My wife is in allied health care and the hospitals hired her right away. There is no new grad discrimination towards non-nursing professions. Good luck to you all. Things will get better for us

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