Job offer then ghosted

It was the DON of the nursing home who offered me the position during my in person interview, no HR involved. Not stomping off in a huff, I've been respectful every time I've contacted them but to not take 30 seconds to say either we're busy I'll get back to you or sorry we changed our minds I DO think is unprofessional, but I've never been in this position so I don't know if this is normal or not. To me, it's not.

If it was as easy as you describe to get a job offer in a nursing home, chances are pretty good you can easily get other offers. If they are treating you like this now, it's only going to get worse. Move on. It's their loss.

I think you are taking this way too hard and getting upset too easily. From what I read, you were verbally offered a job. Then a week and a half later you passed NCLEX and called back. No answer, so on day two you call again and no answer. Now today (when is today? Is it day three or did you wait a week or what.) which sounds like Day 3, you call again and are upset already.

Welcome to medical hiring. It is not unprofessional. You are not the only new grad. They could have interviewed people after you who wowed them more. They could be looking to hire multiple people and are getting that all in order before contacting you. We didn't hear what was said in your "offer". You could have misunderstood an actual offer of employment with a regular "we like you and would love to hear from you when you have a license" type thing. Which would not be an offer and more of just a call back and they will think about it. The person that you spoke with could be in vacation or in meetings or doing any number of other things and will contact you back when they get a moment.

Leaving a message every day may ruin this opportunity for you. The professional thing to do is at least wait a few days between contact so you don't seem so pushy and give whoever it is a chance to review your interview and such.

Lastly, the DON offering a job isn't as important as HR offering one. The DON may feel like they need another nurse in staff and want to hire you. HR knows the budget and if they can offerd to hire you. You wouldn't be the first and, and won't be the last, who gets shafted because HR CAN'T hire due to budget and the DON overstepped in offering without verifying first.

Slow your rolls. Give them some time. They may just contact you back. I can't even count how many times in multiple fields I have been told a day I will get called back by, and it's days later that they actually call. While you wait, polish up your resume and cover letter and get to applying more places as a back up.

Leave one more message asking about the status of your job offer. If you don't receive a response within 5 days, assume the job offer has been withdrawn, and start looking again.

If you find a new job and this employer calls you back, tell them that you assumed the job offer had been withdrawn because they didn't respond to multiple messages.

Job offers get withdrawn, sometimes without notifying the candidate. It sucks, but it happens. It happened to me (in a non-nursing job), and I eventually found something else. It's common courtesy to tell a candidate that they were not selected for a job, but many employers no longer bother.

Even if you do hear back from them, make sure you shadow them before officially accepting the job offer.

Side note: OP, you are new grad, a "virgin" nurse. With effort (and the willingness to relocate), you can get another job offer elsewhere.

It took me several months after my job offer to get into my first job. It was a pain. But I had to wait it out if I wanted it.

this happened to me as a new grad when the manager gave me a face to face offer and I accepted. I'm still salty about it. lol

but everything happens for a reason. They can keep their 6:1 ratio.

At this point, if it was me, I would give it a few more days & if you still don't hear back (no calling every day like a stalker), then type up a short professional letter stating how you have passed NCLEX since last meeting & look forward to hearing from them - - basically sending a cover letter with an updated resume reflecting your pass date & license number. Then it's on them while you continue your job search.

Healthcare bureaucracy sucks. But my #1 feeling is until you get that formal offer from HR and sign it, nothing is certain. Promises can easily fall through without it in writing, even if it was from the DON. Best of luck!