Middle Tennessee has no Midlevel jobs

djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 28, 2019

Reminds my of this zip recruiter ad that talks about them finding a "whole page of unicorns" with nurse practitioners acute care certified with 10 years or more experience. I laugh every time since that certification is literally 12 years old.

tekialove · Mar 29, 2019

Where do I begin... I so feel what you are saying. I am in Memphis and can't find a job. I have been looking for so long I actually went to a RN job fair today.I get the same response interview goes well but guess what "We decided to go with a candidate that was more qualified. I could go on and on but there Is no need. Praying for a job soon.

momofm1998 · Mar 29, 2019

tekialove, I have done the very same thing. I have been applying for RN jobs but the minute the recruiter sees the APRN status, straight to the "We decided to go with a candidate that was more qualified" box. I see ads, ads, ads for NPs, but where are the jobs??? I truly wish I had kept my status as RN and focused on a case management certification or utilization review cert. Seems those are getting snapped up.
I took a 25% cut in salary coming from Atlanta/Dallas. I was shocked! Cost of living so much more and salaries so much less. As a new grad in Texas, I was screening offers and rejecting until I found the best one for me. Here, I am scraping the bottom and just hoping I can make at least more than the Costco greeter does. I see same with the RN salaries. One ad here for a local area prestigious facility last week quoted $26/hr for a general staff RN, $29/hr for ICU, $29/hr for an IV nurse. My staff RN salary in a backwoods small deep south town in 2002 was $28/hr. I so wish I had my tuition back I paid for these useless letters. My student loan debt has even jeopardized our ability to get a mortgage.
I do know the colleges and universities see RN/NP education as a revenue source. They will never tell you their actual six month-one year post graduation employment rate of their grads. No transparency at all. And if you look at their ads, you will see their message is "nurse shortage!, primary care shortage!" But absolutely no mention of the reality of minimum opportunities. I transitioned from AD RN to BS RN, and on the the FNP because of love of the work and wanting more knowledge. Schools want to fill their coffer!
I pray your employment status is wonderful in the near future. But rejection after rejection is so depressing and can really hurt. Just remember, you are a wonderful NP, maybe God is saving you from an atrocious employer and saving the perfect job right beyond a door.

Polly Peptide, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Mar 29, 2019

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Do you think the saturation is true of primary care only or specialties as well (like acute care or psych)?

britt_possible · Apr 4, 2019

This has been a issue for many years in middle Tennessee. Hard to get a job and if you secure a job the pay is below AVG. The Nashville metro area has a lot of NP programs plus a PA program, plus medical schools feeding into the area making it difficult. I was born and raised in nashville did my BSN and MSN there, but knew id have to move to get a job (professors even warned of this during MSN program). I graduated in 2016, found a job within 2 months of graduation on east coast. My classmate that stayed local waited 9 months. Another left the area for a year, came back after she gained experience. I do have a old RN college who was able to secure a job after graduation, but she had worked at the facility for 5 years as an tech/RN.

mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I · Apr 9, 2019

Is this just FNP or all the sub-specialties?

momofm1998 · Apr 9, 2019

Well, I can say this after years of searching and talking to friends here in middle Tennessee, I know NPs of every specialty working for $10-15 dollars less/hr than my colleagues in Ga and Texas. I know of a wonderful, skilled PA who commuted 2 hours each day to take a job for $35/hr at a less than desirable clinic environment that was known to locals as one with questionable ethics. I know NPs working as RNs here just to keep a paycheck. There are two specialties that seem to be more in demand, by demand I mean one may only wait 9-12 months for a position to open up. Psych and neonatal, but otherwise, for every NP position advertised, there are at least 25-75 applicants. Went to an interview in Nashville last week for a position doing physicals on school kids with, of course, minimum pay. The recruiter set aside two days to interview because of such an overwhelming number of applicants. when I walked out of the interview, waiting room was filled to capacity with applicants. NP's here who have a job hang on to that job with tenacity, work when sick, return to work 2 weeks after childbirth, work some serious unpaid overtime, willing to tolerate environments that NPs in other geographical areas would never put up with because they know their options are so very limited.
I put the blame on the schools here for flooding the area with NPs of every type of education, traditional, bridge from bachelors in anything to MSN/NP. I blame schools across the nation who are doing the same thing, indiscriminately allowing anyone who can pay to graduate. Simply to feed their bottom line. I can see the NP letters declining in value, declining in respect and it make me furious and also breaks my heart. I wish it were not this way but truly, if anyone with NP by their name is planning to move here, think twice unless you have a job waiting or are willing to work in another field or as an RN.

djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 10, 2019

16 hours ago, momofm1998 said:
Well, I can say this after years of searching and talking to friends here in middle Tennessee, I know NPs of every specialty working for $10-15 dollars less/hr than my colleagues in Ga and Texas. I know of a wonderful, skilled PA who commuted 2 hours each day to take a job for $35/hr at a less than desirable clinic environment that was known to locals as one with questionable ethics. I know NPs working as RNs here just to keep a paycheck. There are two specialties that seem to be more in demand, by demand I mean one may only wait 9-12 months for a position to open up. Psych and neonatal, but otherwise, for every NP position advertised, there are at least 25-75 applicants. Went to an interview in Nashville last week for a position doing physicals on school kids with, of course, minimum pay. The recruiter set aside two days to interview because of such an overwhelming number of applicants. when I walked out of the interview, waiting room was filled to capacity with applicants. NP's here who have a job hang on to that job with tenacity, work when sick, return to work 2 weeks after childbirth, work some serious unpaid overtime, willing to tolerate environments that NPs in other geographical areas would never put up with because they know their options are so very limited.
I put the blame on the schools here for flooding the area with NPs of every type of education, traditional, bridge from bachelors in anything to MSN/NP. I blame schools across the nation who are doing the same thing, indiscriminately allowing anyone who can pay to graduate. Simply to feed their bottom line. I can see the NP letters declining in value, declining in respect and it make me furious and also breaks my heart. I wish it were not this way but truly, if anyone with NP by their name is planning to move here, think twice unless you have a job waiting or are willing to work in another field or as an RN.

It's crazy because one of my former preceptors just moved there. She got tired of Winters up north and made the move because she was seeing chatter about a good job situation there. 20 years experience as an np and still no job.

Polly Peptide, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Apr 10, 2019

3 hours ago, djmatte said:
It's crazy because one of my former preceptors just moved there. She got tired of Winters up north and made the move because she was seeing chatter about a good job situation there. 20 years experience as an np and still no job.

@djmatte, what kind of NP is your preceptor?

djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 10, 2019

3 minutes ago, Polly Peptide said:
@djmatte, what kind of NP is your preceptor?

I had her for my OB/GYN/WH rotation. I can't remember for sure though if she was an FNP working at a OB/GYN center or a WHNP.

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · May 2, 2019

I once sent an email to a recruiter because their listing contained a job title and requirements that doesn't exist.

There is no such thing as an OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner.

You can have a CNM, a WHNP, a FNP working in an OB/GYN office.

But there is no OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner.

Position also required PALS certification....but the office didn't see babies (CNMs can see them up to 28 days of life and some clinics do see them for continuity)..so I asked...Uh...WHY?

They also had a ton of other things that had zero sense written in the job description.

These job descriptions are written by recruiters that are clueless. I spoke to one about a month ago and I could tell she had to be brand new....I spent 30 minutes explaining to her on the phone about the differences in nurse practitioners. She had no clue...and had been doing recruiting for these jobs for six months for a MAJOR company.

My favorite story from a co-worker: Hospital had a hospitalist position open to work in-house in their L&D Unit. She's a CNM. She applied for the job and the recruiter (for the hospital) sent her an email back two hours later, "This position is only open to advanced practice registered nurses". The position had been open...not even kidding, three months. Explaining herself got nowhere. It was like the recruiter wasn't even reading her emails. She eventually decided to call HR directly and speak to the director. The director was FLOORED the recruiter had been telling applicants that. Oh..and in the end got the job!