Need help getting into CCU/ICU

[jeliner]

For the last three years I have been attempting to get into an ICU/CCU unit. I am currently a licensed RN working on a Psychiatric Acute care unit. In this three year period I have applied for positions in both telemetry and CCU/ICU without ceasing. I keeping getting the same problem, that I do not have enough experience for the particular unit for which I am applying. They tell me that psych experience is no experience.

The current hospital that I work for has a two bed ICU that is used as a waiting area to fly people out to the main campus hospital in New Orleans. Even the very hospital I work for will not allow me to fill positions in our ER or medsurge floor without a few years experience in those areas. Yet I see new grads getting jobs in the local hospitals with only a temp license. I am very fustrated -;(. At one such local hospital, I have applied for 30 positions in the last 32 months.

I am stuck, I can’t grow as a nurse. I have obtained my PALS and ACLS on my own because my current employer feels that isn’t necessary for a psychiatric nurse. I have just recently learned that I can obtain my CCRN certification working in any acute setting, so I am doing that now.

I want to get my CRNA before it becomes a four year program (I can’t go four years without working). In Louisiana, I have submitted 76 applications in the last 3 months at 25 different hospitals across the state and haven’t gotten one interview.

I am now looking outside of the state of Louisiana. I am looking for hospitals with growth potential that is willing to accept a RN with psychiatric nursing experience into a telemetry position that I can one day transition into CCU/ICU. I have to get 2 years of CCU/ICU experience under my belt before 2015.

I am looking for guidance, if anyone can tell me where in the US this might be possible. In other words, I am looking for an area in the US where the nursing shortage might still exists, where there wouldn't be 100 RN applications per one single job.

Thanks