Need Help

[Chris12]

I will be attending Toledo School of Practical Nursing this coming Sept, however with everyone going into nursing in this geographic area(Detroit, mi Toledo OH.) will facilities still be hiring new grads after I graduate. My goal is, once I graduate, to take the LPN-RN bridge program offered at Monroe County Community College. However I planned to work while doing that program, and I am worried that I will not be able to find a job once I graduate (even if its part time).

I was attending KVCC during the fall before I moved back to Monroe and all the teachers were telling me not to worry because I was a male, and their always looking for male nurses. Can anyone else validate this. Any insight would be greatly apprecated. Chris

[Larry77, RN]

Around here it just depends on your timing, when I graduated there were a ton of jobs, but right now there isn't one full-time job listing in my area. In a few months there will probably be a ton again. Worst case scenario, you may have to drive a ways until a job closer to home opens up...our field will always be in demand somewhere just not everywhere all the time...

[Be_Moore]

The idea that they are always looking for "male nurses" is pretty sexist and it would actually be illegal to hire you just because you are male. So that part is untrue. The other side of it is that staffing happens in cycles...around graduation time jobs start filling up and then they will empty out again. But Detroit is a huge city and to thing that every hospital will be full is crazy. My mother (who is also an RN) once told me "As a nurse, you can get a job anywhere." My corollary to this is "As a nurse, you can get a job anywhere. It may not be the job you WANT, but it is still a job."

The only jobless nurses I know are jobless by choice, so have no worries! And good luck!

[Chris12]

Yes, I know it is very sexist. Your ability should be placed on your job ability, NOT on your race or sex. But again thank you for the encouragment. I'm just hearing a lot of horror stories of people going through school only to find out that they cannot find work.

[Be_Moore]

If these people "can't find work" it leads me to believe one of two things. 1) They can't find the job they WANT. 2) They aren't looking hard enough. When I moved to Colorado I was bummed because I was having a difficult time finding a job. What that means, however, is that there were probably 30-40 job openings at hospitals around town...they just weren't the openings that I WANTED.