New Grad Career Question

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

I will be graduating LVN school in Northern Cali pretty soon.

I want to work weekends because I am going to continue with my education toward RN as soon as I finish this program.

I am open to considering weekday nocs also, as I worked them as a CNA before while attending college.

I always imagined I'd end up working in a SNF or other LTC facility. But recently I have found I like working in home health and have a heart to provide hospice care.

I'd like to know if anyone out there knows whether there are new grad LVN jobs in home health or hospice.

I'd also like any advice anyone has on how I can best position myself to one day be able to get a job in these fields.

Thank you for answering!!

[okikatt]

I'm a new grad also. I will be working while getting my pre-reqs to go on to RN school. I don't know about Cali but here in Okla. all the hospice/home health I have looked at want you to have 1 year experience in med-surg since basically the nurse is out there on her own. I love hospice, I worked it as a CNA, and will probably go back to it after I have some experience. I'm not sure I would even attempt it without experience even if they hired right out of school. That's just too much responsibility for someone who is new to nursing. Every nurse I had at clinicals told me to get at least 6 months to 1 year med-surg experience before doing anything else and most jobs I have looked at want you to have med-surg experience. I want to work med-surg but not a lot of opportunities in the area I'm in without driving an hour each way so I will probably go into LTC/SNF while getting my pre-reqs then move to med-surg when I start RN school. Good luck.

[Mully]

Here in Michigan, we have LPNs (same as LVNs) who work home health and hospice. I'm not sure if they were new grads or not, but you should be able to get in with the right resume/cover letter.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

I have heard that experience is required to work in hospice, but I had also heard of people who know people getting into the field without experience....

Thanks for the feedback....

If anyone has any ideas on things I could do to make myself more marketable to those areas as a new grad, I sure would appreciate suggestions.

Thank you!

[NurseJoy33]

I work home health and am a new grad. The agency trains you on the case until your comfortable on your own. The agency that I am with is heavy into pediatrics. I love it.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

NurseJoy...thanks for sharing. How did you get interested in the field of home health? Can you tell me more about what you do/ how you like it?

[dculver88]

I interviewed at a well-known hospice facility in So Cal a couple months ago.. They do have LOTS of LVNs on staff, but will only consider hiring nurses with at least a year of acute care experience (which you can get at a SNF). The home health agencies will hire/train you, but that won't give you acute care experience - if you're really interested in hospice.

[tsunade]

While I was waiting for my license to process here in South Carolina, I volunteered for hospice! I remember at the time they weren't hiring LPNs. One of the nurses suggested to even get experience before going into hospice. Once my licensed was processed I stopped volunteering because I wanted to start finding work. As soon as an opening came up they contacted me and urged me to apply and that's how I started working for them! No experience and I had a 3 week orientation.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

Thanks for the tip tsunade!!

[leanne1980]

Thats what I am doing, Volunteering for a hospice, which we already had as a clinical site in school, and also volunteering at a Children's Hospital, which is where I would really like to work. I'm so broke, though, and getting desperate to find anything just to pay bills, as long as I am getting paid as an LPN.