New Grad Hiring

[oldsockventriloquist]

I wanted to ask the nurses of this forum. When you first started, how difficult was it getting hired as a new grad (for those that started with a BSN)? For those that have been involved in the hiring process at hospitals, how often did your unit/department seek out new grads or was there an overwhelming amount of applicants that experience was almost a requirement? Finally, I know there a several units, like ER, that require a number of years of experience. How do people usually get this experience?

[WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

From my personal experience working in HR at a hospital, new grads accounted for a small percentage of people we hired (like 5-10%). Most were hired because the nurse manager came to me and said "I want to this nurse," so I did not actively seek out new grads. Most applicants I interviewed were experienced RNs, and this was on the east coast.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

It took about 8 months to get a job with a BSN-and I even had previous experience as a LPN, which was impressive, but the trend was for 1-2 years experience as an RN; which, or course, I did not have.

As far as getting to the ER, I'm currently working in a Pedi ED; they chose me because I had two years experience, which was in Pediatrics and I also had leadership experience in a nursing home; they took all of my experience under consideration, and I sold myself well on the strengths of my varied experience, including my experience as a LPN.

[Seaofclouds, BSN, RN]

I started out as a LPN because the ADN program I was in gave us a diploma after our first year of clinicals so we could become LPNs if we wanted to. I was offered a position before I received the diploma and was in new hire orientation the week of graduation. I stayed on the same unit I was hired on as I transitioned to a RN (ADN) and as I completed my BSN.

I use to be a Nurse Manager and the company I worked at only allowed us to hire new grads if we were going to do an internship with them. In order to do an internship, we had to get corporate approval. We usually ran this about once a year and would bring in 4-5 new grads at a time between three sites. So, it was pretty rare. Most of the nurses we hired had at least 1 year of acute care experience (our requirement for RNs). This was at a LTACH.

As for getting into those "specialty" units that want experience, most of the hospitals I have experience with had a new grad internship for those units. They were highly competitive, but did offer a chance for new grads to get into the unit.

Good luck!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Back in the Dark Ages when I graduated, the job market for new grads with "medium" -- new grads could get jobs, but it was almost always either a straight nights position or a day/night rotation -- and a lot of people could not get their first choice of a clinical unit. I got my first choice of a clinical unit (NICU) because I had done my senior capstone experience in a nursery -- but I had to work straight night shift for a full year before I could switch to a day/night rotation.

In my career, I have seen periods of time during which job applicants were scarce and hospitals recruited new grads heavily. I have also seen periods during which we had 10 applicants for every job opening and there was no need to hire anyone who needed a large investment of time, staff energy, and money to orient. And I have seen everywhere in between.

Currently ...at my hospital ... we are in an "in-between". We have plenty of applicants with no experience, but not getting enough applicants with experience in the intense specialty areas that we need. So we are not actively recruiting new grads, but will hire the best ones when we find what seems to be a reasonable fit.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I graduated last August, passed NCLEX middle of Sept, was hired by middle of November, and started orientation the middle of January 2015.

[ScrappytheCoco]

Well at the time I started I only had an ADN but I got hired into an ED as a new grad after only a month of searching. I know many of the nurses who came to the ED with experience had worked on the floor or ICU. I work LDRP now in a different state, it just so happens that the manager of that department has hired several ED nurses into the unit who have thrived, so she said that she has HR actively look for that experience from applicants. I would have never known that just from submitting the application, it just so happened that I got a lucky break to the unit I wanted.

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

I graduated in 2009 in Michigan with a BSN. I did find a job... was certainly not my first choice, but it was a job nonetheless. I really wanted to start out in hospice but realized I needed to get some experience first, so I started in the hospital. No regrets.

[DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN]

I had a job as a nurse graduate at a hospital before I even passed the NCLEX. 100% of my class (of 36) had employment within a month of graduating. I would think that we might be unique as our town of 125,000 is desperate for nurses (even today).

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

I graduated early May, passed NCLEX in June and was hired to my 'dream job' in August.

Advise: First--network! Wherever you do your practicum, make yourself stand out. Make them want more than anything to hire you! Speak to the NM of that unit and express a desire to work there after you pass. Keep in touch with preceptors on any units you did a clinical and would like to work. let them know when you pass that you would love working with them. (I baked cookies and took them in when I went to speak to them).

Second--forget about the online applications and bypass HR if possible. I have heard that this cannot be done in some areas of the country, but where I am, every new grad I know that got a hospital job walked their resume into a NM on a unit that was hiring. The algorythms on the online applications are set to dump applications without experience even if they don't say experience is required and within seconds of finishing an application you can see your status change to not under consideration. I know school tells you not to do that, but it works!

Depending on how saturated your area of the country is, you may want to consider relocation if you can. Otherwise, LTC, SNF, and home health are options if hospital jobs are hard to come by.

[gouranga]

I was very fortunate to pass the boards on 1/8 and be in orientation on 1/12. I was a nursing assistant at my hospital for almost a year before I passed the boards. I had a great relationship with my manager, and with my coworkers, so things worked out perfectly.