New grad moving to Ft. Worth

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I recently graduated from an ADN program and am moving to the Ft. Worth area soon. I was raised there and have visited the area many times since we moved away, so I am familiar with the hospitals in the area. I am wondering if any are known to be good or bad about hiring new grads. Ideally, I'd like to work at Cook's, but don't know how they are about new grad RNs. I keep hearing horror stories about the difficulty others have had getting a job straight out of school and I'm really hoping to avoid that. I'd appreciate any info you all could offer me. Thanks!

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

New ADN grads from local schools are having a very difficult time finding employment. Most of the local hospitals will only take a new grad as an Intern, and there is about a 10 to 1 ratio of applicants to available internships at best. They have started now only hiring BSN students unless one already works for the hospital. I wish I had better news to offer, but this area is both saturated with nursing schools and now with people moving here thinking for some bizarre reason that Texas has not been hit by the recession. It is ugly out there right now. If I were you I would not move until I had a job lined up, especially if you have kids etc.

Best of luck.

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Thanks for the input. We have to move in the next month or so, so waiting until I have a job isn't possible. I didn't think it would be necessarily easy to get a job, but it is starting to sound darn near impossible. I must work and I want to work, so I need to figure out what my options are. Any suggestions? I'd like to avoid working in a doctor's office or nursing home (my worst nightmare) because I have heard that hospitals won't want a nurse who's only experience is in one of these places. I plan to return to school and eventually get my MSN, but that isn't something I can do right away, so I have to figure out a way to make this ADN work for me for now. Has anyone heard about jobs outside of the metroplex in a more rural area? I know that this isn't going to be easy and would greatly appreciate any insight into where to direct my job seeking efforts. Thanks!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I have been living in Fort Worth since 2005. I received my ADN in March 2010, RN license in May 2010, and have more than four years of LVN experience, but I have not been able to land a new grad hospital internship. I interviewed for an internship at UT Southwestern (Dallas) back in June, but the interviewer rejected me. I interviewed for a med/surg oncology position at JPS back in September; however, this job only involved on-the-job training with no formal internship, and I was not selected for the job.

Weatherford Regional did hire me for a med/surg position with oncology overflow back in December, but I rejected the job offer due to several reasons: very low pay, ratio of 7/8 patients to 1 nurse, patient and community demographics, only one week of floor training being offered, the distance from my home, and the manager wanted to train me to be a charge nurse when I have never worked in an acute care hospital in my life. Sorry, but I am not willing to bust my butt for a $10 to $11 hourly pay cut.

Perhaps the LTAC and rehab hospitals (Kindred, Lifecare, Healthsouth, Ethicus, Regency, Vibra, Reliant, etc.) will be more open to hiring and training a new grad. Good luck to you!

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I appreciate the suggestions and I will look into those places. I really wish we didn't have to move!! I was offered a RN position on a med-surg floor in a magnet status hospital here (VA) and had to turn it down because there is no way I could stay. Many of my classmates have gotten jobs at local hospitals and one that moved to Alabama has gotten a job, so I just figured I would be able to get a job at a hospital after we moved. Once I began researching job opportunities, I quickly realized that this wasn't the case and I kind of feel like I have busted my butt in school for nothing. :crying2: I am not really ready to go back for my BSN quite yet, but I may just have to in order to be competitive. I plan to aggressively look for a job and keep my fingers crossed that it all works out.

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Cook Children's hires new grads into their nurse residency program. To be elligible, you need a BSN. It is very competitive and they prefer to hire nurses who worked as a care partner or extern while in school at Cook.

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https://www.cookchildrens.org/SpecialtyServices/Nursing/Pages/NurseResidencyProgram.aspx#1

Here is info on the residency program. The deadline has already passed to even apply if you were elligible. A little research goes a long way. Before moving to the area, you should at least do your research online. I am sure most of the positions have already been filled.

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I have been researching my options quite extensively over the past few days and have come to the conclusion that I am pretty much out of luck. New grad + ADN + no experience = no chance. I am going to try to get any job I can and plan to go back for my BSN in the mean time. It's not ideal, but I have to do what I have to do.

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