New Grad Nurses struggling to find jobs - CNN Reporter wants to hear from you

[Brian]

allnurses.com appreciates how difficult the job market can be for new grad nurses.

We are working with Annalyn Kurtz, a CNN Money Reporter get info for an article that will highlight this nationwide issue. We have created a form where you can share your story with the reporter.

We WILL SHARE this info with the CNN Reporter and she MAY contact you with your prefererd contact method. All the info you share is OPTIONAL and will not be posted on the public board.

*Even if you did get a job, please fill in the form to share your story of your job hunt process.*

Thanks in advance! - Brian Short - Founder of allnurses.com

Click here to go to the form to fill out

If you wish to comment on this publicly, please post your comments below.

[DoGoodThenGo]

The job market for nyc hospitals is a joke they want 1-2years experience and a BSN. I graduated with my AAS and it tookover 4months to find a job and when i finish my BSN in the next 1 1/2 i dont qualify as a new grad because i have worked the past two years but not in a hospital setting. If they want a BSN to be the standard IN nyc they should dismiss the AAS programs since the hospitals are not hiring them. Its all a money making thing i know bsns that cant find a job also ,and a good point to consider is that bsn programs are expensive here who wants 50k debt for a rn degree when you could go to a community college and owe 15k or less for the two years and hopefully find a job after graduation and work while you get your bsn. Thats the option i choose.

Again I don't know about all that: https://allnurses.com/new-york-nursing/new-grad-two-806751.html

For every new grad or experienced nurse who posts on the local NY board they cannot find work,others pipe up they haven't any problems.

NYP perfers internal applicants for it's new hire program. NYU wants only those with GPAs at or >3.5 in nursing and sciences, NS-LIJ (Lennox Hill, Staten Island University Hospital system) says it wants BSN nurses only, Mount Sinai seems some sort of nursing Valhalla where only goddesses and gods are wanted, and so it goes.

No wonder Hunter-Bellevue has revamped their undergraduate BSN program and is taking a combined with ABSN only 100 students in total. Better to prepare a handful of excellent grads who pass the boards on their first attempt and are desirable new hires than to crank em out and them them hanging.

[DoGoodThenGo]

What does CNN get out of this? Glad to see AN intersecting with other media and corporations.

Hopefully whatever professional journalism gains from doing a hard looking good news piece on relevant topic.

Everywhere you go there is nothing but noise about a "nursing shortage" and how healthcare is one of the brightest spots in the US economy and will be even more as Obamacare is fully phased in. You've got persons going into debt for tens of thousands for nursing degrees because they believe it is a sure ticket to job security. Someone needs to take away that pitcher of Kool-Aid and serve up some reality.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

I'll agree that some new grads are picky. But that is a small percentage. There are simply thousands of willing nurses out there. Opportunity is just hard to find. Illinois pumps out about 5000 new RNs each year.

http://nursing.illinois.gov/PDF/IlApNursingEdProgPassRates01292010.PDF

One big mistake is the idea that nursing homes hire lots of nurses, when in fact they hire few nurses. The poor oversight of so many facilities is hard to stomach for many nurses - absolutely horrible conditions abound in some of these places on the level of pure misery for patient and nurse alike - but for some reason, these facilities never get shut down.

A new nurse must also look out for Home Health and Hospice agencies - a few new ones every year it seems in my area. Many have absolutely no clinical infrastructure - all you need to start up a home health co. or a hospice is: Greed, a loan, the purchase of an EMR, and a bunch of doe-eyed unknowing new grad nurses with shiny new licenses to chart billing to Medicare. It's an epidemic.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I'll agree that some new grads are picky. But that is a small percentage. There are simply thousands of willing nurses out there. Opportunity is just hard to find.

One big mistake is the idea that nursing homes hire lots of nurses, when in fact they hire few nurses. The poor oversight of so many facilities is hard to stomach for many nurses - absolutely horrible conditions abound in some of these places on the level of pure misery for patient and nurse alike - but for some reason, these facilities never get shut down.

A new nurse must also look out for Home Health and Hospice agencies - a few new ones every year it seems in my area. Many have absolutely no clinical infrastructure - all you need to start up a home health co. or a hospice is: Greed, a loan, the purchase of an EMR, and a bunch of doe-eyed unknowing new grad nurses with shiny new licenses to chart billing to Medicare. It's an epidemic.

You and I both know why poor to horrible nursing homes/LTCs aren't shut down. Aside from political connections they usually care for a population that by and large have no other options financially. Medicaid and to an extent Medicare funding alone don't make running such places easy so corners are cut or other tricks of the trade are used to get the numbers where they need to be.

This all works until something hits the fan then you have the usual loud noises that result in pretty much rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Charity care in this country is no easy haul, but there are some places both hospitals and LTCs that manage. However more and more they are running up against financial costs that make running the place impossible. Case in point Cabrini LTC in the East Village, Manhattan: EV Grieve: [uPDATED] Source: Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation will close in 4-5 months; condos on the way

[cheri1859]

Oh my! I really wonder why I'm putting myself and my family through this! I knew going into an ADN program I would have to continue on to get my BSN - but I was really hoping to "work" my way through the BSN program. Then to read that some that have their BSN need to get their masters to get a job???!!! That is a whole lot of debt!!! To think that I was hoping to be able to work in order to pay for my kids tuitions - I'm lucky if I can pay my own!!! Very discouraging indeed! Good luck everyone!!!!!

[cheri1859]

I will also add that luckily I have no issue with working in a LTC facility or Hospice facility - age on baby boomers!!! I'm ready to take care of you...

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Oh my! I really wonder why I'm putting myself and my family through this! I knew going into an ADN program I would have to continue on to get my BSN - but I was really hoping to "work" my way through the BSN program. Then to read that some that have their BSN need to get their masters to get a job???!!! That is a whole lot of debt!!! To think that I was hoping to be able to work in order to pay for my kids tuitions - I'm lucky if I can pay my own!!! Very discouraging indeed! Good luck everyone!!!!!

No no no! Don't keep going back to school! Beyond a BSN, without nursing work experience, additional degree education means nothing! So many nurses have gone right back to school and now are in serious trouble - still unemployed!

[elprup, BSN, RN]

@DizzyLizzyNurse I think that is the most difficult part me too. The media says that there is a shortage, so there must be something wrong with me not finding a job, like I'm not trying or holding out for the perfect position - insult to injury. Received my ADN in 2010 - two years applying, two interviews, too many rejections for no experience. Just finished my BSN and hope this makes me a more desirable new grad. (Northern California)

Northern California is terrible. Good luck

[elprup, BSN, RN]

I can sympathize with the jobless new grads. I graduated in May 2008, and got my license in July. Massachusetts doesn't have "graduate nurse" status; you're a nurse the day you pass the boards. I'd been looking out-of-state since March. I found a job in LTC 8 months after graduation, but it was cancelled, and I was sent home 45 minutes into my first shift. I found another job 2 months later, in assisted living, and I had to move 250 miles for it.

Me too. I really think it was almost a curse to graduate in 2008 when the economy took a dive. Then, on top of not being able to find a job, we became stale old new grads. I moved twice for positions! The first one "did not work out" and the second, a Versant New Grad Program, I was disqualified for after my second interview, because my 3 months of prior experience excluded me from being a new grad. So, I was not good enough to be a staff nurse but I had too much experience to be a new grad. Talk about depressing. So, I took a position as an assistant in a clinic and loved it, but the pay was terrible. After a year of slaving away there, I thought I would be eligible for something in a hospital, but nope. Northern California is a killer unless you have 1 year of acute care. I am working now as a new School Nurse and I like it, but i really want to get acute care experience...and wonder if my current position will make me even less desirable. Wish you the best.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

Graduated with a BSN in 2011. Seems like many of my peers had job offers upon graduation or shortly after. Some from practicum placement, most on units where they worked. I was in the subset who didn't work as a PCA during school, so fell into the group that had a difficult time finding a job. Having kept in contact with many people who initially didn't find a job, most (all that I know of) did find jobs eventually...some in LTC or psych, several in a PDN agency that I also took a job with initially. It took me seven months to land a hospital job. Two of my friends who also worked at the PDN agency just now found hospital jobs, but at least they had work.

I know quite a few people who graduated with ICU and ER jobs right out of the gate. At least two others held out until the end of summer and landed L&D/Mother/Baby jobs. At least three others moved out of the area to get pediatric jobs. It seems, to me at least, that the people with actual prior medical experience had the strangely hardest time getting a job -- the LPNs, paramedics, and former military medics.

[LRetterath]

You are lucky that you had any job offers. I passed the boards in November, have filled out every application for any position and have not had one phone call or interview. At this point, I will work anywhere just to gain some experience. Today I walked into an HR department in a hospital and left my resume. Hopefully another approach will work!

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

You are lucky that you had any job offers. I passed the boards in November, have filled out every application for any position and have not had one phone call or interview. At this point, I will work anywhere just to gain some experience. Today I walked into an HR department in a hospital and left my resume. Hopefully another approach will work!

I'm not complaining? Also, three months really *isn't* that long to be looking for a job.

I remember freaking out when I couldn't find a job towards the end of summer. (May graduate, passed NCLEX in early June.) I think it was my cousin who finally just *told* me -- it's NOT abnormal in this economic climate to spend months networking and looking for a job, especially a first job. Perspective is great.