I've recently posted about the difficulties of finding employment in NYC. I see multiple commenters mention that being hired is virtually impossible as a new grad. I am not a new grad; however, I find it be ridiculous that new grads are looked down upon. I am still at a loss as to how employers expect for new nurses to have experience without hiring them. I feel the policies and thought process behind this should be questioned. The new grads I work with are usually more invested in the work. Very detailed oriented. They're always eager to go above and beyond and usually error on the side of caution. The "experienced" ones may be nonchalant about situations that require investigation, they usually don't take the extra step, they're stuck in their ways, etc. I've noticed that they're so used to a routine that they bypass steps sometimes and that one off time may be the time they make an error. I've witnessed the after effects!
I think this whole no new grads thing is another way of corporations attempting to save money by decreasing the amount of orientation time, classes, and certifications. This is getting out of hand in my opinion. There will forever be a shortage in nursing as long as these politics of health care aren't challenged.?
I think there's DEFINITELY a fairly recent phenomenon that's affecting hiring opp'ties for new grads.
What makes a new grad any BETTER than an experienced, seasoned nurse? I don't see anything and I think employers don't see anything either. A new grad needs prolonged orientation just to become basically functional. That's bottom line and that's time and money for the employer. A drain on the facility's budget bottom line.
PP mmc51264 touches upon this. Many new grads are freq seeking those golden-fleece jobs in the coveted ICU/OR/NICU positions for that benchmark 1 year experience as they plan advanced education for advanced practice roles. Even new grads in alternative non-hosp settings aren't planning for any long-term front-line employment. Even if they don't say so outright, it seems this is now becoming the new norm. So after that short year or so, they're up & gone like a puff of smoke in the wind. All that employer time & effort spent on cultivating a good employee has been for naught. That's money WASTED on a new grad. That's pretty much the logic for those mandatory hiring contracts that are becoming quite common. Those contracts try to protect the employers' investments.
That seems to be a current modus operandi these days for so many newbies. Even the 'older new grads' often exhibit resumes full of freq job switches. So if an employer has a selection of applicants to choose from a pool of prospective employees, who do you think will be chosen? Potentially flighty newbie grad or established, experienced nurse with solid past job history of years at one facility at a time?
Cardi - you also bring up some other points that influence not only employers expectations, but also that of new nurses' preferences.
So where do you propose that these new nurses get those first jobs? There are just so few limited avail open positions - other positions are all filled. You just can't 'bump out' the others already in those positions. So you go where the jobs are open and that are willing to hire you.
Also there is that population of new nurses who decline off-shift positions while holding out for the day-shift only. And you want to make any guess how many recent newbie hires will be scheduled to work this upcoming Thanksgiving AND Christmas??? That's going to be one h*ll of a disappointment. I can hear the moaning & groaning now! Who do you propose to fill all those shifts? And when hurricanes & blizzards hit?
New grads HAVE NOT made themselves especially attractive to employers in the avail job pool from which employers can pick & choose. They are just soooo expensive for any realistic long-term investment; they're unrealistically expecting special accommodations. They say, 'oh, but it's not fair!' Nobody ever said it was. And what makes it MORE fair for that new grad than for another nurse? That's smacks of feelings of privilege and entitlement. A slippery slope!
As PP Hiddencat commented, connections and networking also serve as successful tools. Sometimes it's the only one advantage to tip the scales for any new grad/exp nurse. Invaluable if you've someone on your side.
There's no real shortage of nurses. Maybe lopsided supply & demand issues. It's an employer's market - they have the upper-hand. Esp in these times. You just have to smartly play with the cards that are dealt.
Not all new nurses leave after the year and not all new nurses should have to work night shift. I worked night shift as a CNA with a new born while in school full time taking 15 credits at a time. I lasted 2 months as a new nurse on night shift because I physically could not handle it and I believe that’s where many employers go wrong. They don’t consider what some new nurses endured throughout school. If there are positions open, employers would rather leave them open instead of hiring new grads. I’ve witnessed this because I’ve worked short staff many days. Now that I’m at 2 years of nursing, I’ve noticed it’s becoming a bit easier to find employment of course! Seems I have to wait another 3 years for the position I’d like to retire from which is silly to me considering the position doesn’t require so much skill.
All of the time requirement rules would make more sense if credentials weren’t already required. Nursing should just be on the job training.
When I was in my ADN program, I was repeatedly told hospitals just don’t hire. ADNs. Fast forward 1-2 years and the hiring criteria was basically a pulse and a license. Now, with Covid, we just started hiring again, but are even pickier than when I was in school. BSN and experience required because it’s too time consuming, costly and hard on current staff. Nursing has always been cyclical. It’s all about supply and demand, networking and a little bit of luck.
Not all new nurses leave after the year and not all new nurses should have to work night shift. I worked night shift as a CNA with a new born while in school full time taking 15 credits at a time. I lasted 2 months as a new nurse on night shift because I physically could not handle it and I believe that’s where many employers go wrong. They don’t consider what some new nurses endured throughout school. If there are positions open, employers would rather leave them open instead of hiring new grads.
Most of the time, they aren't leaving the position open as opposed to hiring a new grad. An internal employee has been selected for the day shift, and an external employee is hired, be it a new nurse or not. That new employee needs to be oriented to the floor which takes time prior to moving the existing employee to days, leaving the appearance of an open position. At that line, you wouldn't want to work night shift for an amount of time, apply for a dayshift opening to be told, sorry, gave it to a new nurse, you can stay on nights, because, gosh, it's not fair that they have to start on nights.
Not all new nurses leave after the year and not all new nurses should have to work night shift. I worked night shift as a CNA with a new born while in school full time taking 15 credits at a time. I lasted 2 months as a new nurse on night shift because I physically could not handle it and I believe that’s where many employers go wrong. They don’t consider what some new nurses endured throughout school. If there are positions open, employers would rather leave them open instead of hiring new grads. I’ve witnessed this because I’ve worked short staff many days. Now that I’m at 2 years of nursing, I’ve noticed it’s becoming a bit easier to find employment of course! Seems I have to wait another 3 years for the position I’d like to retire from which is silly to me considering the position doesn’t require so much skill.
All of the time requirement rules would make more sense if credentials weren’t already required. Nursing should just be on the job training.
Yeah, and working nurses don’t have hardships? They have family, work and sometimes school to juggle too. If, for example, I’ve worked night shift for 5 years, you should get the day shift before me because why? Everyone wants day shift and weekends/holidays off. Someone has to work them.
Yeah, and working nurses don’t have hardships? They have family, work and sometimes school to juggle too. If, for example, I’ve worked night shift for 5 years, you should get the day shift before me because why? Everyone wants day shift and weekends/holidays off. Someone has to work them.
It’s not about who can juggle the most hardships, it’s about patient safety. If one person can juggle a family, 2 jobs, and run the flower shop while working night shift and still perform their job safely, yes, they should work the night shift over the day shift nurse who cannot physically handle working night shift. It’s not a competition or character building. Nursing is not the military.
The new grads I work with are usually more invested in the work. Very detailed oriented. They're always eager to go above and beyond and usually error on the side of caution. The "experienced" ones may be nonchalant about situations that require investigation, they usually don't take the extra step, they're stuck in their ways, etc. I've noticed that they're so used to a routine that they bypass steps sometimes and that one off time may be the time they make an error.
Oh bull.
I mean, I suppose you could say all that as long as you use enough clarifications such as "some," "sometimes," etc. and admit that the exact opposite of all of that could be true in any given place on any given day.
Other random thoughts that cropped up as I started to browse and realized I just don't have the energy tonight:
Re: Having to move. I don't disagree with anyone who has said there's no reason it would be a given that someone would be able to get a job in home town/near family, etc. The problem is that with all the incessant wailing and cries of "nursing shortage" and all the pleas for people to become nurses to help with said shortage, it makes a fair amount of sense that one might not realize that "shortage" means "....but not here" and "also, not nearby here, either..." KWIM?
I don't have any sorrys to give about the fact that hospitals may have a hard time keeping newly trained nurses around. I watched this problem increase in real time and I have my thoughts about who started it. It isn't hard to encourage people to stay around.
OTOH, if we're gonna tell people to buck up and move for their first job--not really sure what we think is gonna happen as soon as they hear of and/or are qualified for an opening where they really want to be.
We could always stop screaming about nursing shortages. Just a thought. ??♀️
It’s not about who can juggle the most hardships, it’s about patient safety. If one person can juggle a family, 2 jobs, and run the flower shop while working night shift and still perform their job safely, yes, they should work the night shift over the day shift nurse who cannot physically handle working night shift. It’s not a competition or character building. Nursing is not the military.
OK, and who decides this? The new grad (or the nurse who is very much still a baby nurse with 2 years of experience)? What do you know about the sacrifices to their health and home life other nurses are making? Is it appropriate for management to ask detailed personal questions (are you experiencing health problems, weight gain, is your home life a disaster right now) to decide who *can* do nights?
Not all nurses hate night shift, so some experienced nurses do stay on nights. I’ve only worked one place that ONLY hired new grads to night position and that was because their shift differential was a laughable $0.50 per hour so folks who typically would have been happy to stay on night shift bounced as soon as dayshift positions opened up. Most places I’ve worked also consider skill mix and don’t let night shift become too new-nurse-heavy.
17.5% of new nurses leave their first job before a year. A third will leave within their first two years. That’s high potential turnover when the cost of orienting a new grad is considered. That’s what residency programs are geared towards reducing.
Nurses who cannot work nights have options outside of acute care to consider. And the possibility of working nights, weekends, holidays, rotating shifts etc is something that should be considered before starting a career in nursing. It’s hard to escape at least having to put some time in on nights completely if you want to work in a specialty that is 24/7 and that’s not likely to change. It’s not about character building or being a competition- rewarding seniority with better shifts actually IS what is fair.
And with that you set us back 200 years.... BTW the ADN versus BSN is a 50 year old battle and please don't go there.
Right? As soon as it veered in to the ADN vs BSN thing (and presented like it’s a novel discovery no one has ever brought up before) I felt so exhausted.
It’s not about who can juggle the most hardships, it’s about patient safety. If one person can juggle a family, 2 jobs, and run the flower shop while working night shift and still perform their job safely, yes, they should work the night shift over the day shift nurse who cannot physically handle working night shift. It’s not a competition or character building. Nursing is not the military.
Say what? All of us have dealt with a few nurses who were on extended light duty because they hurt their arm slipping on an icy parking lot surface on a 85 degree Summer day (slight exaggeration, but you get what I mean). I can't imagine how many people will have new issues that would keep them from more challenging work or shifts. Sorry, but it's annoying enough getting the crappy assignment because we "can handle it". Your idea would bring morale down even more.
CardiTeleRN, BSN
73 Posts
Not all new nurses leave after the year and not all new nurses should have to work night shift. I worked night shift as a CNA with a new born while in school full time taking 15 credits at a time. I lasted 2 months as a new nurse on night shift because I physically could not handle it and I believe that’s where many employers go wrong. They don’t consider what some new nurses endured throughout school. If there are positions open, employers would rather leave them open instead of hiring new grads. I’ve witnessed this because I’ve worked short staff many days. Now that I’m at 2 years of nursing, I’ve noticed it’s becoming a bit easier to find employment of course! Seems I have to wait another 3 years for the position I’d like to retire from which is silly to me considering the position doesn’t require so much skill.
All of the time requirement rules would make more sense if credentials weren’t already required. Nursing should just be on the job training.