New Grads and Temp Agencies

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Any new grads having any luck with temp agencies???

Thanks for helping but I have a full time job 7-3. I was telling my exp before I got my job. I don't think there is any grammer in writing your name, address, phone number, where did you work before!! so I never had any problems with filling applications.

cover letters and job duties.

congrats on the job though, i'm sure you'll do great!

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Specializes in LTC/Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

This is simply not true in the area that I live in. This is not a fair or accurate statement.

No is not at all hard to land a job at a hospital,actually if you have your BSN you'l get hired without any problems,ADN nurses are the ones who really have the hardest time landing a job...
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Wow, I just read a bunch of comments. All I can say is, Wow! What happened to therapeutic communication? It sucks to have no job after all you heard in school was "with nursing, you will never have to worry about finding a job". I feel for the RN who has to choose between buying pull ups or food. I also understand the the experienced RNs who are saying don't just jump into a quick job to risk your license. I graduate Dec 09 with an associates degree and I live in NYC where the market is super tight for new RNs. In an ideal world all graduates would be able to get a job in med surg with an awesome 3 month preceptorship. But, obviously things have happened in the economy, seasoned nurses are working longer. Relocating is idealist but not realistic for many people, which is understandable. I do believe that a new RN can work in home care given the right training. It would be up to the nursing manager to delegate the new RN patients that are low risk and slowly build him or her up. I hear from LPN friends that Nursing Homes are hiring RNs but the pay isn't that great. But, at least you would be getting clinical experience. Also, you could take out some loans and continue school, it doesn't hurt to get a higher degree, your loans would be deferred, and you can uses some of that loan money to live off. I hope my comment doesn't come off like a school essay but those are my thoughts. Good Luck to us all :specs:

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For OP: If you decide to work for an agency as a new grad, please be sure you carry your own insurance, be sure you own no home, car, bank accounts or other investments, etc. in your name, be sure you are prepared for the seriously possible eventuality that you will harm someone or, at the least, suffer nervous breakdown yourself.

It is the worst folly for a new nurse to think she can enter a facility where she has never worked before and function fully or anywhere even close to fully. It is far worse than not having an income, terrible though that is.

You should go to work as an aide, find some other line of work entirely, or don't work at all, rather than subject yourself and your patients to the situation into which you are tempted to enter. A new grad needs nurturing, guidance, supervision, and gradual assumption of RN duties, not a sudden burdening with said duties, which is what an agency nurse is expected to bear - the full load.

Maybe you can get your agency to get you at least 2 days of orientation at each facility where you expect to work for it. You'll be lucky if those days are paid. In all the years I worked agency, only once was I given any orientation. And that was 4 hours, paid, amazingly. Orientation at all, let alone paid, is not the norm for agency work.

Once I was sent to a CCU. The nurses there were furious when I told them that I had no CCU experience. The agency had told me they would inform the hospital and that I would be given only the simplest patients - no drips, only expected to do VS, help bathe, feed, give po meds - not manage monitors, drips, art lines, even cvp lines, nothing ICU'ish at all. Well, guess what - the nurses claimed they had not been so informed, and they probably hadn't.

I told them I was sorry but that I simply had no experience with drips and CCU procedures and that I could not possibly accept any assignment beyond the basics I have mentioned here. They didn't like having to cover my patients for the drips and monitor readings but it was the best we could work out. I did some of their direct care in exchange. But they were not happy. One kept harping about how much I was being paid. I finally had to tell her that I had no benefits, get canceled at the drop of a hat. She finally quit griping.

And I had many years of MS experience under my belt. I was not a brand new graduate nurse. I at least knew the basics of Nursing - from experience, not from school lectures or clinicals.

I repeat - it is sheer folly for you to risk your license and your possessions, future earnings, etc. just because you can't find work in your chosen field. I know a lot of people have gone into nursing thinking there would always be work. But the current economy is raining on that parade - rightly or not. Well, things have changed. Face the harsh reality but please, please, please don't jeopardize yourself or your patients by biting off more than you can chew. Just keep looking for the right chance and, if possible, go on welfare until you get work. A nursing job will come along and your license will be intact so you can accept it.

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For OP: If you decide to work for an agency as a new grad, please be sure you carry your own insurance, be sure you own no home, car, bank accounts or other investments, etc. in your name, be sure you are prepared for the seriously possible eventuality that you will harm someone or, at the least, suffer nervous breakdown yourself.

It is the worst folly for a new nurse to think she can enter a facility where she has never worked before and function fully or anywhere even close to fully. It is far worse than not having an income, terrible though that is.

You should go to work as an aide, find some other line of work entirely, or don't work at all, rather than subject yourself and your patients to the situation into which you are tempted to enter. A new grad needs nurturing, guidance, supervision, and gradual assumption of RN duties, not a sudden burdening with said duties, which is what an agency nurse is expected to bear - the full load.

Maybe you can get your agency to get you at least 2 days of orientation at each facility where you expect to work for it. You'll be lucky if those days are paid. In all the years I worked agency, only once was I given any orientation. And that was 4 hours, paid, amazingly. Orientation at all, let alone paid, is not the norm for agency work.

Once I was sent to a CCU. The nurses there were furious when I told them that I had no CCU experience. The agency had told me they would inform the hospital and that I would be given only the simplest patients - no drips, only expected to do VS, help bathe, feed, give po meds - not manage monitors, drips, art lines, even cvp lines, nothing ICU'ish at all. Well, guess what - the nurses claimed they had not been so informed, and they probably hadn't.

I told them I was sorry but that I simply had no experience with drips and CCU procedures and that I could not possibly accept any assignment beyond the basics I have mentioned here. They didn't like having to cover my patients for the drips and monitor readings but it was the best we could work out. I did some of their direct care in exchange. But they were not happy. One kept harping about how much I was being paid. I finally had to tell her that I had no benefits, get canceled at the drop of a hat. She finally quit griping.

And I had many years of MS experience under my belt. I was not a brand new graduate nurse. I at least knew the basics of Nursing - from experience, not from school lectures or clinicals.

I repeat - it is sheer folly for you to risk your license and your possessions, future earnings, etc. just because you can't find work in your chosen field. I know a lot of people have gone into nursing thinking there would always be work. But the current economy is raining on that parade - rightly or not. Well, things have changed. Face the harsh reality but please, please, please don't jeopardize yourself or your patients by biting off more than you can chew. Just keep looking for the right chance and, if possible, go on welfare until you get work. A nursing job will come along and your license will be intact so you can accept it.

Ok, just to get this straight....I would NEVER allow that to happen to me. Just because I am a new grad doesn't mean I am stupid. I would never go onto a floor until I get experience of at least a year on my own. I hope no new grad is not that nieve. The agency I just got hired at puts me in flu shot clinics and sitter positions. Somewhat good experience, gives me networking possibilities and the pay is really good.

Thanks for trying to scare me out of stupidity, but it is not needed!!!!! :specs:

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Can you tell me the name of the agency?

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Can you tell me the name of the agency?

Where do you live?

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Where do you live?

i live in brooklyn

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ok, just to get this straight....i would never allow that to happen to me. just because i am a new grad doesn't mean i am stupid. i would never go onto a floor until i get experience of at least a year on my own. i hope no new grad is not that nieve. naive the agency i just got hired at puts me in flu shot clinics and sitter positions. somewhat good experience, gives me networking possibilities and the pay is really good.

thanks for trying to scare me out of stupidity, but it is not needed!!!!! :specs:

i misunderstood. please accept my apology. :imbar i'm glad you are getting well-paid for the work that is available. some agencies are not as scrupulous as yours, as i described above. they want you working, no matter what, as they get paid when you work.

i guess it was the comments from others about newbies going agency that confused me.

for all of you having trouble getting your first jobs, i pray that something comes along very soon. until then, try to go on welfare if you have to. keep safe so you can take those jobs when they do come. god bless. :loveya:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.
This is the kind of attitude that explains why none of us new grads can get jobs. I understand the concern that we are new and inexperienced, but how are we to become nurses that patients and employers can trust if we are not allowed to get our first jobs? I don't mean to sound snarky, but seriously, what are we supposed to do when no one wants to hire new grads? How are we going to get experience when there are no "safer" new grad jobs available that provide 12 weeks of orientation and preceptors? I'm getting really sick of people in the health care industry looking down their noses at us because we are "new". We were begged to go to school to become RNs to ease the nursing shortage, and now that we have our RN licenses, we are told that we are not wanted because we have no experience. Give me a break. Once all the older nurses start to retire and there is no one to take their place except for stale grads who have been waiting tables for a few years due to no nursing jobs, then that is really when safety concerns will come into play more than ever.

with agency you get no orientation, that's why it's dangerous for the patient. You're expected to be able to "hit the floor running". Sorry if that is a hard concept to grasp, but I agree with the poster who stated that any agency that would hire a new grad would not be an agency that my facility would use or that I would consider working for.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.
Ok sorry to burst your bubble but I know several new grads that do homehealth (with no prior experience whatsoever and they are making it...I guess what I'm trying to say is that you either got it as nurse or you dont,how long is it going to take you to listen for crakles..years?? With that said some new grads jump into the scene right away and catch up for some it takes longer than than and I'm not disrespecting them but it all depends om how quick of a learner you are.

Actually, home health can be a great place to start. You are not making life and death situation decisions. You generally assess/reassess, and follow MD orders. And you do get some orientation with this option-unless the company is a disreputable one, and tosses you to the wolves. And specialized home care is the same as well. Don't overlook these opportunities, even if they don't offer as much $$ as the hospital. Better to make some money than none at all.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.
New grade can do certain skills we are not that bad! so we will not put our PT in risk if the agency will match us with what will fit our skills such as G-tube PT. Please If you have ajob and the economy never affected you or your spouce don't say " Oh , I know how is the economy, cause you don't". New grade are looked at as something bad to the healthcare know. Do you know how long it takes to get a new job now. What do you wants us to do? I was thinking about going back to work as a C.N.A just to pay my bills or at least my student loan. If you have some thing nice to say it your are more than welcome if not please keep it to your self. THIs web site is my escape now don't ruin it for me or others. yesterday I went to look for ajob from 11-4 pm filling applications and taking tests. I was so tierd when I came home. this morning I started again after I dropped my daughter to school. I am afraid I can't do this any longer cause I have no money for gas !!! At the store I had to choose between buying "pull ups " to my 2 years or Milk and bread!!!! GIVE US A BREAK PLEASE.

An agency can't guarantee what type of patient that you're going to have in a particular setting. Also, as the charge nurse previously posted, they are generally understaffed, and you most likely will not be given any assist or backup. I know this is hard to hear after going to school, but no one can make jobs appear. And do not take offense, but check the spelling on your resume. If it is anything like the spelling I see here, this is why you're not get calls. Prospective employers do look at such things.

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