New RN looking for advice!!

Congratulations on passing your NCLEX. I'm sure your license has shown up by now on the SC BON site, and yes they are SLOW! I've been an RN now for 4 years and just recently moved to the Charleston area. I have heard that MUSC does prefer their own graduates, which as a military wife I can tell you that is the way many areas with hospitals affiliated with a university or that have their own nursing programs. It's infuriating and it makes finding a job very difficult. I've only been here for a few months and I'm really just now starting to get serious about looking so I'm hoping to find something that is a good fit relatively soon.

I had a very hard time finding work after graduation. I ended up doing flu/wellness clinics with a nursing agency at first. I then ended up working private duty which gave me two solid years of great experience however it's not easy to jump from one type of nursing to another anymore, and getting into acute care is extremely hard. The days of nurses having their pick of jobs is over, and I can't tell you how frustrating it is to hear "oh your a nurse, you'll get work anywhere easy" by people outside of this industry because it's just not true.

Continue throwing out applications. Also, consider looking at nursing agencies. Some agencies require acute care or previous home health experience but there are some who will train you. This will get your working while you continue to look around if that is not you want to do for the long term. Also, correctional nursing is something to look at as well. Look for any new grad openings, for openings with the state and federal jobs on USAJOBS.COM. Hope that helps! It can be hard to get yourself in the door, but keep looking it will happen!

Wow I completely forgot about this post! I the past two months I've applied to probably 20 new grad positions at musc and maybe 25 others through surrounding hospitals. Had one interview at musc in the middle of March and just found out last week that the position was filled after sending several emails to HR. I never even got a courtesy call from the nurse manager... I finally broadened my search radius a month ago also and went to a new grad open house at the regional medical center in Orangeburg. It's a bout an hour drive but they seemed really interested with me and I just got called for an interview this week! I'm a military wife as well and moved down here soon after I graduated to be down here with my husband. I've never regretting that decision but it does suck that I left a bunch of opportunities and all my networking back there and we both thought that I could find a job anywhere because that's what everyone will tell you! There are nursing positions everywhere but only if you have experience is it easy to get a job which is what they don't tell you. I know it'll all come together soon and I have a good feeling about the interview this week, they were the unit I talked to most at the open house. It just sucks that finding a job has been this hard. Thanks for the advice and I wish you luck as well in your search! Maybe we'll come across each other some time :)

HELLO!

Do you remember how long it took for the SC BON to finally post your license number/info online? I would love to know, because I'm in a weird situation and waiting on the board is driving me nuts!!

I took my test June 10th in Indianapolis, IN. I am moving to SC and have accepted a position to start on July 20th. According to pearson vue quick results, I passed my nclex but I am worried because in 2 days it will have been 2 weeks since I sat for the NCLEX and still nothing from SC!

Something else; 2 days after I took my NCLEX I was checking my online application status and all of a sudden my application didn't show up anymore, it said I had no applications pending. So I thought "great, they have processed my application I will have my license number soon!" but then nothing. This morning I was checking on the website and happened to check my online application status and was surprised to see my application was BACK on the website and showing as pending again, showing my nlcex-rn as the final thing pending. ***** The hospital that has hired me is calling and wants to know if I'm licensed or not, I called the BON but they were VERY unhelpful, the lady on the phone would not listen to me explain my situation and why I'm concerned there has been a mistake. She interrupted me frequently and just kept repeating that it takes "14 days from when Ms. Garret" receives your NCLEX score. So that was a weird and frustrating dead end. It's super frustrating because Indiana posts your license info very quickly, within 24 hrs after taking the NCLEX and I'm starting to worry there has been a processing issue with my application and I won't find out until it's too late!

It was exactly two weeks after I took the exam that they posted my results. The same thing happened to me as well with my application disappearing and reappearing. I emailed the BON a few times in that two week period and they just told me the same thing. Compared to other states, SC is super slow for some reason but living down here I can understand why: they just don't care and are super slow and laxidaisy down here! I was annoyed too because I had potential employers asking for my license number and I didn't have it.