No hospital will hire me!

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Good morning allnurses family,

I have a friend that was an LPN for 3 years and has been an RN for almost 2 years - all of her experience is in skilled nursing, LTC and home health. She is trying to get a job in a hospital, in houston, tx and has been unsuccessful (she received her ADN degree in NJ - therefore, her clinical were completed there).  She has her BSN from University of Phoenix.  My friend alleges that every time she applies to hospital jobs she gets rejected with automatic replies stating that they are looking for candidates with "experience"....how does she get this experience and/or a chance to work in a hospital?

She has revised her resume several times and it looks great to me and other professionals but she is lacking "hospital experience" and has been told that she is not a "new nurse" so she does not qualify for residency programs.  She is very discouraged and wants to return to NJ - I don't know know how else to advise her...do you have any suggestions that I can give her?

Thank you

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Specializes in OMFS, Dentistry.

Following .. I know this situation all too well.

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The bottom line is that she does not have hospital experience and that is the basis for hospital employers to reject her.  She needs to apply to other employers if she wants to work at all.  Eventually, the tide may turn but not as long as she keeps trying for the nigh impossible.  Or, alternatively, if she wants to make the effort, apply to hospitals all over.  And be willing to move when the job offer materializes. 

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I'm in the same boat! I feel like in Texas they are extra picky. What I hear is that the best (maybe only) way to get anywhere as a new grad with a previous license is to make connections, talk to managers, volunteer at hospitals, and utilize social media such as Linkedin. I'm in Dallas and I have recently posted something similar here, looking for people to connect. I contacted a recruiter and was told that I might need to relocate to gain experience and then return here.... UGH

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@mibrazuka my friend was told the same thing and I even suggested that she goes to Dallas before leaving the state and heading back to NJ. Thank you for sharing your experience I will share this with her also.  I just don’t want her to give up and neither should you - don’t give up!

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I'm in Cali and in the same boat. 5 years community health experience - NO JOBS!

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Specializes in oncology.

Some LTC facilitities here in the Midwest have added some Acute Care Rehab units for patients with THR and hip fx repair. These patients would be some introduction to how complex new surgicals can be. After time there it might be easier to 'show' you have acute care experience of a sort/

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Well the sad truth is that during the pandemic a lot of nurses left the hospitals.  For many reasons.  Without travelers I don't know how we would have ever done it.  They didn't have enough staff to take care of patients let alone train a nurse with no hospital experience.  It was not an environment that would have been conducive to learning.  You would be getting paid to be there, probably wouldn't learn much, and would be horrified and say "screw working in a hospital" and probably quit, not realizing that before the pandemic, hospital work was rarely that chaotic.  During the pandemic, every day was chaos.  ICU nurses had 4 patients, med/surg nurses had 8 patients.  We were already short on PPE and reusing N95's to the point where if a doctor didn't have to go in a room they asked them not to to conserve PPE.  Every time you turned around there was a code blue or rapid response being called that you had to respond to.  Your "orientation" would have consisted of watching your preceptor run around like a chicken with her head cut off instead of sitting down and explaining stuff.  Consider it a blessing in disguise, chances are if you didn't lose your sanity, you would lose your nursing license.

Hospitals in my area are advertising that they are hiring new grads again.  They wanted to be 100% certain we weren't going to have another "surge", we were waiting for it but thankfully it didn't happen.  You shouldn't have any issues now.  Go for it.

 

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I left my job at a SNF to help because I couldn't just sit back and do nothing knowing that they desperately needed nurses with hospital experience.  I had 3 days of hospital orientation and 2 days of ICU orientation and they assigned me to the COVID ICU.  I have never seen such sick people in all my life.  When they crashed, it happened fast, and if you didn't recognize it and intervene fast it, they coded and died.  Young people, old people, dropping dead without warning.  You notified the family, called lifeshare, called the medical examiner, sent the body to the morgue and then you had a break.  Because housekeeping had to wait 4 hours before they could enter the room to clean it.  The second the room was cleaned the ER was trying to call report on another covid patient.  And there were 20+ covid patients holding in the ER waiting to be admitted to the hospital.  You couldn't send them to another hospital because every hospital was in the same predicament, nobody had beds, and most of them probably wouldn't have survived an attempted transport anyways.  I witnessed nurses who have been ICU nurses for 40 years, fall to their knees and start crying, and have a straight up mental breakdown from the stress and have to go on medical leave.  I barely made it 7 months working in the covid ICU and I have worked ER and ICU for most of my career.  And because I was exposed to infected people everyday, I was in quarantine for 7 months.  I left the house to go to work and go to the store.  That was it.  My family was worried sick and called me every night.  If I didn't answer right away they immediately started to panic.  It would have given you a terrible first impression of what it's like to work in a hospital.  You wouldn't send a soldier to war without putting him through boot camp.  He wouldn't be much help if he had no idea how to shoot an automatic weapon, throw a grenade, or drive a tank.  You don't learn how to be a soldier by being plopped in a war zone and watching experienced soldiers trying to fight a war.  It was war and 3,600 frontline healthcare workers died.  I'm still shocked that our healthcare system didn't straight up collapse the way India's did.  It sure felt like it was about to, we were on the brink.  No bueno.

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I am in the same vote as ineedachange1, BSN, RN ( first post)  I do not understand how to get the experience of working in a hospital if I CAN"T get into one??! It has be very discouraged and frustrated. I have had multiple nurse that I have trained for home health I am currently working at tell I would be great in hospital. I have a lot experience with wound care although I am not certified wound nurse yet.. I just need to get foot in door and I can't seem to make that happen.. I don;t get passed the automated email and when you call all you get is " the application process is online"....I even trying temp placement agency but that worries me be trying just to get in.. still nothing...

I live in ca- the bay area...

I cannot move to another stated. I have a house and young family so this is not an option for me... any other tips,

 

Please help!

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Hi! Let's talk! I'll send you a PM with my number. I'm in San Mateo County. I have some ideas for you. 

Ah! I can't send a PM bc allnurses won't let me. Can you PM me?

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It will not let me either-- do yo have linkedin? send me message there?.. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-conchin-092b9352/

 

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