I need a pep talk or moral support or something. I'm an AGACNP-BC as of December and am having a horrible time finding a job. I've been a critical care/ER nurse for 9 years, teach PALS and mock codes, charge nurse, CCRN, all the things. Went to a public and reputable university and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. I live in the West and want to be in a smaller community, which I figured would work in my favor, but I am getting nothing. I have been a little picky about location because I want to be near skiing and biking, but even drastically broadening my search area I'm still getting minimal interest. I'm hearing back from some of the places that hopital jobs it took them over a year to fill in 2018 are having 10 applicants in 2 weeks. Jobs that used to have 5 applicants have 30. WTH?! How did things get this saturated so quickly?!
I just got set up with several recruiters in the last week or so and am considering locums assignments if need be, but I'm just really frustrated. I feel like I shouldn't have wasted so much time "mastering" the nursing role and just gone to NP school quickly like most of the other people I know. I feel like my whole RN career means nothing and that I'm stuck in this weird place where no one will take me without experience but I can't get experience if no one will hire me.
Anyone have any tips or positive stories or anything?