NO Jobs for NEW NURSES In NYC AREA --

jlan79 · Sep 23, 2010

This is scary. I'm a BSN student right now, graduating next fall. I knew the situation was bad, but I really want to be a nurse. I wonder what other options are out there for new grads. Can one get jobs in private doctor offices or doing something like a visiting nursing service (my school is really pushing geriatric nursing now as being "the future"). Of course I would still look for hospital jobs, but it would be much easier to do while employed elsewhere.

KryBry · Oct 19, 2013

were you able to find work?

DoGoodThenGo · Oct 19, 2013

While one comprehends and feels your pain, do not think there is an absolute zero availability of new grad positions in NYC. Indeed just from reading posts on this forum there are more than a handful of new grads who have found spots in some of our very best hospital systems. Simple math tells us that if only five new grads post here, then the real number must be much higher.

What has happened is that by and large over the past several years or so places have stepped up their game and moved away from the *warm body* approach in hiring new grads. For years hospitals hired new grads in droves as they always have done and had various outcomes.

No small number of new grads for instance had wildly different ideas of what bedside nursing actually entailed versus the facility. When informed where they were expected to put their hands, and what they were supposed to do; many either balked or simply were not up to the job. Still others arrived with various levels of hospitals considered basic nursing education. Yes, they were all eager to nurse, but would require extensive orientation to bring them up to minimal skill level. Long story short for these and various other reasons one in five new grad hires did not complete their first year or last through orientation. Regardless of how any of us feel on the matter, anytime a new employee does not complete their training period it is a net loss for the employer, hospitals are no exception.

To end or at least minimize all these risks facilities have tightened things up. Nursing programs have been told to improve the quality of their graduates if they want them to have even a hope of being hired. Qualifications for new hires have been tightened which at some hospitals can include minimum GPAs and extensive testing. To minimize the "unknown" factor in hiring a new grad often experience such as volunteer, intern/extern, previous internal employment and so forth is often also sought.

As for the rest it simply comes down to economics and the economy.

In the past ten or so years at least that number or more NYC hospitals have closed. There were still nurses from St. Mary's and St. John's hospitals in Queens and Cabrini in Manhattan that had not found full time gig after those places shut down when Saint Vincent's dropped it's bombshell and shut it's doors as well. Every hospital closure sends scores to hundreds of experienced nurses out into the employment market. This in turn reduces the demand for inexperienced new grads. Indeed soon as St. Vinny's announced it was shutting down Beth Israel and IIRC a few other places announced they would suspend other nurse hiring to give a chance for those soon to be out of work a chance.

All this going on at the same time as the greatest economic upheaval this country has seen since the Great Depression, and other forces such as the ACA and other changes fiscal and whatever that are forcing all heath care facilities in the USA to change how they do business.

Since few hospitals if any in NYC out right own nursing schools anymore (not sure how Beth Israel treats it's school), don't think there is some vast conspiracy between the two. Just as no one could predict the economic melt down, equally it was hard to call the surge of persons seeking to become nurses. There was a shortage of nurses back in the 1980's and part of the 1990's and you still had manageable sized pre-nursing classes. Even for programs that are tight now such as CSI, Queens Community and so forth usually all that applied got in, some with just the minimal 2.5 then required GPA.

Regarding the BSN, well that has been coming for awhile now and as the state wouldn't or didn't act, hospitals are taking matters into their own hands. It could be argued now is probably as good a time as any to make this move in NYC. With a surplus of nurses both new grads and experienced versus inpatient beds and census if not now, when?

Sorry for the long post and again do understand your rage. IMHO nursing is becoming like any other career/profession; that is one is going to have to be adaptable and flexible. If nothing is shaking with what you've got and or where you are, then changes in one or the other may be required. Know plenty of NYC new grads that have packed up for upstate, down south or elsewhere to find work. Some may remain, others will try and return once they have the magical two years of recent acute care experience places around here seem to want.

Wishing you the very best of luck. Remember also our Lord never closes a door without opening a window somewhere.

DGTG

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2013

The OP's claim is simply not true. I know quite a few new grads that got hired in Manhattan within the past 2 years, including NYU, Mount Sinai, NY Pres and Methodist in Brooklyn. Granted, most of these new nurses have networked their way into positions by means of doing their clinicals at these sites and becoming something more than ink on resume paper. It bears repeating that networking is VERY important.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Oct 28, 2013

please note this thread is 2 years old and a lot can happen