Nurses who can't find work.

Nurses Job Hunt

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Hello everyone, hope everyone is well.

Im writing this post so that I can 1. Send PM's :p, and 2. Because of my current situation.

So like you all, I thought there was a nursing shortage, wanted to heal the world one individual at a time, amd went through the torture of nursing school...come one, you know nursing school was HORRIBLE! Anyhow, 3 years out of school, and I cant land a decent paying job. I make less than a new grad at my current job. Ive sent out many applications, but all Ive gotten is no each time thus far. I've considered getting out of nursing as we say. Thought about working for Cerner, doing entry level consulting, marketing, real estate....but Im a nurse at heart, Ive found my identity in being an RN.

I guess my question to you nurses who are out of work, or those forced to take drastic pay cuts is this, how do you cope with being out of work? Did you get out of the profession, did you stop looking for work...I would love to hear your stories, Im sure others in the same situation would love to as well. Thanks :)

Pardon typos please...typing on a phone.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
The RN that never was,

You sound like a nurse who would always be miserable on the floor.

Maybe those floor managers sensed something about you.

Maybe you gave off a bad vibe.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be for you.

Best of luck with everything.

So unnecessary. A rush to judgment such as this shows a distinct lack of assessment abilities.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
get some nursing experience, then you can become a nurse consultant. everyone has to pay their dues.

I don't understand this post. The whole point of this thread is that many new grads are unable to find employment. You can't "pay your dues" without employment.

No doubt the OP would have been more than happy to pay her dues if she had been able to locate an employer wiling to hire new grads.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I'm so sorry, OP, as well as "nurse who never was" - my husband and I are both RNs, and we graduated in 2006, at the tail end of the "nursing shortage" - everyone in our class had jobs prior to graduation, and the hospital even paid my husband $2000 to relocate. He doesn't post here, but occasionally I will read to him posts from this site, and we both thank our lucky stars on a daily basis that we graduated when we did. I can't imagine how unfair it all must feel to you, and how misled you must feel. You have both my sympathy as well as that of my husband. I don't blame you one bit for feeling bitter.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
The RN that never was,

You sound like a nurse who would always be miserable on the floor.

Maybe those floor managers sensed something about you.

Maybe you gave off a bad vibe.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be for you.

Best of luck with everything.

I think that's really unfair.

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

The worst part of it is that many of us work short handed and are called on our days off to work so there is work to be had. Management or TPTB don't see a need to create positions and rather work their staff to burnout.

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Employers prefer to overwork current staff and not have more to give benefits too. Keep looking

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.
The worst part of it is that many of us work short handed and are called on our days off to work so there is work to be had. Management or TPTB don't see a need to create positions and rather work their staff to burnout.

This baffles me. The nurses and techs where I am are SO overworked. It isn't uncommon for us to work 5-6 days a week, and the nurses especially can expect a guilt trip call-in from work every single day.

They'd rather give a few people massive paychecks than spread the work around and hire more people.

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get some nursing experience then you can become a nurse consultant. everyone has to pay their dues.[/quote']

Can you tell all these unemployed nurses where to get experience? Where to apply, which hospitals are hiring? I'm sure they would love to pay their dues and their bills too.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone to work and have worked short. It makes no sense to me. Employers are worried about patient satisfaction. Well guess what step 1 is to have a fully staffed floor so when those call lights go off someone is available to answer them.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

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In response to CRNA13

Wow, what an insitefull comment. I guess the 60% of my still unemployed graduating class suffers from the same defect. You are right. The problem has nothing to do with the following:

1. Over saturation of the market with a flood of RN new-grads form colleges who INCREASED their class size along with the many private RN expediate 1 yr programs that opened in the last 6 years to capitalize on the mythical RN shortage.

2. Mass insourcing of RN's from abroad.

3. 2008 Economic recession that has not recovered. Actually gotten worse with no end in site.

4. Elimination of RN new grad programs by Sutter/Kaiser and other major hospitals.

What a critical thinking, sympathetic and altruistic CRNA you must be to completely ignore what I said and judge me and toss me away like unwanted refuse. Like what I have to say is completely in-valid because it is tinged with notes of frustration. How would you expectmy tone to be? Jolly? Whimsical?

I hear you completely. I like the "whimsical" comment. lol

There are thousands of us trying everything we can think of, and falling on our faces while the loans are needing to be paid back. It is sad that there are so many of us unemployed; it is more sad that next year, thousands of more new grads will be right along with us.

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This thread scares me as a student hoping to start my adn program here in CT. I have the thoughts in my head of why bother, there aren't a lot of jobs, the load is ridiculous, and lets be honest, not going to get better with the new healthcare. I work at two jobs as a cna so I am hopeful they would hire me, but nothing is ever guaranteed. Job searches here for rn' s turn up mostly LTC/SNF, but even those want experience. I personally think there are way too many programs turning out too many grads too fast.

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This thread scares me as a student hoping to start my adn program here in CT. I have the thoughts in my head of why bother there aren't a lot of jobs, the load is ridiculous, and lets be honest, not going to get better with the new healthcare. I work at two jobs as a cna so I am hopeful they would hire me, but nothing is ever guaranteed. Job searches here for rn' s turn up mostly LTC/SNF, but even those want experience. I personally think there are way too many programs turning out too many grads too fast.[/quote']

Ok, this is quite long

Feel free to skip to the last paragraph where my advice is. :-)

I agree with schools spitting out too many nurses. It's all about money. At my ADN program, over 300 people applied for 80 spots. We only had a few classrooms, and we were so crammed in the rooms it was ridiculous. Only half of us graduated, but my school is only one out of hundreds (not exaggerating) of schools in a 60 mile radius. And there are only about 7 hospital systems in that radius. All wanting experience of course. Even the BSN students are not safe in this crap job market.

Lets say you want to be an office nurse. Soooo many of the offices are joined with the hospital systems as a group which all require over 2 years experience minimum (in my area) I personally have this fantasy of every nursing school closing for 3 years. I know, I know. Not practical. Just a fantasy of mine. That would mean many school staff unemployed. I have found ONE home health agency that will consider new grads. Even many of the LTC facilities require 1-2 years experience. So, we get stuck in the crappy nursing homes which I call **** holes. You have outrageous nurse to patient ratios with the residents acuity levels rising because they are released from the hospital too soon (again because of money/greed) You know the ones. The ones where you smell urine as soon as you walk in the building. The load is so unmanageable that the residents aren't getting proper care. The "good" nursing homes around here want experienced nurses. Many of their job postings even say "2 years experience in med/surg desired. For a nursing home!

Ridiculous.

Of course it's the nurse that gets fired at these jobs that are set up to fail, making these **** holes a revolving door of new grads. Orientation? 2-6 days.

I FINALLY landed a job after 1.5 years after graduation. To be fair, I did get a job right away but for reasons ive posted before, I resigned after 2 months. I had just started working a seasonal Best Buy job selling appliances this past Sunday making 9 an hour for 15 hours a week when I got this job offer. My first nursing job I left I was making 26 an hour. A few weeks ago, a doctor Ive know all my life offered me a job at his allergy/immunology office for 8 hours a week. I was ecstatic just to be able to put that on my resume to later get a full time office job somewhere else. When we discussed pay (I knew he was cheap and stingy because my mom used to work for him) I asked for 16 an hour. He said he couldnt do that. He would "have to think about this. " I told him 3 times I'm willing to negotiate. After my first day, he had his office manager call me to tell me pretty much forget about it. Im thanking God I landed this job. Its a decent LTC/SNF. My husband and I can finally move out of my MILs house.

Its good and ESSENTIAL to be aware of the job market while in school. I know I just sounded so pessimisic, BUT if a person has a passion to be a nurse, I say go for it. Start networking NOW while in school. Introduce yourself to the managers while at clinicals. Suck up and tell them thank you for having us on your floor. "Your nurses are a wonderful help." Maybe even be bold and tell them you enjoy it so much and are learning so much on the unit that you want to work there after you graduate. Befriend nurses outside of school who could pull strings to get you in a job. Work as a tech or CNA in a hospital or clinic and be such an exemplary employee that they will want to hire you on as a nurse. You've gotta be a shark in this field. Pass that on.

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I am living proof that even working at a hospital doesn't guarantee a job out of school. I worked at a large teaching hospital for SIX years as a Unit Secretary. Always had great job evaluations and well liked..I NEVER once thought in nursing school that I wouldn't have a job..no way. Then close to graduation came and got a sorry no jobs. Yet the few jobs they had went to a few of my classmates who never had a job in their lives. HR at my hospital never returned my calls..only telling me there is no nursing shortage when I did get one. I was shown the door after six years and told to return when I get experience. I really don't get it. When you are an employee I would think they should be considered first for jobs before an outsider who never worked a day in their life! I still don't get it.

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