Nurses are not in high demand!

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I need a job, want a career that I can work until I retire or die which ever comes first. I worked in detox for a year and 3 months, and felt my skills dwindling. I have no idea how to get a job with training and such without med/surg experience, I worked in a nursing home for a brief period and found that it was way too stressful with wound care, accu checks ,neb tx, medications, tube feedings and ivs with anywhere from 20 to 40 patients in your care. Any advice please. I am more than willing to work 12 hour night shifts!

Around here it is said that for every position there is over 200 applicants, how does one compete?

Specializes in GENERAL.

OP: VAMPRISS1973- what you discribe lies at the core of a decades old canard that revolves around the mythology that there is an ongoing nursing shortage. This fallicy has been forever perpetrated by those who own the means of production. In other words the hospital and nursing home industry/lobby. The real problem is one of nursing allocation not a shortage. So as the expression goes the nursing schools spew them out to sell them out to the lowest bidder. So to hear that many novice nurses search for several months to find a position doesn't surprise me. For this we can thank the so-called nursing leadership who often dance to the tune of those business entities who are merely looking for warm bodies to fill their staffing needs and very often high-burnout and turnover rates. So while the fail-safe entrenched notion that a nursing degree is the key to financial stability as in "become a nurse and you'll always have a job" it's necessary to take note that more and more the old fasion notion of employment for life is being overtaken by what has been termed the "gig" economy or catch as catch can. So I'm not suprised when I hear stories of nurses on prolonged job expeditions. This phenomenon has become the norm in many areas from urban to suburban and even exurban towns and localities.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Lot's of jobs in Texas. Lot's of places will hire new grads even into ICU and ER. Lot's of psych jobs down here to. I have found the working conditions in Texas to be pretty good. I know where you can get a night psyche job tomorrow. Just saying.

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Uh... I live in the capital of Illinois. Every single one of my classmates had a job lined up 5 months before graduation. I am currently starting orientation in a level one trauma center ER. Only five people from my graduating class are starting on medsurg floors, the other 55 of us are working in the hospital in places like the ER, ICU, Surgery, CCU, NICU, Mother Baby, and Pediatrics. All of us either have $10,000 two year scholarship contracts, a $5,000 sign on bonus, or got bought out by the Magnet hospital down the road. BOTH major hospitals in this area are practically begging for new nurses. They've been at each others throats with negotiations. Also, the rural hospitals around me are hiring. May I ask, do you live in Chicago?... Because unfortunately, as you probably already know, Chicago is way different than Illinois. It should practically be it's own state separate from the rest of us.

Regardless of all I said above, keep busting ass and following your dreams.

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After six years in med surg, I started working in behavioral health and find it very "easy". It's a small, locked, well-staffed voluntary unit. The majority of patients are schizophrenic and come from board and care facilities. I have no straight psych experience, but the med/surg experience definitely seemed to be a selling point. I tried to get a psych position right out of school, but everyone wanted at least a year of med/surg.

I also just started, so I reserve the right to change my mind about the "easy" part at a later time. :cyclops: It probably helps that I have an affinity for the population.

Yes , my 2 year stint in psych was far from easy. Completely depends on the facility and the assigned RN duties. It COULD be cushy and it could be another circle of hell.

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Hey, thank you, I really want to become a great nurse and as cliche as,it is help others. I live in North West suburbs of Chicago, there are usually 200 people applying for one position, and the people who know someone gets the job. Sometimes you have to have someone to tell you to hold on to your dreams! Thank you.

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Specializes in geriatrics.
When I graduated in 2009 it took 6 months to find a job...a job in a nursing home like what you described. I toughed it out and developed organizational skills. I went on to another SNF but this time a larger facility as an IV nurse. Then into a hospital. Then into the vascular access team.

I found my path by grasping on to the first place that would take me, took it as a challenge and learned as much as I could, then moved on to the next place and the next place until I found home.

So many recent grads expect their "dream" job fresh out of school. In this climate, you take whatever you can find and work towards the goal.

I had a similar experience. I relocated from a large city to small town LTC. Working rural provides a skill set that you won't have working an urban centre. After 4 years, I relocated to a large city and a position I wanted.

Currently, I'm working as an educator and I'm working towards my Masters degree, six years later. I work in a geriatric hospital (palliative care, rehab, LTC, outpatient units). That LTC job that nobody wants....well, you never know.

While LTC is not for everyone, whatever your interests and goals may be in nursing, you can make them possible. Patience and persistence is the key.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

In 2009, I had a job lined up prior to graduation in southwest VA. The next year in 2010 the graduating nurses couldn't find a job for 6 or more months. I was truly fortunate that there was still such a nerd when I finished.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.
Hey, thank you, I really want to become a great nurse and as cliche as,it is help others. I live in North West suburbs of Chicago, there are usually 200 people applying for one position, and the people who know someone gets the job. Sometimes you have to have someone to tell you to hold on to your dreams! Thank you.

If you're willing & able to move downstate, there are plenty of jobs. My facility had to resort to travelers for the first time ever & now bringing in nurses from the Philippines due to difficulty getting enough applicants.

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I am not looking for an easy street, I am looking for a career that is suited to me. I want to do some good in detox we were perpetuating the system, people would even say that they are coming in to "get high" because they ran out of money for heroin. Almost everyone who came in has been there before. As nurses you would get screamed and hollered at because you ran out of snacks or the person has a semi private room. I do not agree that IV and Filets are just tasks,they are skills, if you have ever had someone who was bad at either doing that "task" then you know, there is real skill to both also sitting at someone's side making them feel special is an art. I am also not a new grad and have done LTC before. I want to know what my passion is! I love nursing and yes, I want my dream job , just don't know where I belong.

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Specializes in Emergency and Neonate.
Hey, thank you, I really want to become a great nurse and as cliche as,it is help others. I live in North West suburbs of Chicago, there are usually 200 people applying for one position, and the people who know someone gets the job. Sometimes you have to have someone to tell you to hold on to your dreams! Thank you.

I am not looking for an easy street, I am looking for a career that is suited to me. I want to do some good in detox we were perpetuating the system, people would even say that they are coming in to "get high" because they ran out of money for heroin. Almost everyone who came in has been there before. As nurses you would get screamed and hollered at because you ran out of snacks or the person has a semi private room. I do not agree that IV and Filets are just tasks,they are skills, if you have ever had someone who was bad at either doing that "task" then you know, there is real skill to both also sitting at someone's side making them feel special is an art. I am also not a new grad and have done LTC before. I want to know what my passion is! I love nursing and yes, I want my dream job , just don't know where I belong.

Great people had help also. Musicians like Mozart and Beethoven didn't became famous by themselves. They had rich patrons who help them. People like Einstein didn't became famous scientist by themselves. Someone recognized their work and these people published it. Basketball players like Michael Jordan had some scouts and managers who landed him to be the greatest basket player. My point is: Asking for help (connection) is not an unusual thing. No one can reach their destination alone. So, my advice is networking. Go to nurse conventions, conference and alumni gatherings. Introduce yourself. Put yourself out. Someone is always looking for someone.

True story. A few months back, one of the "big boss" visited my workplace. After work, we had some soiree and as courtesy, I introduced myself. He remembered me from the office and he we had a chat- a mix of personal and professional story- then he said, " I might need a guy with your skillset." Fast forward- I had a terrible hangover the following day- fast forward, I am here in one of the hottest assignments (but difficult as **** but nothing I cannot manage). I became part of the circle. Just an FYI, apparently, the guy checked my track record and asked around about me. My supervisors gave a really good feedback about my work hence it was not difficult for that " big boss" to put me in his department. My work speaks for me.

I am sharing this because it is more like you need to market yourself. Remember that it is another "person" who will "bring you up". Do not suck up to your boss by doing things not related to your profession. Do things that is within your profession. Through this, you learn new thing and once you get your break, you know to do stuffs already.

To summarize, grow as you market (actively) yourself.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I am not looking for an easy street, I am looking for a career that is suited to me. I want to do some good in detox we were perpetuating the system, people would even say that they are coming in to "get high" because they ran out of money for heroin. Almost everyone who came in has been there before. As nurses you would get screamed and hollered at because you ran out of snacks or the person has a semi private room.

That sounds like a very demoralizing situation, your detox patients thinking detox is the place to get high. In my experience detox protocols are geared toward safely withdrawing the patient from of their drug of choice. If they are admitted to the rehab unit, there are rules of behavior. Yelling things at nurses would result in a sanction of some sort for the behavior,not for how nurses should put up with the behavior.

This place sounds like the low-end of the totem pole, but liking every area in nursing is not a requirement. I don't think it's possible for us to tell you where you belong, but you might check into some of the very large numbers of specialty forums here, where there will be a description of that area at the top.

Nursing Specialties. Explore. Learn.

Best wishes!

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Lot's of jobs in Texas. Lot's of places will hire new grads even into ICU and ER. Lot's of psych jobs down here to. I have found the working conditions in Texas to be pretty good. I know where you can get a night psyche job tomorrow. Just saying.

Big time shortage of workers in many fields in Texas. I am in North Texas area, it's in a building boom I have not seen since the 80's.

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