I am graduating in two months. It took me seven years from the moment I decided to become a nurse to when I started my BSN program. I thought I did everything right. Graduating Summa Cum Laude. Volunteering at every opportunity. Years of job experience in healthcare. Networking. But, I am getting turned down for every job I apply to.
The best advice I could give anyone is not to pursue a career in nursing. I thought I was going to be an awesome nurse. I have the passion, the drive, the compassion, the dedication, the hard work--but that doesn't matter. If you don't have two years experience you can't even get your foot in the door. No one will take you.
I got one job interview but I flunked the "describe a situation where..." questions. The biggest employer in my area requires an electronic "talent" test and if you don't get the right algorithm your application doesn't even make it past HR, so it doesn't matter how hard you work. I regret the moment of "clarity" when I thought nursing was the right thing to do. Me, and thousands and thousands of other naive people who think they're actually going to make a difference in the world.
This is probably the lowest point in my life, and I've been through a lot. I thought I'd finally "made it". I thought I'd pulled myself up by my bootstraps. But I don't see any way out, now. I'm in debt and can't get a job, and neither can many, many other new graduates.
Dump your boyfriend and move somewhere where they are hiring new grads or take a job that may not be your top choice, get your experience and then find a job that you really like or want..I moved half way across the country, took a $6 an hour pay cut to get my foot in the door in the field I wanted to work and after a year, I got offers from every place that I applied and took the job that I wanted!
Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
Yep! You made a huge mistake. You haven't even graduated and you are giving up. Nursing is not for you. You were expecting red
carpets to be rolled out and job offers to come flooding in and when that didn't happen, you did the only thing your generation knows how to do, quit and complain. Maybe you can still get a participation trophy.
Here is is a little reality for you. Once you pass your boards, you are legally able to work as a nurse, but you are not really a nurse. You have a long way to go before you will actually be a nurse. Right now you know just enough to not kill somebody. Anyone who hires you will have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to train you to become a competent nurse. You are better off now quitting before someone wastes a lot of money on you.
Also, any guy who will leave you if you take a job is not worth keeping either. Drop him like a bad habit! You need a man, not a boy toy. A man sticks with you and supports you.
I know this is a fake story that keeps popping up to get a conversation going, but this is how I feel about your boo hoo attitude. Suck it up or you will never be a good nurse.
When the discouraged student passes her boards, she may not find the position that she for which she is satisfied, but she will find employment. The best part of a profession, such as nursing, is that there are many opportunities to learn and grow, and that there are other areas than bedside clinical nursing, if the clinical areas are not where she wishes to be. Of course, she must be strong enough to tell the boy friend, that he either supports her decision/s or for him to "get lost." Unless he changes his attitude, she needs him about as much as a "fish needs a bicycle."
I must say, that Hobberdog needs an "attitude adjustment" him or herself. The nervous student, many students who are about to graduate are insecure regarding their futures, does not need your negativity. You do not know her, so you do not know if she will be successful in her career, do you? I hope that when she passes her boards that you are not the one who is chosen to be her mentor. She, like all new graduate RNs, need a year with a knowledgeable, competent, patient preceptor.
Whenever I read stories such as this, I am mad, sad & disappointed. You should not have to go through this when you graduate as a nurse.
In 1989, 2 or 3 months before I graduated from college with my B.S.N., I was hired at a major teaching hospital in New York City OVER THE PHONE!!! Yes, OVER THE PHONE!! I had a telephone interview and was hired at the end of the phone interview. Someone called me afterward and told me what day to come to employee health for my pre-employment physical and what day & time to show up for orientation. I worked as a "graduate nurse"until I passed my boards----I don't even think you can do that anymore. I signed the charts as a "G.N."
And, guess what? I had a great orientation and learned how to be a great nurse on the job from other nurses and the staff nurse educators. I passed the boards and signed R.N.after my name. I loved my job, loved living in Manhattan (the hospital had rent-subsidized apartments that the nurses lived in) and had the best experience ever. My, my---how things have changed.
Why nurses are being treated like lepers is beyond all rational thought. Hospitals don't need nurses with "experience" to work on med surg floors, for God's sake. That's how a new nurse learns how to be a nurse. If the hospitals gave a proper orientation (which none of them want to do anymore because it costs money) and gave nurses a chance (instead of giving them too many patients to take care of & creating unsafe environments) to learn how to be a nurse, perhaps the nursing world would be much better. Making the hiring process for new nurses equivalent to the process for hiring a Fortune 500 "C" position is asinine. A person doesn't get into a "C" position without experience, and they have to start somewhere, just like nurses have to start somewhere. Wanting 2 years of experience is the same as saying "We don't want to spend any money on orienting nurses about anything other than fire safety & infection control. We want nurses that can "hit the ground running" because we want to overload them with more patients than they can handle and take care of safely. We want nurses that can already handle taking care of 68 patients at once---we don't want to pay one nurse to train another nurse." It is a very sad commentary about the state of our health care system in general. What a great way to alienate nurses---both new and experienced---and get them to leave the profession altogether. And then they'll be complaining that there is a "nursing shortage".
First, revisit WHY you decided to become nurse. If for altruistic reasons and not for the money: do NOT give up!
-- Studying to become is a nurse is a ***** (I know, at 58 I had to relearn how to learn!).
-- Preparing for the NCLEX is a *****. The computer screen for the test going suddenly blank was extraordinarily stressful (Did I just fail miserably?)
-- Looking for a job is a *****.
-- when you land a job , you find out that finishing RN school was like completing 1st grade. You feel totally overwhelmed, kinda like being in the deep end of the pool, wearing wool clothes and combat boots trying to keep afloat.
-- then you find out that nurses DO eat their young.
-- But, then after awhile, you find your groove, your confidence, and that your compassionate touch actually heals.
-- Then you see that stroke pt improve over night. You see your pt afflicted with pneumonia being able to breathe deeply again and get good O2 sats, your total knee replacement pt go off his PCA and take steps, your really sick pts recover and you discharge them home.
-- You receive your first "atta boy" award from your boss that a pt left for you on their discharge.
That's when you realize it has all been worth it. You realize that this very honorable profession will lead you to the top of Maslov's hierarchy of need: self actualization and the truly spiritually fulfilling profession of caring for others that is nursing.
Excellent advice. Don't give up! The hospitals in Atlanta are hiring new grads. You might try getting your foot in the door by hiring as a PCT until you graduate. You could work weekends. It will give you patient experience, and you would already be employed by the hospital. It might help you get an RN job once you pass the NCLEX.
Try looking outside the box. By the time I was done with the NCLEX, I quickly realized I was not a bedside nurse. Since then I haven't worked in a single hospital, nursing home, etc. There are many different areas to look into such as occupational health. Many corporations are learning that occupational health nurses are essential. The prisons and county jails are a great environment for nurses with excellent pay and benefits. Local and state health departments are always looking for nurses. If you are for some reason bent on getting into a hospital the only job I would recommend would be the VA due to a federal pension and great benefits. Also, many medical companies seek nurses for different things. Stay clear of the hospitals and ordinary nursing jobs=low pay, playing politics, weak benefits.
I've been here....was rejected from jobs and was ready to give up but I'm glad I didn't! I ended up getting an awesome job and never looked back at being a nurse. I don't think you should discourage people wanting to become a nurse due to your situation at the moment, you have a lot of other things going on and it sounds like your quite stressed out which makes everything 10 times worse. Keep going, don't give up so soon, there is a reason you trained to become a nurse and you need to remember that when you think of throwing in the towel!
We're hiring new nurses!! I work for a new state-of-the-art surgical and rehab hospital in pennsylvania - it's a great job. I say this, because jobs are out there - good jobs. Our thoughts and words lay the ground work for how our lives play out. There is much power in our thought choices! When we choose differently, it will be different. This is scary! Whats scarier than not finding a job? FINDING A JOB! Life is scary. Consider this a life test that you intend to pass - Summa Cum Laude! Life is full of these tests! Thoughts of defeat and discouragement are real but it's your choice whether to give it your attention. As for this loan and time pressure you have looming over your head....money comes and money goes. When you have it, they'll have it! There are a lot of needs in this world...got meet some of them. Get your mind off of this for now. As for the fiance', he/she is scared too. Model different thinking and love them up!
Gentle advice, as well as strong advice, for you...
Get through finals, graduation, and the NCLEX first. Don't put the cart before the horse.
Find a friend or acquaintance to critically go over your resume with a fine tooth comb before submitting it anywhere. Be strong on paper and do everything a job description's posting states to do, use those keywords to get through the computer's vetting process and actually get a human being in HR to see your resume.
Apply EVERYWHERE, not just your first and second choice employers. If you only have six months to find a job in an underserved facility, you cannot be 100% picky. Get the experience, develop the critical thinking, prioritization, and skills you need. Get the time for your loan 100% complete. Do not have that financial burden weighing you down by working elsewhere, or nowhere, within six months.
Move if you have to. Lots of new grads have to do it. It's the way things are in some areas, unfortunately. You gotta do what you gotta do. Let me tell you that I know quite a few fellow graduates, including the year before me and the year after me, that moved away to another state one to two years ago and now they are starting to move back and they are getting the coveted positions at major hospitals.
And lastly, love is hard...sad to say but it's very disappointing when a finance is not on the same page as you. Step back out of your situation for a moment and take a good hard look around. No one really knows what a BSN degree entails unless they've gone through it themselves. It is one of the most rigorous degrees to complete, if not THE most rigorous bachelors degree out there. It's not just taking classes and passing finals as other degree programs are. You have learned how to care for another person's life and their well-being. And even when you get your first job, you're still lacking so much knowledge.
If a man knows how hard you worked, and all you had to go through, to become a nurse...a career you did the work of seven years for just to get to that point, that you strived very hard for and did copious amounts of brain work and physical work for, to be able to achieve...and he is giving ultimatums or telling you the relationship is over if you do certain things for your new career or work in certain places...then that..deep down...is not the man you are supposed to be with. And that is perfectly ok. I mean it. It will be ok. You will be ok. It will be hard turning into a single person and transitioning into that stage of your life while you are transitioning into being a nurse. But if he won't support your decisions now, he won't support your decisions in the future unless they are his decisions. If you allow him to dictate who you are and what you are going to do, he's going to feel he can do that your entire relationship. He's not your father giving advice, he's not a friend giving advice, he's a fiance who is going to end up being a husband. If that's who he is as a person, you are not going to change that. Those qualities are woven into the fabric of who he is as a person. Sigh...can you tell this is coming from experience? You are you, and this is your life. You only have one, and no one is guaranteed to live it until old and gray. Seize your life, it is yours, and be strong. Whatever decisions you make, they are yours and should not be anyone else's.
Breathe, get through upcoming goals, strive, get out there, don't let disappointment turn you around, and feel the hug I'm sending you right now :)
RNAV8R
9 Posts
Dump your boyfriend and move somewhere where they are hiring new grads or take a job that may not be your top choice, get your experience and then find a job that you really like or want..I moved half way across the country, took a $6 an hour pay cut to get my foot in the door in the field I wanted to work and after a year, I got offers from every place that I applied and took the job that I wanted!