what to do after nursing school!?

[jasminesmith45]

Hi,

I am currently a nursing student in Oregon working towards my BSN..... I have about a year and a half left and I'm truly really struggling trying to figure out what to do. I know there is a lot of knowledge to gain after graduation so I don't want to limit myself to a certain patient population. I'd like to be somewhere diverse like general medicine or the ER but i've heard of so many different kinds of hiring processes for new grads. Should I look into a nurse residency program? that seems like a good route to me but are they hard to get into? I also live in a vary small area and would like to move to a bigger city but everyone tells me I should work at the hospital I do my senior practicum at to gain experience? is it really that hard to get a job as a new grad with no previous work experience. I'm more curious about the new grad residency programs, but from what I see online they are pretty competitive. I've been looking at teaching hospital residency programs because I'd like to continue on to get my masters but the statistics don't look promising (nursing school was hard enough to get into). I have a high GPA but not very much work experience and I'm just lookin for a little advice:)

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Get a job as a CNA somewhere.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

Second the advice to get a job as a CNA/tech on a unit now to help with your prospects after graduation.

As far as residency programs go, sure, apply for them, but don't limit yourself to them. Just because a hospital doesn't brand their orientation as a "nurse residency" doesn't mean you won't be given a great orientation there. Someone here said that to me when I was getting ready to graduate (llg maybe?) and I didn't really "get" it until I started actually looking for a job and then later when I was working. The BEST part of my orientation was not the fledgling residency program my hospital has begun (although there were great things about it and I'm excited to see it develop), but was my placement with two really great preceptors. My unit as a whole was also very welcoming to me and supportive as I learned (and still is). Those are things you can get without a residency program, and a residency program is no guarantee that you will be on a supportive unit.

Depending on what the economy and job market look like when you graduate, you might not have a ton of decisions to make. Find out what things are like in your area and decide how picky or unpicky you can afford to be in the area you want to be working. Work super hard in clinical and keep in touch with clinical instructors from previous semesters, talk with them about your plans and concerns after graduation (aside from knowing the local market better than allnurses might, they are also likely in a position to help you out with reference letters and maybe even calls to nurse manager friends).