Nursing Staffing Companies?

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I am new grad who recently got my RN license. I have only "clinical" experience from nursing school. I have probably applied for over 100 jobs at local hospitals in the last month, and havent even got one phone call. I am starting to get discouraged. However, I keep seeing these staffing companies for nurses that say they offer excellent pay and what not, Ive already gotten a call from one of them. Is this a bad idea? anyone have experience with these? or should I just continue my search and hope to get a call for an actual hospital? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I would be surprised if an agency hired a nurse with no actual experience. You have to be able to work independently and without supervision. That would be hard and maybe even dangerous. However, they may have some alternatives to offer so the worst thing they can tell you is no. Give them a call.

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My background has been with a nursing staffing company and it def is a good idea to check out what opportunities they could offer you. Classicdame is correct in that most hospitals and other points of care will not hire you without the requisition 1 year of exp under your belt. However, as budget cuts have impacted hiring needs for hospitals, many are willing to hire (through registry) the new graduate nurse. The delta between not enough hiring funds and new grads has had profound effects on many new grads ... Hope this helps.

darriz1

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU.

In my experience, the registry may hire you, but without recent hospital experience, they have a very difficult time getting a hospital to accept you, and therefore, you won't get any contracts.

If I had known that taking a 7 year break from hospital nursing ( after working full time for 20 years )would now put me back in the same category as a new grad with "no recent experience", I would have kept at least a Per diem status in a hospital somewhere.

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.
In my experience, the registry may hire you, but without recent hospital experience, they have a very difficult time getting a hospital to accept you, and therefore, you won't get any contracts.

If I had known that taking a 7 year break from hospital nursing ( after working full time for 20 years )would now put me back in the same category as a new grad with "no recent experience", I would have kept at least a Per diem status in a hospital somewhere.

And if you did get a contract you may wish you hadn't. When facilities hire contract employees they will expect you to hit the ground running, and I mean running. They are paying top dollar, and they expect a lot. If you can't function efficiently with only a few hours of orientation in some instances, you are setting yourself up for a very miserable time of it. I'm not even going to get started on patient safety....

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Specializes in Nursing Admin.

The nurse market is so tight right now. Not a lot of movement with recession and many nurses had such a big dip in their 401's (retirement investments) so have held off retiring until more financially stable.

In the meantime...get a profile up on linkedin...fill all sections out...since you don't have any nursing experience yet, write why you went to school for nursing, why you can't wait to actually work but most importantly have your previous nursing school teachers and preceptors write a recoomendation for you on linked in. Once your profile is established, add it to your resume. Recruiters will check you out and if you have a professional looking photo and a few positive recommendations, u are more likely to go to the front of the pile. In the meantime find a nursing job somewhere other than the hospital, clinics, outreach programs, grant writing, skin banks, the red cross, etc. You want to get started right away while your nursing education is fresh....later you can always find a job in a hospital if that is still the avenue you want to take and will then have nursing experience. (Hospital nursing is very grueling & exhausting).

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i am a new grad and i got my first job with a registry. They had a program set up so that i could get orientation and a short preceptorship. I guess I was lucky to find a registry that would do that for a new grad... however, without a proper orientation+preceptorship i was so thrown off the first days i was on the floor and still am now.

My advice to you is to ask ur staffing agency to either give you "experience" precepting with a fellow nurse? Help with some home health nurses? You REALLY need to be supervised as a new grad to protect your license and your patients.

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Specializes in CriticalCare.

All the staffing agencies I have come across clearly state 1 or 2 years of RECENT experience in the given area to be placed--in a hospital setting, at least.

I would be surprised even if a staffing agency could get you in a non-hospital setting without recent experience.

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