no one will hire me in Las Vegas--what's the deal???

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I have applied for every ICU position in Las Vegas the past 2-3 months. I don't even get a call back. Recently I applied for a med/surg position and was called within days (I didn't take the position). I've been an RN for almost 2 years. I've spent the last year working as a traveler in NV and CA. I was an LPN 3 years before that. All my experience is in Med/surg/trauma/Tele, but I'm determined to change specialties. All the "minimum requirements" listed 1-2 years experience in ICU a must. The one hospital I did talk to (I called them) said I would have to work the floor for atleast 3-6 months before I could even put in a transfer. It can't be the way I interview, because I can't even get an interview. My resume looks ok, nothing wierd about it, I've had people check it out. What's the deal? I want to move back to Las Vegas, but can't without a job. I hated working med/surg in Las Vegas. The hospital I was at treated the floor nurses horribly. and rumor has it, it wasn't the worse hospital in Las Vegas. I'm so frustrated. Does anyone know of any hospital that will hire into ICU without experience?

Michelle

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A friend of mine got hired into ICU at UMC right out of nursing school. However, that was 2 years ago.

Good luck

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Specializes in burns.

I just got hired into the Burn ICU at UMC as a new grad, I don't start for a little while, but I know they are hiring.

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On UMC's website, it has new grad programs. I don't fall into that catagory. Plus I think you have to commit for a length of time?? I have tried applying for the ICU postions, but at the end of the application process it asks yes or no if you have so many years of icu experience. I have none so it just reads "thanks but you don't qualify." I forgot to mention above that I applied for a training underfill position at UMC. I got a call back to schedule a "panel interview" but when she found out I would need to interview over the phone...or at least have a preliminary interview over the phone, she said she would call me back at noon the next day and then hung up on me. I never heard from her again. I'm not to bummed about that one, because if she had actually read my resume she would have known I'm in CA, and she could BARELY speak english. I had to tell her two or three times I was in CA and she kept saying "no you in NV."' If someone is going to argue about my current location, I don't think I want to go that route. I wouldn't have mind coming to Vegas to panel interview if I had at least known some general info on the unit, and they expressed real interest. Anyway, enough venting. Am I correct about having to commit for a certain amount of time for new grads?

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Specializes in burns.

Yes, for new grads they ask for a 2 year commitment to the hospital, but not necessarily to the unit. That is weird about your bad call back experience. It is my understanding that the nurse managers are the ones who call you to schedule the interviews, that's what HR told me and that's what happened with my interview process, which was also a panel interview. I would call and talk to the Nurse Recruiter, who is nice and speaks English. The office office is in the HR building across the street from UMC.

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I have taken another travel assignment for now. Starting in Feb I will start applying for the available ICU positions. I was hoping Cent Hosp would have ICU openings because it is new, but at last check there wasn't any. I heard from someone that they weren't starting with a 100% open hospital so maybe in a few months there will be more available positions. I also heard St. Rose is opening up a new (or another) open heart unit. ? . Maybe that will create openings too.

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Specializes in burns.

I also heard that Centennial Hills was not 100% open. I also heard that they were only hiring nurses who were already working in the Valley System (Valley, Spring Valley, Summerlin, etc). That came from a nurse manager at Valley.....

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Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.
I also heard that Centennial Hills was not 100% open. I also heard that they were only hiring nurses who were already working in the Valley System (Valley, Spring Valley, Summerlin, etc). That came from a nurse manager at Valley.....

It's not too much of a stretch to see that as the Valley System nurses make a lateral move to Centennial Hills, new positions should open up at the other Valley facilities.

Good luck to those of you searching!

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I also heard that they were moving a lot of nurses from other valley hospitals. I bet it also has to do with the add listing 10K bonus for night shift nurses and 5k for days on their website. That's a big bonus to deal out to every one. I just checked cent hospital's website and they are listing one full time ICU position. I don't have a need to apply anymore at this time because I'm about to start another travel position.

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Specializes in Home Health Care,LTC.

I work for a company called NurseCore. They do home health care and also staffing. If you got into the staffing part the place you at hospitals ect. It would be a start and maybe a way to get your foot into the door and be able to show the place you go to your skills and then apply to that peticular (sp?) hospital.

there website it http://www.nursecore.net and they are hiring. It might not be exactly what u are looking for but it's a start.

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I also heard that Centennial Hills was not 100% open. I also heard that they were only hiring nurses who were already working in the Valley System (Valley, Spring Valley, Summerlin, etc). That came from a nurse manager at Valley.....

Not true! Not true! I am one of the Directors at Centennial Hills, and I assure you we are open to all nurses, we are simply looking for the best out there. In fact, we tried to limit our hires from our sister hospitals to 30% so we wouldn't cause nursing shortages at the other Valley Health System facilties. We had applicants from all over, including out of state, and were able to hire experienced staff in all areas.

The reason not many positions were open in late Dec and Jan is because we filled most of our positions back in the fall. We only hired enough to open a few floors because we didn't know how busy we would be and we didn't want to have to low census our staff. Of course, since opening, we have seen 2-3 times the patients we expected and we are quickly filling positions and opening more beds in all areas. The only area that hasn't been busy so far is L&D, but it will get there.

It is a wonderful place to work, and we have worked hard to hire a great group of staff so we can provide great care and have strong teamwork. Of course, being a new hospital, we had several bumps in the road in the first few weeks but every day has gotten better and I couldn't be happier with our new place!

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this is exactly why i work med surge, and nights. you have unlimited hours anywhere you go. it's very easy to make 100k, extremely easy to pick up additional shifts. people call off all the time, and once the staffing coordinators realize if they call you, you'll come in.. you'll get the calls and the hours.

looking forwrd to hitting vegas sometime in may :). getting a nevada license now. :).

one of the things i'm wondering is whether i should drive my car from florida.. am i going to need it in vegas, or will it be more of a pain than it's worth?

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