Ontario Nurse, please help looking for work.

[Violet_roses]

I'm desperate, in dire need of help and advice. I have applied to countless postings, tweaked my resume to cater to said posting and I hear nothing back I have 5 years experience in a retirement home and about 2 in community health shift nursing. I have a wound care certificate and have experience doing lots of skills. What am I doing wrong??? Does Ontario have more nurses than job openings????

I am a single mom with low child support. I dont know where to turn as I'm still casual at my job in the retirement home because I went to work as a school nurse this year. But the money isn't good, and I feel like I'm doing glorified babysitting. I just want a job. Please advise.

[loriangel14, RN]

The med administration cert is only needed if you didn't take med admin in school. I would suggest you apply to everything that is posted. Don't worry about what they are asking for, just apply.

[dayandnight]

It might not be common but it works :) after visiting numerous hospitals and asking unit clerks for many manager's phone numbers and emails and contacted them one by one (even if they told me it needs to go thru HR, HR wouldn't even consider me and said I was not qualified to work in Acute care with only residential exp). By doing this, I got a job in acute care. Took me 1.5 yrs but it was sure worth it

[loriangel14, RN]

My manager would NOT be impressed if you tracked her down and pestered her, especially if you had already been instructed to go through HR. One hospital near states quite clearly on their website they will not accept hard copies of resumes, only electronicly submitted ones.

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

It is true that you need to always apply through HR, but I got my hospital job by emailing my manager and explaining why I wanted to work on that unit. She replied to apply for one of the openings posted, gave me an interview and I got the job. If I hadn't emailed her my application would have probably been overlooked.

[bonjoe07]

How long has it been since you worked in Canada?

My health authority won't look at you if you haven't applied on-line for a posted competition. managers are too busy to be cold called by people looking to "tips" and resume tweaking. The last three who tried this on my unit were told to go through channels and their resume handed back.

The employment market is so tight that grievances are filed over irregular hires.

It's been several months since working in Canada!

[ruralgirl08]

Not sure what part of ontario you are in but hospital jobs seem harder to get in to then homecare agencies or ltc. What kind of nursing do you want to do?

[Violet_roses]

I'm in Southern Ontario in Hamilton. Right now I need an 8 hr LTC job as all hospitals are 12 hrs and I have no one to help me watch my son after 5pm. I have applied to every LTC/retirement home posting I could find and no luck yet. I currently work in the community but the hours are very short per day about 4 -6 hrs

[wanderlustnurse88, RN]

I managed to get my nursing job in a small rural hospital by emailing the manager. I had sent in my resume to hr but the only hr person for the hospital was on vacation for two weeks. I sent an email to the manager, she called me the next day and I sent her my resume. The next day she called for an interview the following day and then the following week I got offered a casual job. This turned into going into a temp part time right after my orientation and when I finished that line, I was offered a permanent part time. Two years later I got a full time job. I know this isn't the norm and that it was in a small hospital but it can happen :)