Pre-nursing student seeking advice from new grads and experienced acute care nurses

[Luigi89]

Hi! good day to all nurses here. I would like to seek some opinions about the job market for ADN/BSN nurses for each state. how is the job market for new grads with no experience out there? im in california now and i would love to get an idea on how things are based from your experiences as nurses. is it hard to get an acute care job in med-surg or the ICU, telemetry or neuro? because those are the areas im interested in. Also, i wouldnt mind moving to another state as long as i get hired in the best possible hospital with good pay and career advancement.

your opinions and advice would help a lot in my decision to pursue nursing and the state and area i would choose to practice the said profession. thanks!

[perioddrama]

CA is horrendous right now. I have seen new grad positions/programs for med-surg, ICU, and tele; however, I have not seen it for neuro. You can take a look at a New Grad RN Calif facebook's page. The support and job tips there are helpful. Indeed, on that facebook page, there have been some posters that have moved out of state and found new grad residencies. So, there is hope.

With the economy the way it is right now, there is a surplus of new grads and not enough new grad positions. Suffice to say, competition is quite fierce for the limited new grad positions, even in rural areas. It is not impossible, it is just darn difficult to find a paid RN job.

Good luck!

[Luigi89]

thank you for your comment. which states would you say are best states to practice nursing now? are you an acute care nurse yourself?. im thinking if i should get my adn in community college or my bsn at a better university just to have that edge.

[RNEMT-P]

In central Virginia (Richmond), it is a little difficult to get hired as a new grad unless you already work in the hospital, and sometimes unit, you are applying to. I graduated a year ago and just had my first interview 2 weeks ago, and I have about 12 years experience as a paramedic. I had put out probably 75 or so apps, many to ERs, with no luck. Fortunately, I did get the position I interviewed for, which is an ICU, so it is possible to get that as a new grad.

I can't tell you for sure how it is to be a nurse in Virginia, since my experience is all as a student. But, my old ambulance partner is now a nurse in Texas and she said it sucks there, that they aren't allowed to do much beyond assessments and meds. But, I have seen hospitals from Texas at job fairs here looking for new grads, so it seems like the job market might not be too bad there, but I can't attest to that.

Good luck!

[missnurse01, MSN, RN]

we have many transplants from Cali here in the Seattle area-they came solely for the reason that they could not get new grad jobs down there, but applied and got one up here. In my unit we only hire about 2 a year.

good luck

[Lyricalluna]

It seems really hard to get new grad positions in hospitals here in CA. Many seem to be starting our in LTC before applying to hospitals.