SkyGoddess

Been a flight attendant for 20 years, been an RN since 2009, and just finished NP school in Dec. Still fly and nurse PRN. When I get sick of one job, I do the other. I rotate every week. Tomorrow I am going to Hong Kong.

it depends on location....in texas you can get hired quick....denver has a bad economy....also u ned to go where the miltary bases are....thats where the jobs are

Girl let me tell you.....dont you let people discourage you. I always say if I listened to what people said to me my whole life I would be turning tricks on a corner. People have tried to discourage me my whole life from doing things including going to nursing school. I dont give a damn what anyone says to and about me. You keep right on looking. Next time someone tells you that you cant do something or you wont get something....you ask them who died and made them God. God knows me, he made me, and everything I get is going to come from him and not some arrogant fool in a human resources dept. Good Luck

Go to San Antonio. I am graduated in 2009 and could not get a job in Dallas or Houston. Sent out about 30 apps. I applied at one hospital in San Antonio and got the job in two weeks in the ER. dont think there i going to be a windfall of jobs for you. everyone is moving to Texas but they are moving to Dallas, Houston, and Austin where there are no nursing jobs for new grads. there are thousands of applicants. u will be suprised when you start looking how many calls u will NOT get.

You need to get out of Houston ASAP. I graduated from school there in 2009 and just got my first job in San Antonio last week working in the ER. The pay is less but who cares. Do not move to Dallas or Austin either. I moved to Dallas and sent out over 20 applications, had two interviews and nothing transpired. I got fed up and looked up hosptials in San Antonio and only applied at ONE of them. I applied on a Wednesday, the next day I got an email to do a personality test and within two hours the nurse recruiter called me. I went in for an interview the next Thursday she made another interview for me in the ER for the following Wednesday and the ER manager hired me on the spot. So it took me two weeks to get the job. These two interviewers hardly asked me any questions at all. Not all that complex crap all those other interviewers ask. Didnt ask about clinical situations or anything. Location is the key. Nurses need to start moving to cities that have large military presence if they want to work not large medical centers. The wars are keeping this cities thriving. Try San Antonio, Killeen, El Paso. San Antonio is 2.5 hours away from Houston so you can drive to your interviews. Try craigslist. You can guage how the jobs are just from that....do a search for jobs in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio and you will see there are way more advertisements for jobs in San Antonio. I did get a parttime temp (two month) nursing job from Craigslist after graduation. One of my friends got fired from her job in San Antonio in banking and she found another equal job within 1.5 months. I have friends in Dallas and Houston who have been out of work for over a year. All of us have impressive resumes. I have four college degrees and if I told you what I did before you would be shocked. Still no one called me or hired me. There is a lot of educated, well traveled, people/nurses out there. I stressed that I had a stable work history, never had any on the job injuries, and that I was not interested in jumping from hospital to hospital. I told them I had been one minute late to work one time in the past five years and it was only one minute and I could show her proof of it because I have to sign in on the computer and it is recorded. I told the recruiter my interest was to become a nurse practioner and that I wanted to still be on the frontlines helping patients and that I had no interest in management. I also volunteerd a lot and put it on my resume. Go look up free clinics online in Houston and go volunteer once a week. So if anyone asks what did you do with your time while not nursing tell them you volunteered because your goal is to help people as a nurse and it didnt matter if you got paid or not. And another thing I did was bring two copies of my resume with me. That stuff on the compputer is so jumbled up it is hard for them to read it. I gave both of the interviewers my resume so they could read from it and write notes on it. The Er manager was having a hard time pulling my resume because her computer was acting crazy and I gave her one from my purse and she seemed delighted that I did that. Good luck

Oh and keep your head up. It will be just a matter of time before these hosptials realize there are not enough experienced nurses willing to quit their jobs to come and work for them. The recruiter said they gave up on experienced nurses, they are now hiring new nurses and just training them.

I graduated in 2009 and have no experience. I applied at about 15 places, had two interviews and didnt get either job. I finally applied in a city four hours from my home. The only hospital I applied at there. I applied on Wednesday two weeks ago. The very next day the nurse recruiter emailed me a personality test and within one hour of the test she called me to come for an interview the next Thursday. I talked to her for about 30 minutes...no hard questions and she referred me to the nurse manager for an interview on Wednesday which was yesterday. She hired me on the spot. I had said it was the last job I was going to apply for. I was so ****** going to the interview. Everything was going wrong the whole morning but it kept working out. When I went to the interview she was having a hard time pulling up my app. I pulled out a resume from my purse. She loved it. When you go to an interview have a resume with you and leave it for her. That online stuff is a bunch of jumbled up stuff that is hard to read. Also make sure you have a detailed resume that tells everything about you and what you did at your last jobs. I listed all my volunteer work in a paragraph. I listed everything I did at all of my jobs. I put my g.p.a and hesi scores. I also put on my resume that I passed NCLEX on my first attempt. I listed all the departments i did clinicals in and everything I did....inserted iv's, did blood draws, etc. SPELL CHECK the hell out of that resume. PROOF READ it 1000 times. Detail it so much that they wont really have any questions to ask you. Also a lot of my friends take their resumes to the nursing homes in person and got hired on the stuff. Also you should try going to some of the poorer neighborhoods and applying at clinics, hospitals, ltc, and nursing homes there. A lot of new nurses want to work in the new big pretty hospitals. I also told the nurse recruiter that I dont have a preference as to where i wanted to work in the hospital. I went to school to be a nurse and help people. I told her to find the one nursing job no one in the hospital wants and give it to me that I would take it, do it, and do well at it. Trust me I was so fed up that I went into a store before the interview and this guy started talking to me and asked me where I was going. i told him and interview and I really didnt give a F*&K if I got the job or not. He cracked up laughing. I called my sister and told her these hosptials can take their stuck up nurse jobs and stick them up their orifices. I was mad! I was going to even call the interviewer and tell her I wasnt coming. But ten minutes in the interview she told me I had the job. I think sometimes it takes getting to that point. Its just like a relationship or anything you want in life. When you want and want it you dont get it. When you say forget it the show must go on, and you really let it go, that is when you get it. this job i got is in the ER. It took a total of two weeks for me to get it. A lot of times things you get in life come easy. If you are fighting and fighting for something....let it go...it is not meant for you.

atrice can you tell us how much you are starting out at?

I am in an RN program right now that started in Jan 08. It is a two year program. From looking around the class, I would say the AVERAGE AGE is 30. In fact there are hardly any 20 somethings. You would also be amazed at the ones who are in their 20s are married with several kids. Most of the people (male/female) in my program have 2+ kids. When you go to class no one is going to ask your age because no one is really going to care. You are the only one bent out of shape about it. Everyone is trying to make it through so they can graduate and make money for their families. That should be your concern as well. We are all going to get older. Furthermore when you start doing clinicals and get in the nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, you are really going to realize how young you are when you see the patients chart and it says they were born in 1918, 1925 etc. Now that is old!!!!!! When I see a patients chart and it says they were born in 1944 I wonder what such a young person is doing in the rehab center (this is where we are doing clinicals)! Also if you want to know about cost you must find ALL of the schools in your area and GO TO them to find out all of the criteria. In fact, do not even call or speak to a counselor. Get all of their written brochures and READ EVERYTHING for yourself. Educate yourself first from written materials and the schools Web site. My experience has been that a lot of these counselors have NO IDEA what is needed for the nursing programs since they advice so many students on many topics. Plus being a nurse is a highly paid position, guaranteed work, high social status, etc. and many people will not want to help someone acheive it. Being a nurse will garner jealousy in many of your "friends" and other people. I said all that to say this.......educate yourself in this nursing process, read EVERYTHING, research everything on your own and then ask questions later. I have found many counselors had nasty attitudes towards me when I went to them. Good luck

I think most of the schools dropped the two day a week clinical and now it is one week. Atrice congrats on your graduation. Do you know where you are going tow be working?

I go to Kingwood now. This is my first semester soon to be over the first week of May 08. I go to school on Monday 10-3, Tuesday Clinical 0630-1600, and Wednesday 12-3. Monday from 10-12 we have an on campus lab class that is required attendance. From 12:30-3 on Mon. and Wed. we have lecture. Lecture is NOT mandatory but it is good to go to as the teachers sometimes give hints as to what is going to be on the test plus they give handouts. Mostly everyone goes but many do not. Hope this helps and good luck

If you want to give individual gifts to your nursing friends, how about pedometers? Everyone is trying to lose weight for the new year. And as a hint, they are supposed to clip onto your shoe and not your waist. Clipping onto the shoe gives a more accurate reading. You could also go into Burlington Coat, they sell Christmas Lipglosses 6 to a pack for $3.99. You could buy a couple of packages and throw them into a bowl, along with pedometers, and some other misc. things from the dollar store. Then everyone could get what they want. Make sure you put a sign on it saying, "TAKE ONE ITEM ONLY PLEASE."

cad what times and days did you register for? Did you go in person? I did my background check and have my hepB shots finished. I started pricing books. I am not buying any of the optional books. When you take out the optional books, its only about 8-10 books to buy. That piece of paper makes it look like a hundred books. Which orientation did you go to? Yesterdays or last weeks?

I have heard horrible things about CyFair and was actually going to decline it if I got accepted. I went to the orientation for Kingwood and felt so good about it. They do everything they can to work with you! I believe I can make it. There were some women there whose first choice were CyFair but they didnt get it, and people were encouraging them not to go there, to stay at Kingwood. Plus Cy-Fair is a 6 semester program whereas Kingwood is 4. Also Kingwood is supposed to come out with a totally online program for fall 08 if you have a previous bachelors degree. Maybe you can go to Cy Fair for the first semester and transfer. How many days a week do you have to go at Cy Fair. Actually Cy-Fair was going to be my first choice but I started doing research and asking questions and I changed my mind. Good luck

Cad4296 Congratulations :balloons:.....looks like you got it all wrapped up!!!! How do I get a background check done? Does anyone have ideas about where to get CPR training from?