PVRNBSN

There is more than a hiring freeze going on in Houston. The nursing shortage does exist ,but people should be more detailed. There is a shortage of experienced nurses. I went to a job fair hosted by nurse week a couple weeks ago and most of the hospitals there were not hiring new grads. MD Anderson said they were on a hiring freeze for new grads.Womens Hospital is also on a hiring freeze. TCH is on a hiring freeze.Kindred Hospital TMC does not have a new grad program. HCA hospitals and Tenet Hospitals are the last hospitals still hiring. The HCA hospitals told me at the job fair that even though they are hiring, they can only hire a few grad nurses. West Houston is about to start interviewing and have even requested that applicants write a 350 word essay about "why there are in the field of nursing and why they chose West Houston.I know a lot of December grads who still have not found jobs. Now the May grads are feeling the squeeze also. I asked one nurse recruiter from Tenet about how come they were accepting less new grads and she said "New grad nurses cost about $3,000 each to train." So I am not surprised that hospitals are hiring less new grads with this economy. Even if the hospital is not losing money ,they are probably tried to scale back costs. My advice would be to steer away from the Houston TMC and start applying to the cities surrounding Houston.

I graduated in december 2008 from a bsn program. I am struggling to find a job in houston. everyone i call wants at least at least one year of experience. It seems that my only options are june 2009 internships and those are still not guaranteed. Is anyone in the Houston area having the same problem ?