Codeda

Congradulations! You are certainly in for a great new adventure ; )

Yeah I could never see myself doing the emt or paramedic route just because of the amount of schooling/ small pay. Just doesn't cut it. I think the only thing I have thought of doing other than nursing is PTA. We have a few in our facility and their schooling is about as long as RN and they make really good money and I always are ads for them in newspapers and online. Plus you still get to help people. I dunno. Good luck with your decision

A week is hardly enough time to get freaked out. Just give it a little bit of time and if you haven't heard anything call them. That's how most people I know got their jobs. " bothering" them a little bit won't hurt.

Its weird because its difficult and not difficult at the same time. Its hard to get in the really good ltcs but kind of easy to get in elsewhere. Only problem is all the places that have offered me a job so far have only been part time jobs. So right now I'm working one part time job that gives me 20 hours a week and another one that is every other weekend. It just seems places aren't hiring full time and if they are then they want someone with experience. That's been my situation anyway. Been desperate to find something with more hours. Just make sure to apply to everywhere possible no matter how frustrating it is and call them back fairly often and you shouldn't have a problem finding something.

Hello. I'm in Orlando and I make 9.00 an hour at an assisted living facility and 8.75 at a nursing home. My friend works at Arnold Palmer and makes 10.75. But of course everything will vary depending on facility

Yeah there has been talk of it being hard to find a new grad job here for a while. I would expand my search a bit to surrounding cities. Ocala. Daytona. West palm. Wherever you know. Find some good hospitals and just apply like a maniac outside of Orlando too. Then when you have some experience if you want to come back maybe you can get a hospital job here OR you may love your new city and not want to go. Good luck to you in your search

You should be fine. I took a week long course and then passed the test. When I got hired they had me shadow someone to learn the ropes and after that if you have any questions just ask and it shouldn't be a problem. Good luck ; )

Wow does this ever sound like me. I was only at my job for 1 year but the last 3 months were awful. I was depressed, miserable, and would call in with these nonsense excuses. Good job. Good money. Great hours with weekends and all holidays off. Hated it and was BORED out of my mind. Gave my two weeks notice last November without a job lined up, did the cna course and found a job by December 16th. Not only did my coworkers think I was nuts when I quit but my new coworkers at my facility now can not understand why I would give up a job like that for this kind of thing. I am beyond happy though and absolutely broke ; ) I'm going back for nursing at the end of the year and that's that. Thanks for sharing your story!

Well happy new year to us. Orlando health hiring freeze is officially over Friday ( according to someone from hr I spoke with today). Also if you now go on their website it doesn't give you a funny message.

Where do you live? Where I am ( Orlando ) no jobs anywhere. None of the ltcs are hiring hospitals not really and even regular jobs ( Walmart) in my area have a hiring freeze. Its crazy. One lady I work with had to get a part time job at kfc for now because of the cut of hours and lack of anything out there.

It's funny because I have heard from 3 CNAs this past week alone that they love doing agency work and would never work for one facility. Maybe it depends on each agency and each city? I don't have any experience with them but no raise after 5 years seems a bit nuts.

It won't let me edit my post but I meant it's called the ginsberg tower. Not that's its that important but my poor spelling was annoying me.

I think she is talking about Orlando health. We have another thread speaking about the freeze currently going on over there. Florida hospital has had an orientation going on every week for the last month to fill the new tower ( which is called the Ginsberb tower). As of right now they only have some of cardiac and ED open in that tower but as they open up more floor of course they will need more employees. I would just take the advice of others and give them a call to see if they will be hiring new grads when they are hiring again because from what I saw there were very few new grads coming in ( but that might have been because they were hiring for ED). Anyway good luck with your search.

Thanks everybody for you responses! I personally had no intentions of going the housekeeping route but just wondering if anyone else had done anything like that. I have a job at an assisted living facility for Alzheimers and dementia. Its ok but not great. They don't hire CNAs to work there so I'm only 2 out of a lot of people that work there that are certified. Also the training isn't super super great so although I know what I should be doing a lot of girls had no healthcare experience so the way they work isn't so great. I'm supposed to be full time but only get about 28 hours a week on really bad pay ( so I at least have to find something to supplement). And 2 out of the 4 nurses leave something to be desired. The residents are great though so of course that helps. A few of the residents have their own personal CNAs to come in to take care of them and they all told me that they much prefer working for the agency and I should try to give some of them a call but I always thought you had to have experience to start an agency job? Maybe not depending. Oh and a lot of our ltcs aren't hiring at all right now and our hospitals here will not hire a CNA without previous experience in healthcare or previous hospital experience. And one out of the 3 has a hiring freeze ( and that's the one I know people at!) sigh. Anyway thanks again for all the advice : )

When I went to Florida hospital a few weeks ago ( tech position) there was only 1 new grad there with about 25 RNs that were experienced. A bunch of nurses shipped in from overseas also. I was thinking it was weird but I guess not. I am starting nursing school next year and I'm thinking that the plan is to move when I am done unless its easier for nurses to get a job by the time I'm done. The question is where to move? Is it a state wide thing ( heard there was a freeze in Tampa and Miami also). What to do.

She is level 3 too! Well maybe she will be your preceptor who knows. I'm sure you will really like it. The night shift diff doesn't hurt either.

My best friend works in the nicu there nights and loves it! Enjoy yourself : ). Now at Florida hospital now a girl in icu and she just started 2 weeks ago as a new grad making 21.75 so not a huge difference. My friend at winnie Palmer said that most of her coworkers choose to stay there instead of going to Florida hospital because they have the opportunity to make over time at winnie and Florida hospital is very strict on overtime. Is this true? I don't know but just some info for you.

I am making 9 an hour at an ALF with no shift diff. I'm in Orlando and I dunno but it seems kind of low. I'm thinking I may keep looking. Oh plus I'm full time and they keep giving me part time hours. Hmm

So it's difficult to get a Job in a hospital. Has anyone gone a non traditional route to get their foot in the door? I have a friend that is working housekeeping and they said that after 6 months she can transfer to a tech position and they would help her transfer( she has no CNA experience just got certified). That just seems tough to me. We started looking for jobs at the same time so I know that is hard to find something but I don't know if would have gone this route. What do you guys think? Have you worked in a different area just to get a foot in?

They ARE the same. You can work at the hospital as a CNA without all that additional training up front because a hospital will train you. The only thing with that class is that it is good for marketing yourself. There's a good chance that if you already have the training in these areas then it may be easier to get your foot in the door than someone who has yet to do these extra things. So that's pretty much what it comes down to. If I had an interview at Florida hospital as a PCA and you had one as a CNA and there was only one slot left I may get it because my training looks a little better. That's not always going to be the case though. Good luck with your decision

There's a nursing shortage but that doesn't mean that there are enough teachers to teach RN programs. Orlando tech is downtown right by the Orlando amway arena. Area of town is fine.

I just spoke with someone at HR about this yesterday and she said yes there is a hiring freeze and that she didn't know how long it was going to last but to keep checking. She said it would probably be off by the start of the new year ( we'll see). Anyway it freaked me out also. I thought there was something wrong with my computer at first.

I'm going to piggy back on your thread and hope we can get an answer about LPNs out there and jobs. I pretty much grew up in Vegas ( summers anyway) and half of my family lives out there and was thinking of moving there( looking at a few other states also). Don't want to go if there aren't any jobs or anything though. Also last I checked csn does have an LPN to RN bridge but I don't know about any other schools.

5-6 months of cool weather? What part of the state do you live in? Where i am we are lucky to get 3 months ( november, december, january) although this week alone it reached the 80's so not even this month has been that cool lol.

Hi yadda_yadda_yadda. Thanks for the response. Where exactly Is Monroe? Also how far away it is? Glad that you are enjoying it there. At the beginning of this thread I said I would be coming as an RN but I'm thinking I'll probably do the bridge there when I finish with my LPN school rather than do it here ( just sick of being here). Anyway what's an average wage for LPNs out there in your area? Also is it at a hospital or a facility? Anyway thanks again for your response.