mt2544

A temporary permit allows you to work until you receive your permanent license.

Both from the boards and from looking at job postings, it seems that Texas is hiring new grads at a higher rate than many other parts of the country. I think though that you will need to stay away from the larger cities, as those areas already have many nursing schools as well as grads moving from out of state and only looking for work once they land. I am a new grad in California and am waiting for my Texas license as we speak. I haven't given up on Cali yet (I just graduated in May) but if I don't have anything lined up by September I'm going to start applying in Texas. The process for applying for Texas licensure by endorsement is pretty streamlined. Where do you live now?

In another thread I saw that someone got the "We've received your application" email just today, so they're definitely still just looking through the apps. That makes me wonder just how many people have applied... :/

You're welcome!! When I saw your post I panicked and immediately checked the posting, because I had only attached my docs to the online app as well. :)

TDO RN - If you double-check the job posting, it says that you could attach the docs to the online application, fax them, OR email them to that address. So you should be fine on that front. :) ~M

davismom - That's wonderful to hear about those two nurses getting loan forgiveness a couple years ago! There may well be some positions in Cali still offering that to inexperienced new grad RNs, but I just haven't heard of any myself. (All my job market info is either anecdotal or gleaned from hospital websites.) I too have talked to a couple new NPs in the Bay Area who are getting very attractive offers that include loan repayment. Alas, there is a world of difference between their lot and that of us lowly new grad RNs. And I'm sure the market will be better by the time you graduate. My class is continuing to get jobs one by one, and while I am unfortunately not yet one of the lucky ones, I have been getting some very encouraging nibbles. :) ~M

Oaktown2 - I asked a classmate of mine what he thought of the commute from Carmichael, and here's what he had to say: "I [lived] in Carmichael..around the vicinity of Manzanita and Madison. "I think that the commute was pretty reasonable...it was a straight shot to campus on Fair Oaks Blvd....with some trouble intersections like Arden and Watt. I'd say to plan for about a 20 minute commute without traffic and a 30 minute with (especially in the morning rush hour)." Hope that helps! ~M

This applies to the Stanford Hospital positions. This is what I understood from my conversation with the recruiter this morning. There are 961 applicants vying for about 10 positions. (I am not sure how to account for the discrepancy from earlier posters who mentioned 18 positions; perhaps it's 18 between the two hospitals. I applied only for the Stanford Hospital positions.) From the telephone screening candidates, 72 individuals will be selected for panel interviews which will occur during the week of August 8-11. From those candidates, the pool will be narrowed down to two candidates for each position, and those candidates will have one-on-one interviews with a manager. (Each of those candidates will interview with two different managers.) The recruiter stated that she was taking notes of our phone call, and would upload those notes to my file. From there a clinical nurse educator will look at those notes and determine who moves forward. The recruiter told me to check my status online in a week, and if it states "Application in Review" that means good news.

I am not too familiar with the process of becoming a CNA. I have heard that some hospitals will accept nursing students who have completed their first semester, allowing the experience to count instead of requiring an actual CNA certification. (However, as you will discover if you have not already, the rumors about all kinds of things fly fast and thick in nursing school... It's best to find things out for yourself.) The best thing I can recommend to you on that front is to contact the HR department of whichever hospital you may be interested in and just ask them what types of jobs are available to nursing students, and go from there. (Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to work my first semester--it wasn't the busiest for me, but it was by far the most stressful. After that semester you will have a much better sense of what you, as an individual, would be able to manage in addition to school.) Also, there were some students in our class who got hired as wound technicians in the UC Davis burn unit. I had two uniforms throughout the program, but ours were much cheaper than yours are. (We wore a green Sac State nursing polo shirt and white scrub pants of our own choosing.) But really, I didn't ever need the second set until my last semester, even with back-to-back clinicals, because I have a washer and dryer in my apartment and just always washed my scrubs the minute I got home. But I liked to have that second set just in case. And thank goodness I had an extra... One day I used a clorox wipe on my stethoscope b/c the patient had something very contagious. Then, not thinking, I just put the stethoscope back around my neck. Later in the day I thought I'd gotten something all over me, but realized that my green polo shirt now had some brownish bleach marks. It looked like I had been sprayed with poop. Washing the shirt that night of course didn't improve the situation at all. Needless to say, this was not a look that would have inspired confidence in my patients. :) So, I was grateful to have a back-up so I didn't have to scramble to get a replacement. Just something to think about. P.S. TLS11 - Thanks for the kind words. I know you'll do great as well. :)

Best of luck to you! And feel free to ignore the negative comments... A prepared person is a prepared person, and it doesn't matter what day of the week they take their test. If the fail rate is actually higher for Mondays (and I have never heard such a thing) I would think it is likely the result of those particular test-takers having partied on the weekend instead of reviewing and getting a good night's sleep. I took my NCLEX just last Monday, so I'm waiting on the results. But it felt good, so here's hoping... :)

Hi davismom - I am not aware of a single hospital, anywhere in California, that is offering any loan forgiveness to a new grad at this time. I can't imagine that there is one. (If anyone finds out different, please post.) The California market is so incredibly saturated right now (hundreds of applicants for each new grad position) that employers really don't need to do anything to sweeten the deal. The new grads getting jobs are just grateful to be employed. That said, the market is certainly getting better, but it will take a long time to recover. Hopefully by the time you graduate there will be significant improvement. I think approx half a dozen students in my class had jobs lined up by graduation, and I think at this point (a month after graduation) that number is probably somewhere around 20 or so. (And this is out of a class of 70.) This is a link to an op-ed piece that talks about what's going on with the new grad hiring situation, and what it means for the future of nursing: http://www.suzannegordon.com/?p=581 For example, Stanford offers an RN residency program for new RNs with a BSN or MSN. They're doing preliminary interviews right now. I have heard that there are 18 positions for which they received more than 900 applications. Now, a prominent RN residency program will of course attract a significant number of applicants, but this gives you some idea of what the market is like. Local recruiters have said they are getting several hundred applications for each position. From what I have seen, Davis and Mercy have been taking the most new grads. (But by no means a lot.) And of course things may well be different by the time you graduate. If you absolutely need to stay in the Sacramento area, do NOT precept at a Kaiser unless you are currently employed by Kaiser in some other capacity (which would make you an internal hire). The union-driven hiring practices make it pretty much impossible for a unit to hire an outside new grad, even if everyone on that unit is in love with that new grad. I did precept at a Kaiser b/c I knew I would have a great experience as a student, and I definitely did. But I knew that employment with them was a long shot and I do have the option of not only leaving Sacramento but leaving the state in order to find work. I am diligently looking for work throughout California and am getting the paperwork started to get licensure in a couple other states so that I may begin looking there in earnest as well. There is no one perfect path that guarantees a job at graduation. But there are many things you can do to improve your chances. If there is some particular hospital you are determined to work at, try to get a job there as a CNA or unit assistant. (A few students in my class were CNAs during school, and at their hospitals they only needed to work 2 weekends a month to maintain their jobs. This is a manageable work schedule during the program.) I firmly believe that nursing will work out beautifully for me as a long-term career--I was made to do this work--but the short-term may be something of a rough go, and I may wind up having to move somewhere I'd rather not live just for the opportunity to get this "new grad stink" off me. So, to everyone reading this, don't be discouraged. If you really believe that nursing is for you, go for it. But if you're getting into it thinking that you're guaranteed a fat paycheck at the end, please research a little more thoroughly before putting yourself through the rigors of the program. ~M **Please bear in mind that all of my input on the job market is purely anecdotal; I haven't put any effort into systematically assessing my entire class. That said, I am still in touch with many of them and have a sense of how we're doing as a group. I just want to make sure that no one gives too much credence to my words. I'm just an unemployed new grad trying to figure things out for myself. :)

For anyone still waiting, I just got a call today to set up a phone appointment for next week. I have to admit that I had pretty much given up on this one. Good luck to everyone!

I just spoke with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation with questions regarding licensure by endorsement, and thought I would post the info here in case it is of use to others. (I spent 1.5 hours redialing to get past the busy tone, and then spent 20 minutes on hold. But the woman who answered was friendly and helpful.) I requested the fingerprint card, and she took down my address and said these requests are processed pretty quickly. Typical waiting periods, once all the paperwork has arrived in their office: 4-6 weeks for a temporary permit 8-10 weeks for a permanent license (She said that if there are any aspects of the application requiring further investigation it will add at least three weeks to the process.) As of today (6/20) the area that handles the RN licenses is working on files from June 2nd. So they are 18 days behind. I am in California, and I mentioned to her that the BRN here sends the form directly to Illinois instead of returning it to me, and she said that is not a problem.

The clinical locations pretty much change each semester. (However, there are some people who wind up being at UC Davis Med Center for pretty much everything, but that's just luck of the draw.) There is some opportunity for you to have a little bit of input for 2nd and 3rd semesters (people were able to trade with others if something just wasn't going to work for them). 4th semester you have quite a bit of input as to where you have your preceptorship, although there are no guarantees. I just graduated last month, and this is where I was during the program: 1st: Sutter General 2nd: Mercy General 3rd: Sutter Memorial 4th: Kaiser Roseville (I was one of only two students in my class who was never at UC Davis.) And in addition to these clinical rotations, there are also placements for community health, mental health, etc. Oh, and I wanted to add that while all the rotations are certainly comparable, they are by no means the same. Your experience will be heavily influenced by the particular clinical faculty you have, as well as by the individual hospital units themselves. (Some units have lots of great, supportive nurses, and some don't.) You will all get different types of patients, which will affect what diseases and treatments you wind up knowing the most about.

Did the faculty really give you no more direction than this? (Such as length of presentation, etc.) There are different ways to go about a case study presentation, so determining the overall scope of the project is the first step in determining what you should do.

Thanks very much for the helpful list. Looking for work is such a time consuming task; I would much rather be putting that time into studying for the NCLEX.

I agree that a private school may be the way to go, although they tend to be significantly more expensive. Also, (and you may already be doing this) it would be helpful to seek out tutoring help or someone who can help you analyze your study strategies and perhaps help you identify methods that may work better for you. I have found nursing school to be much more challenging than my prerequisites were. (I am graduating with my BSN this month.) Getting into nursing school is only the beginning of the battle. Best of luck to you!

The only way to know for sure is to contact the schools you are considering applying to and ask them directly. Even within a state requirements can vary significantly between schools. Good luck!

Agreed. For each school you are considering you should be sure to talk to both the nursing department and the university admissions department. That will be the best way of making sure that you have all the information you need and don't miss any deadlines. Unfortunately there's no easy way to go about it. Good luck!

Congratulations! Best of luck. :)

@runningrn2be I can receive PMs, but I can't yet reply to any (I don't have enough posts thus far). If you're comfortable sending me your personal email address through a PM I'd be happy to correspond with you that way. Michelle

Congratulations! I admire your dedication. :)

After the semester ends the university has to verify we've met all requirements and then post our degrees. Then the staff in the nursing department brings the necessary paperwork directly to the Board of Registered Nursing. (We already mailed in our payments and preliminary paperwork a month or two ago.) After the BRN checks the paperwork, apparently they will notify us that we are eligible to sit for the exam. My understanding is that I will probably be able to take the NCLEX by late June. (But I'm not positive.) Hope that helps!

Congratulations to all of you! I am so excited for everyone. :) I am graduating from Sac State nursing next month. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was waiting for my email. You are in for an incredible experience. It's a huge amount of work (which I am still most definitely in the midst of) but I am so incredibly happy that I went back for my nursing degree. I was born to do this work, and the preparation I've received at Sac State has exceeded my expectations. Like anything, you will only get out of the experience whatever you are willing to invest, but the resources are there to make each and every one of you successful. Best of luck! (One of the reasons that Sac winds up taking so many from the waiting list is that many Bay Area students apply to Sac State as a back-up school. If they get their first pick out in the Bay they don't need to move out here to Sac.)

Gabriel, it definitely gets better. I'm in my final semester of nursing school and I've felt the same way. There's just only so much room in our working memories. I've just had to get better about writing things down and being organized with my lists, otherwise stuff will just slide right off my radar. Nothing to worry about! :)