Paleogirl

I'm in the Hampton Roads/ Norfolk area. I also wish that I could have worked as a tech while in nursing school, but I have 3 kids and couldn't do it.

​I know exactly how you feel about wishing you hadn't sat for NCLEX yet. I've found a couple of jobs online that I'm getting ready to apply for.......this is what the jobs say under job requirements: Certification as a Medical Assistant or equivalent Successful completion of secondary education in medical assisting or other nursing related field of study Well, I feel like that would be me. I don't have my one year of med surg experience yet and I haven't completed my BSN, but I have completed the ADN program and received my nursing license. I hope I hear back from them. What area do you live in? When I do job searches it seems like smaller more rural areas are wiling to accept nurses who have not completed their BSN, but the larger cities do not.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm not aware of any military spouse support groups other than ones I've found on facebook and I've asked around on there with no luck. I've signed up for the military spouse preference program and applied for multiple jobs through USA jobs, but haven't had any luck with that either. I will start giving an explanation in my cover letters to explain my gap in employment. I've done that with a few cover letters, but not all of them.

I'm a new graduate of an Associate Degree nursing program with a compact RN license who moved here after graduation. I've been searching and applying and attempting to network for 3.5 months now with no success. I've applied to new grad positions, but every one of them stated that BSN was "preferred". I've only been offered one phone interview and that's as far as it goes for me. This is very difficult because I've got 4 strikes against me: 1. I'm a new grad 2. Even though I have a compact license, I'm from out of state and I didn't complete my clinicals here; I'm not familiar with the hospitals here. 3. I have very little work experience 4. The work experience that I do have is a decade old, because a decade ago my child was born with special medical needs and I spent the last ten years being a stay at home mom, following my husband around for his military career, and raising our other children as well. (My daughter's special medical needs are what actually inspired me to go back to school to become a nurse). Needless to say, I feel ambivalent as I know I needed to be at home with my children and I couldn't help that we moved so often, but these are all major strikes against me, and I wish that I had more to offer on my resume! I regret not volunteering......or having a part time job just JUST TO HAVE MORE ON MY RESUME! I've concluded that: -most nurses in the area are BSN grads or ADN grads with experience. Not having my BSN is working against me. -my lack of job experience and return to the workforce after ten years are obvious strikes against me I really have no desire to continue my pity party and focus on my bruised ego. I would rather do ANYTHING it takes right now to get ANY job, even if it's a non nursing job. My plan at the moment is: 1. Apply to an RN to BSN program and pursue my BSN. 2. Begin volunteering immediately in nursing related areas such as hospice, the VA, the major hospitals in this area, and maybe even behavioral health facilities (I've always had an interest in psych). 3. Broaden my job search and begin applying for any type of job that involves care-taking or working in a medical setting - examples: group home worker, habilitation technician, medical office assistant/receptionist (I do have 2 years of secretary experience, but as I stated - that was over a decade ago). 4. After I complete steps 1-3, I will not only have recent job experience, but I will have my BSN and my proposed volunteer experience as well. I don't want to focus on things that can't be undone, as that is a waste of time. I just want to move forward. Please give me advice on what you guys think. What would you do? Do you think it's a bad idea to take a job doing something other than RN work even though I have my RN license........does that look bad? Does that scream desperate to future employers?

Hello all, I am a new graduate nurse who has just re-located to the Norfolk area and I'm having trouble finding a job. I've applied to many places and I haven't been offered an interview yet. All of the jobs actually stated that experience was preferred, but I applied anyway. I cannot find anyone who is accepting new grads. I see that Chesapeake Regional Hospital will begin accepting applications for their new nurse orientation in January and I'm beginning to think that perhaps I should just work a temporary job for now and then try to make it into their new orientation program. Does anyone happen to know if you can work as an LPN if you actually have an RN license? I'm "iffy" about this, but the thing is.....I have seen at least a dozen jobs for LPN's stating that new graduates are welcome. At least maybe I could get my foot in the door and then apply for an RN position later on. I'm unsure about what to do.

Hi, I was wondering if you found anything? I'm a new grad job hunting in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area and I have yet to find anything =(

I know this is a few months old, but if you haven't found a job yet I actually saw some open positions for LPN with Sentara today while job hunting. They said "accepting new grads" so I don't see why there would be a problem with the fact that you're returning to the workforce after ten years. LPN - SMG - Norfolk - Sentara Healthcare | Jobs.com Licensed Practical Nurse - Norfolk - Sentara Healthcare | Jobs.com

Thank you guys for the advice : )

Hello all, I'm a new grad nurse and as I sit here writing my resume I'm wondering if it would be ok to include my GPA? Would it be ok to list my "nursing" gpa in addition to my cumulative GPA? My nursing GPA is 3.9 (includes all classes for the nursing program), but my cumulative GPA is 3.4. Also, I made Dean's list for one semester during nursing school (didn't make it all semesters because my classes were usually just below full time).......should I include this? I'm afraid that I don't have a great resume because I'm not only a new grad nurse, but I'm also returning to the workforce after being a stay at home mom for nearly a decade. Prior to this I have no real relevant work experience (an office job, food service, a short term position working as a mentor......that's it). In regards to references, I'm using 2 of my nursing instructors and I'm also using my preceptor as a reference. Should I get a "general" letter of recommendation from one of my references to add to my portfolio? Or should I only ask if I need it for a specific position? Also, my number one priority at the moment is finding an employer who will accept a new grad RN, obviously........but I've heard of other grads who took other positions with employers and then applied for RN positions when they opened up. Is this pretty common? Is it frowned upon? Just curious. I would absolutely love to be a psych nurse, but every position I've seen available so far makes it a point to state that psych experience is preferred and at least some med surg experience is imperative : ( Any advice is appreciated :)