rrobinson.rn

My experince has been that degree (ADN, BSN) doesn't matter, it's who you know. I am in an ADN to MSN program and STILL cannot find a freakin job; not even on a basic med surge floor! In my current non nursing position I go to a lot of hospitals and all the nurses say the same thing - it's who you know. They are under staffed and it's because their HR dept are throwing out resumes of perfectly qualified RNs. We all know med surge right out of school so I just don't get it.

I feel your pain. I have 5 yrs experince mainly in hospice and STILL cannot land even a med surge job. And I agree, the so called "shortage" is self made by the hospitals. All nurses have med surge exp right out of school and it is a great place to start and then transfer within the hospital to something else later. Problem is non clinical HR people are the ones weeding through the applications. I know from asking several nurses at different hospitals here in the Columbus OH area that it is who you know. You need to find a way to get directly to the unit manager who is doing the hiring. I am fortunate in that I have some connections that I have recently utilized to help me, so we will see if that works.

I was a new grad when I started in hospice. My background prior to that was 10 yrs as an emergency & critical care veterinary technician. Turned out the manager was an animal lover. Not the typical way to get a start in a specialty, but it proves you should apply to everything and anything even if you don't match the desired qualifications because you never know what kind of connection you may make with the interviewing manager.