Question for Grads from 2000-2005

Nurses General Nursing

Published

People used to (actually still do) that nursing is recession proof and it'll be easy to find a job. Right now I'm still unemployed can't find a job anywhere like many others. What I'm asking is for the grads within this timeframe is, were you able to find a job very easily? Was nursing ever actually a career that was like "OH MAN I CAN GET A JOB EASILY WITH THIS DEGREE!"

Right now, though even if things do get better we have so many damn nursing schools pumping out new grads I feel like job security is going to be minimal due to corporate greed and knowing there will be nurses to replace existing ones.

My mom is a proud RN part of the reason why I chose to be a nurse also due to not being able to afford the other schools I was accepted to so I thought Nursing would actually be a degree that would have a good rate of return on my investment. Right now I'm looking at a 80K money pit that's still growing because of additional costs like licensures.

Specializes in OB, ER.

I graduated in 2000 and had a job immediatley with a sign on bonus! A year later I had another place I had applied the year before call me and offer me a job! I wasn't even looking and they called me.

Nursing continuously cycles though. If you talk to long time nurses they can tell you. It will cycle again and we will be turning down jobs!

Specializes in geriatrics.

There is definitely a shortage everywhere. Employers are simply choosing not to hire, and nurses work short all the time. This won't last forever.

The first 2 years of my BSN program (2006 and 2007), there were all kinds of nursing jobs. From 2008 on, the jobs started disappearing. I had 2 friends graduate in 2002 from nursing, and they were hired before graduation. I also remember in those days recruiters were actively looking and desperate for nurses.

I hope nursing really is cyclic in this regard.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
What I'm asking is for the grads within this timeframe is, were you able to find a job very easily? Was nursing ever actually a career that was like "OH MAN I CAN GET A JOB EASILY WITH THIS DEGREE!"

Yep. When I graduated (2006 - so slightly later than your timeframe), there was probably 2-3 jobs for every new grad. Most of us had jobs lined up 1-2 months before we graduated (in specialty units, as well as M/S). We were in great demand, being courted by all the local hospitals, with paid luncheons, expense-paid trips to different states for open houses and interviews, sign-on bonuses and relocation bonuses.

I'm sorry you new grads are in this situation. It's a lot different from when I was a new grad. But like others have said, I really believe it's cyclical.

I graduated before that time frame, but I did observe the growth of full-page and half page ads in papers and magazines advertising for nurses.

I noticed the increase in number and amounts of sign on bonuses.

Free nursing magazines arrived frequently in the mail with many hospitals in the region advertising jobs.

My hospital opened up new grad internships for areas that never before hired new grads.

Job fairs abounded.

Sometime around 2008 that all changed.

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