I've been reading all of the threads and posts relating to not being able to find a job in Ontario, despite experience and the willingness to "relocate". I have to admit I'm not feeling particularly sympathetic because I'm not sure I believe people when they say they've applied "everywhere". Does the definition of everywhere only include every important place in the GTA and surrounding GTA areas? Or does it also include rural areas?
I've been on the Health Force Ontario site several times just to get a feel of what is out there, even if I already know I'm doing a return of service to my town. There are a lot of postings for full-time permanent RNs across the province and that isn't even getting into the part-time permanent of full-time temporary.
I don't want this to come across as a rant, but I'm truly confused. If people want experience, what is preventing them from leaving the GTA and moving to a rural community? Rural areas are dying for nurses and there's government money to go to an underserviced community. Is it because they have husbands/wives/children that they can't pack up and move? It is because they don't actually want to work until they get what they want at Sick Kids or UHN or wherever? Is it because rural life is unappealing and they just don't want to leave the big cities?
I'd love to get some insight from those struggling to find jobs and what "tried everything" means.
I guess I won't bother coming back to ON, although I am still maintaining my license. I was thinking I would try to stay put till next summer at least, then move to Calgary or try travel nursing.
Jeeze. Well I'm sure you'll have something out of all that eventually. Bother some of your nursing instructors for leads?
I hope so too. I'm going to a job fair sometime October, I hope I have some luck there. I went to a hospital specific job fair that advertised "new grads welcome" but when I went there I just got a lot of cold shoulders. Some of unit managers won't even accept my resume because I lacked the certifications and experience. Once I told them I was a new grad, they automatically stopped talking or gave a "yes/no" answer.
Anyway we will see. I have gotten interviews so at least I got some practice.
I guess I won't bother coming back to ON, although I am still maintaining my license. I was thinking I would try to stay put till next summer at least, then move to Calgary or try travel nursing.
Trust me, you probably have better luck than me because you have experience now. But if you're interested in travel nursing, go for it. Seems really exciting and challenging.
When I first moved here, by fluke I met the Director of Recruitment for Covenant Health. She lived next door to my friend. She said, "I need to look for a new job. The projections for nursing are scary. Yet we aren't hiring enough."
Same everywhere. Not hiring, yet short staffed. Nurses retiring. When will it change? At my place, we had 3 nurses retire, which is why we're in such bad shape. If they don't start investing more in new nurses, the shortage is going to get worse. When I was at SMH, they stopped replacing sick calls and overloaded nurses with more patients. Very unsafe.
I apologize for coming across as condescending, it really wasn't my intention to offend anyone. My reality appears to be much different from what is going on in the rest of the province and so I made assumptions that people don't bother applying outside the GTA.
I work at a public health unit (my job is the reason I'm leaving public health and going into nursing! good riddance!) and we've just hired 2 nurses and 5 public health promotion positions within the last few months, some of which are held by nurses who didn't want the clinical work. 4 of these 7 hires are from the GTA. The hospital we work with always has new faces at the lunch tables and the newspaper is filled with 2-3 nursing positions for hospitals, long term care, family health teams, community health centre, etc. every week. I see available nursing jobs everywhere and so I wondered why more people from down south weren't applying to come work here and get some experience.
I apologize again - I read your post, 27400, of all the places you've sent resumes to and it's awful that you haven't found anything yet.
i apologize for coming across as condescending, it really wasn't my intention to offend anyone. my reality appears to be much different from what is going on in the rest of the province and so i made assumptions that people don't bother applying outside the gta.
it's the same in every province. there are many, many reasons people don't apply to rural areas and it's often not because they don't want to.
i work at a public health unit (my job is the reason i'm leaving public health and going into nursing! good riddance!) and we've just hired 2 nurses and 5 public health promotion positions within the last few months, some of which are held by nurses who didn't want the clinical work. 4 of these 7 hires are from the gta. the hospital we work with always has new faces at the lunch tables and the newspaper is filled with 2-3 nursing positions for hospitals, long term care, family health teams, community health centre, etc. every week. i see available nursing jobs everywhere and so i wondered why more people from down south weren't applying to come work here and get some experience.
2-3 positions are hardly filling the newspapers. ltc you either love it/hate it/burn out from it. nursing jobs may seem to be everywhere but the reality is getting through the hiring process can be incredibly difficult. public health (at least in ab requires a degree for rns effectively blocking out many "mature" nurses that want to leave the hospital setting. always seeing new faces at lunch can mean that people don't stay because of the working conditions.
i apologize again - i read your post, 27400, of all the places you've sent resumes to and it's awful that you haven't found anything yet.
when i was a new grad, a decade ago, it was hard to get hired. nursing is cyclical. it depends on government funding. it depends on how many are retiring, can management save some money by not replacing these nurses? i know that for a while in ab, every position that became vacant was evaluated to see if it was needed? did it have to be filled by an rn, could an lpn work well there, if it was an lpn line, could they function with an aide in that position. then the unions get involved. seniority comes into play.
nursing is far from a "safe" bet of lifetime employment. i remember the cutbacks and layoffs of the 1990s, nurses crossing the border to work in the us because there was nothing in canada. we still haven't clawed back to the 1990 level in ab. ontario is just feeling what the rest of the country went through decades ago.
rural/northern nursing is often the most unsafe area for new grads. addictions, trauma, mental health issues, not for the newcomer without great backup resources.
Specializes in AC, LTC, Community, Northern Nursing.
I am an RPN and I have literally applied everywhere in Ontario and pretty much nothing. I am fortunate to have a job but I am stuck in a bad situation. I have sent my resume to hospitals and companies directly (north bay, sudbury, etc) who have postings and heard nothing. I live in a rural area now and my opportunities are limited. I don't care where I live so relocating is not an issue for me.
I am new to this website. I have alwayz visited in the past but just joined today..lol. Just wanted to comment on this thread. I am also a new grad and I applied through hfo to jobs all over ontario, I had a phone interview the end of July from far up north, and till last week, the HR was still telling me the position has not been approved :confused ... Even nursing agencies are not hiring, it was very depressing for me as it seemed like I was the only one without a job. I tried to console myself with the fact that I passed the exams, and perhaps those jobs were not meant for me. So after months of applying for jobs, I just got a job offer last week on a job I applied for since June. It was my first face to face interview in years, and I was glad when I was offered a job at the end of the interview. The job does not start till December/January but I am happy that the stress that comes with looking for a job is gone. Now all i have to do is pinch every penny and keep my part time job till den.
@27400, how is your job search going? I hope you get one soon if you haven't already. Just wanted to share my story to let people know they are not the only one in this situation. What happened to the proposed nursing shortage, I wonder?? I remember writing an essay on the topic while in school. It was an interesting research, maybe I will start that as a new thread one day.
I spoke to a friend from school recently. She has been nursing for about 16 months, and she is concerned about losing her job to budget cuts. Another friend just got hired after over a year to a float pool. It isn't just recent grads in ON having a hard time. The market is still bad for everyone there.
As a result, I don't see myself ever moving home. ON seems to be notorious for very dry economic spells. My friends can't even get hired for casual positions in most ON hospitals, because many want experience. To those of you still looking, I hope you find something soon.
joanna73, BSN, RN
4,767 Posts
I guess I won't bother coming back to ON, although I am still maintaining my license. I was thinking I would try to stay put till next summer at least, then move to Calgary or try travel nursing.