Recent MSN nurse graduate

[puppet]

Hello! I recently received my MSN in Management and I find it hard to find employees hiring new nurse managers without experience. I was wondering if this happening to someone or just me?

I would appreciate your reply.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

"I find it hard to find employees hiring"

Assuming that you mean "employers":

While I am not an MSN, it is my understanding that it has always been difficult to find a position (as a nursing manager) that does not require experience. That is why most Masters Degree programs (again in my experience) require that a Masters' applicant bring substantial experience to the table. At the very least, most programs highly recommend experience.

Once you've obtained that experience as a nurse, you will understand the rationale behind that thought process.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Around here most places want a manager that has at least 3-5 years bedside experience. This allows for a better understanding of the needs on the unit and the staff.

[grandmawrinkle]

Many hospitals use assistant NMs, especially with wards upward of 30 beds and many staff. Other hospitals have permanent charge positions (or so I've heard, my area doesn't do this.) You may want to look for positions like that.

Another thought is to look for a position as a house supervisor. That would fall into the nursing admin category. Some NMs I know got started that way as well.

I think if you don't have at least some shift supervisory/charge-type experience you might be hard pressed to find a NM position even if the market was good. Most NMs I know went through several positions in which they were able to get some supervisory or project management experience before they even got looked at for a NM position. Do you bring any other assets to the table that you haven't mentioned?

[island40]

Try looking for a position for management experience with the aim to move highter - say assistant DON at a nursing home, charge nurse on the night shift (always looking for that) or volunteer at the local free clinic in a mangement position. Look outside the box. If you can get 6 mos experience dealing with staff and their problems, proof that you can keep your cool when other "adults" should be working and are fighting about who took the last coke! Then you are management material.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

My advice would be to take a staff nurse position, without aiming for management. You must be able to function as a nurse before you can successfully fulfill a management position (emphasis on successful). Eventually, you can move into management/supervisory positions.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Did your school really encourage you to expect to be hired as a manager of nurses before you had sufficient experience to be a competent professional nurse?

I've never heard of any respected employer who would consider hiring a manager who did not have any experience.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Let me tell you what I see the NM's do (the good ones, anyway) at our hospital. They run codes. They are resources for patients who are going down the tubes and for whatever reason, the doc's not there yet -- you're standing in the gap until the MD calls back or gets on scene. That may mean figuring out what's going on with a bad wave form coming off a A-Line, or what to do with a person who's implanted AICD is going off and the MD's not on the floor yet. It means showing a nurse how to do things they may not have ever done, or haven't done since nursing school. On top of absolutely first class, top line clinical skills, you've got to sit thru boring meetings, get told you can't have enough people, material, etc., you need to do the job like you think it can be safely done. You get calls when people can't make it in during a snow storm, or when there's personality conflicts on the unit, and all the normal management paperwork that comes with any management job.

I was in management positions in engineering for 15 years. I've been a nurse for 3. I'm not qualified to be a NM, because I don't have the clinical skills that I'd want in a NM for a ICU or telemetry floor, much less an area I'd never worked in. I agree that you need to get bedside nursing skills, because even if you are absolutely awesome clinically, your lack of experience would scare me as an employer, and terrify me as a employee -- the first thing your nurses would think is, "man, they won't be any help in a code/trauma/death/etc...". If you are offered a job, ask around about now long the prior NM was there and why they left. There will be a reason they will take a person with no experience, and it won't be a good one.

[elkpark]

Hello! I recently received my MSN in Management and I find it hard to find employees hiring new nurse managers without experience. I was wondering if this happening to someone or just me?

I've been in nursing for a few decades now, and I've never encountered an employer who would hire a nurse manager without experience. That is the norm, rather than the exception. I suggest (as others here have) that you work on getting some experience and "working your way up" to a higher level management position. The graduate degree by itself is not going to get you much without some solid experience/expertise to support it.

Best wishes!

[grandmawrinkle]

Is OP saying she doesn't have nursing experience? Or, just no nursing management experience? I think some of us are confused (not sure which ones.)

[Moogie]

Is OP saying she doesn't have nursing experience? Or, just no nursing management experience? I think some of us are confused (not sure which ones.)

Add me to the folks who are confused. OP, can you please clarify? Are you lacking management experience or bedside experience? We'd like to help but need more information here.

Thanks.

[puppet]

Hi! I have been an RN for 13 years and I just graduated from my MSN in December of 2009. My roll as always been a staff nurse. My recent employee says that I need experience in my new role as a manager or supervisor before they could give me a new role in the hospital where I am currently working.

Thank you.