Relocating to Colorado from Texas

I am a nursing student in Texas and will be graduating in May with a BSN. I will be moving to Colorado after school because my boyfriend's job. I have a bunch of anxiety about the transition and finding a job there. I was wondering which hospitals in the Colorado Springs to Denver area are the best to work at. And do any hospitals hire graduate nurses? Any advice on the subject to make this transition easier and help me find a job would be greatly appreciated.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I am not from Colorado (actually I am in Texas too), but the word on the street is that it is one of the toughest markets in the US, not far behind California and New York. If you have the option to stay in Texas and work for a year, that would probably be a far wiser plan of action.

[SE_BSN_RN, BSN]

Depends on where you want to work. I don't know about CO Springs, but Denver area hospitals won't hire new grads unless you have RN experience. If you have done a LPN-RN or RN-BSN program there aren't many that will hire you. The job market is extremely hard to get into, unless you know someone. Definitely make sure you can live off of one income for a long time!

Colorado Springs is a tough market. If you are okay with commuting look into medical centers in pueblo.

The two major hospital systems in Colorado Springs are memorial (university of Colorado health) and penrose-st. Francis. There's also a children's hospital affiliated with memorial (NICU, picu, peds).

Unfortunately children's is very competitive to get into. Memorial is on a hiring freeze and word on the street is that they fired a bunch of nurses.

So the only real option is penrose-st. Francis as far as hospitals. Unfortunately, with memorial letting go of some of their nursing staff we have experienced nurses applying for jobs along with new grads. Doesn't mean it's impossible for new grads to get jobs, just really tough.

Good luck! Both hospital systems are great. I've only been a patient at penrose- st. Francis and was amazed at the level of care. All of my clinical hours were done at memorial and I was impressed by the level of teamwork and really came to love the hospital as well.

Colorado is horrible for new grads, I am still looking for a job and I graduated in May 2013. They are just little room for new grads unless you have plans for LTC