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[nursecathi]

I have been an RN sinced 1988. I worked critical care for most of that time, changing to LTC for the past 5 years in management. After a rough year with many things going on in my life, I became severly depressed and was unable to work for awhile. When I did go back to work it was as a cashier in a retail store because a "brainless" job was what I could handle at the time. I have since gotten on medication and am back to my old self. I am now having trouble finding a job in nursing. I have applied for multiple positions at the hospital where I worked for 22 years with no success. I have applied at another local hosptial with no success. I am not looking to go back into LTC as a floor nurse as I feel that, although those nurses work their butts off, it is mostly as a pill pusher. I understand my resume from the past year makes people run (I have had about 6 jobs!) I just wish one person would look at it and say "hmmm. I wonder what was going on with this person" and grant me an interview to explain. My "exciting" job as a cashier is not paying the bills. I'm used to making a day what I now make every two weeks! I am a good nurse. I can still read EKG's, I can still do CPR, I still know how to take care of patients. I am licensed in two states in good standing. I try to keep up with the latest evidence based practice articles. Nursing, other than a few new procedures that can be learned, is like falling off a bike. Any suggestions on how to get my foot in the door?

[Psychcns]

I am not sure you need to put non nursing jobs on your résumé.

I do a 3 sentence summary of qualifications and then list work experience going back 10 years or so, then licenses, then education.

Is travel nursing or per diem a possibility?

I think you could say at your interview you took a year off for personal/family reasons and everything has been taken care of.

Maybe attach 3 good references to your résumé...

Best wishes

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Keep in mind that ALL nurses, new grads and experienced, are having trouble finding jobs right now. There is no nursing shortage.

Depending on your location, there may be multiple applicants for every opening. Sometimes managers will use any excuse (a gap in employment, for instance) to discard applications in order to whittle down the pile.