RNs with less than 1 year of acute care experience

VANurse2010 · Feb 15, 2014

The only thing you can do is apply, but why would they when there are so many that do have at least 1 year experience?

Katie71275 · Feb 15, 2014

It's so hard to get hired on in CA with little experience. I'm sure some experience is better than none, but 1-2 yr would be best I think. Even with that exp, I'm told it's pretty hard.

OCRN3 · Feb 15, 2014

County hospitals will usually hire new grads in LA and SB counties. I see an influx of new grad LVNs and RNs, they quit after 6 months to a 1 year because most cannot hang, those that do still don't stay longer than 2. Then you have the oldies like me that don't move.

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1fastRN · Feb 15, 2014

All you can do is try. I landed a position in the ETD on the east coast with no experience. In all honesty it was just luck. I applied and a position opened up, it just happened to be perfect timing. Otherwise I applied to every position available and got no call back. During the interview they just so happened to see me as a the type of person who could hang. Now I was drowning at first but so eager to learn so, so far so good. All you can do is try!

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Feb 17, 2014

With a half-year of experience, you may be eligible for some new grad residencies.

If you were thinking of quitting your current job before you get that year's experience, my advice to you is DON'T. It's a very tough job market and you at less than a year's experience would be at a severe disadvantage against many other applicants. Stick it out to get at least a year if you can; otherwise you risk falling into the new grad black hole.

But if you can't hold out for the year--or have already quit--then all you can do is try and see if they'll consider you. Work on a cover letter that will really sell you to them. Best of luck.