RN's replaced with RPN"S

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Hi,

I am a recently graduated RN, i passed my exam on Feb 2011 and i am looking for a job ever since. I am applying to each and every hospital in and out of Toronto. no one has called me yet. moreover, reviewing the positions it seems that no one will ever hire a new grad since all the positions require at least 2-3, sometimes more years of experience in the same field, 300 different certificates, and other qualification that obviously a new grad does not have.

In addition to that, i have heard a rumor about RN"s being replaced by RPN's , and that in a few years hospitals will no longer hire RN's, and that the later will be placed in administration positions only.

So i have 2 questions which i will be happy to get an answer for:

1. how can a new grad find a job, and where?

2. Is that rumor mentioned above true? can someone confirm this?

. there's nothing else i could think about, but applying for agencies which i really was against, but even these places are not hiring RN's and if they do they want you to go to hospitals that are located 100km away.

So I honestly don't know what to do. I didn't graduate from Canada, and I have some experience in NICU, a position which I easily got in my home country. I have to tell you that based on my home experience and based on my friends experience from the U.S and other countries which they've moved to, that Canada is the hardest placed to get hired as a new grad. and frankly I don't understand why....

Moreover in my origin county, hospitals prefer hiring new grads, because they believe we are the future nurses, they are training you for3-4 months and sending you to many different courses, conferences and what not in order to make you the best skilled nurse you can be.... coming from that I wads very disappointed to find out that in Canada new grads will not be hired anywhere.

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. there's nothing else i could think about, but applying for agencies which i really was against, but even these places are not hiring RN's and if they do they want you to go to hospitals that are located 100km away.

So I honestly don't know what to do. I didn't graduate from Canada, and I have some experience in NICU, a position which I easily got in my home country. I have to tell you that based on my home experience and based on my friends experience from the U.S and other countries which they've moved to, that Canada is the hardest placed to get hired as a new grad. and frankly I don't understand why....

Moreover in my origin county, hospitals prefer hiring new grads, because they believe we are the future nurses, they are training you for3-4 months and sending you to many different courses, conferences and what not in order to make you the best skilled nurse you can be.... coming from that I wads very disappointed to find out that in Canada new grads will not be hired anywhere.

Two things struck me about your post. Your lack of knowledge of the Canadian job market. We've been posting in this forum for the last two years about how difficult things are for new grads or IENs to find that crucial first job. The health authorities have had their funding cut across the nation. Several provinces are on a hire the local new grad first. My hospital hires new grads. Granted not into their "dream job" but many wind up working casual and get a lot of hours. Canadian hospitals expect Canadian new grads to come with the basic skills to function on hiring because they spent their clinical times in those hospitals and have an understanding of the job. The only places that will give extensive orientations are the ICU, OR, Dialysis, etc and those orientations are offered to any new hire (even nurses transferring there from other units).

The US hiring market is just as bleak if you read the other threads on this site.

If the job market and the hiring process was so fantastic in your homeland, why did you decide to risk starting over here?

Forty years ago when my family moved to Canada, it was the same. My mother's credentials weren't recognized and my father could't afford to have her attend school and retrain. She never worked in her field again. My father was a master journeyman in his trade back home. He had to basically compete with men just completing their apprenticeships in his trade.

I'm not saying this is right. But it's reality. My parents were often tempted to return to our homeland in their first three years here but they stuck it out and eventually things came around. My mother found other work and settled in. My Dad's experience got him advanced at work. My friends families tell similar stories. It's been the same for generations of migrants to Canada (and probably the US).

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Well, first of all, this is very unfortunate, not only for immigrants, but also for Canadian nurses.Canada is one the few countries that treat their nurses the way they do. I happen to know that it's not completely the same in the U.S( and I have read other threads..). I have friends there who are also nurses, and also immigrants, and they work! and not only that they work, they hold "dream jobs" as you call it, ICU, CCU etc. Second, I came here for many different reasons which I will not elaborate, however ,one of those reasons has to do with Canada being known as a country where nurses are welcome, and moreover where nurses can progress. not for nothing so many nurses immigrate to Canada of all places. I guess, this information about the Canadian nursing is false..to bad no one knows that, and nurses continue to come.

Third, I don't mean to sound nasty,but if i was a Canadian citizen, knowing all that, nursing wouldn't be my first career choice...

I am not conducing war with you, but I really can't understand why would anyone will want to become a nurse under these circumstances...?

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Well, first of all, this is very unfortunate, not only for immigrants, but also for Canadian nurses.Canada is one the few countries that treat their nurses the way they do. I happen to know that it's not completely the same in the U.S( and I have read other threads..). I have friends there who are also nurses, and also immigrants, and they work! and not only that they work, they hold "dream jobs" as you call it, ICU, CCU etc. Second, I came here for many different reasons which I will not elaborate, however ,one of those reasons has to do with Canada being known as a country where nurses are welcome, and moreover where nurses can progress. not for nothing so many nurses immigrate to Canada of all places. I guess, this information about the Canadian nursing is false..to bad no one knows that, and nurses continue to come.

Third, I don't mean to sound nasty,but if i was a Canadian citizen, knowing all that, nursing wouldn't be my first career choice...

I am not conducing war with you, but I really can't understand why would anyone will want to become a nurse under these circumstances...?

It's called an economic downturn.

Four years ago, nurses walked out of their schools, into full time work. In 2008, health authorities were importing nurses. The economy tanked. Today's new grads were just starting school or in their first years when the budget cuts happened. Many were attracted to nursing because of the percieved "security" of the field. The bubble has burst. Hours were cut all over the hospitals. Vacancies aren't filled. Part time nurses wanted full time hours. Retired nurses returned to the labour market when their spouses became unemployed. Many of the nurses that graduated in the last few years held degrees in other field which also tanked (I know four that have degrees in computer studies and information technology, when those fields weren't hiring they went back to school for nursing).

I have friends who work in the southern US. The picture there is terrible. Others in California reporting trouble as well. The UK is in the same situation. Australia isn't much better.

Where is your homeland that is hiring so readily? I know new grads that will move.

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I am from Israel, I don't think that English speaking people will move there:)

But, I am serious, you can work pretty much anywhere you want. As a new grad I got accepted to pediatric CCU at one of the biggest hospital in the country. I didn't go there because of relocation problems, but then I also easily got in to another large hospital as an NICU nurse. my friends who graduated with me, all work in great positions. they go to different courses all the time, conferences etc.

But, anyway, what should all this new grad nurses do? what lies in our future?

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New grads basically have to take anything that they can find. When I graduated there were very few permanent jobs. I had three casual positions at various ltc's, offices, etc. Not my first choice but it repaid my loans and got me the experience I needed when the hospitals started hiring again. This was back at the turn of the century. So nursing in Canada is runs on cycles. A few very good years followed by a few terrible and then it turns.

I remember wondering what I'd done. When I started school, it was all "you can work where you want". I even remember one instructor telling us a nursing license was like a permit to print money, we'd never be out of work!. Flash forward 16 months, and I couldn't find a job to use that permit.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

There are some jobs out there but they are few and far between.The hospital that I work for just hired 5 new nurses, 4 are new grads.

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Like I said, this is very unfortunate. But I honestly applied everywhere! in and out side of Toronto, hospitals, rehabs, clinics, and nothing. I've been sending resumes every day for more than 2 months now, and it seems to be pointless. they all want acute care experience and 1000 other stuff, but where am i gonna get that experience if no one is hiring me?

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what hospital is that?

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Sometimes being willing to move across country is an option, although I am seeing less jobs advertised in Nova Scotia there are still jobs however mainly in LTC not hospitals, there are some jobs advertised for hospitals just getting through the door is hard, most offer only casual to start with

Jobs in a lot of countries are hard to get at the moment especially for new grads and really at the end of the day people already legally in the country ie citizen or permanent resident should be given first choice

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
what hospital is that?[/quote

I'll PM you.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Like I said, this is very unfortunate. But I honestly applied everywhere! in and out side of Toronto, hospitals, rehabs, clinics, and nothing. I've been sending resumes every day for more than 2 months now, and it seems to be pointless. they all want acute care experience and 1000 other stuff, but where am i gonna get that experience if no one is hiring me?

Part of your problem is the Toronto piece. Toronto (actually the whole GTA) is saturated with both new grads and IENs. It's also the capital city of a province that has extreme financial issues that have led to budget cuts, to the bone in some cases. Have you looked at agencies like WeCare, Bayshore, Gem, Spectrum and the like? They don't offer guaranteed hours, there generally are no benefits and they don't pay quite as well as the facilities do, but it's a job and it's experience. It's what I had to do 17 years ago when I graduated into identical conditions.

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