Should I relocate from PA to the South to find a job?

[kimann80]

I graduated from nursing school in May 2013 w/ an ADN. I live in Eastern PA and have been applying to jobs since before graduation and have not been called for 1 interview. I have been applying to all areas & shifts in any setting w/in 50 miles from my house. My calling is maternity/LD/OB. I was wondering if there is a more of a need for RN's & if it would be easier to get a position in GA, SC, NC, or VA, esp in women's health. I am starting online BSN classes in May & I am hoping that having on my resume will help too. Thanks!

[KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN]

My advice to you is not to move anywhere until you have a job lined up and waiting for you. Do your homework before moving anywhere. Do you have any friends, family, acquaintances in these areas? If so, network.

And yes the need for nurses is different from region to region. You are more likely to have more hiring going on for new grads in areas that are not saturated with nursing schools. Back in the day when I graduated jobs were hard to come by. I had a friend who located to Beaumont, TX to get his first job. Beaumont, TX, is nowhere anyone wants to live, but they needed nurses and he had a job lined up before he moved.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

HANG ON JUST A MINUTE THERE - I am very familiar with Beaumont Tx... have friends and nurse colleagues who live there. Please refrain from casting aspersions on a city that you have probably never even seen. Don't be a carpetbagger. (google if you are not familiar with that term). AN'ers are better than that.

[DatMurse]

HANG ON JUST A MINUTE THERE - I am very familiar with Beaumont Tx... have friends and nurse colleagues who live there. Please refrain from casting aspersions on a city that you have probably never even seen. Don't be a carpetbagger. (google if you are not familiar with that term). AN'ers are better than that.

Really? I think Beaumont is pretty gross(srs). I have been there.

[BonnieSc]

Either way, it seems like it's true that not many people want to move there--isn't that why they need nurses? I moved to a nice town for my first job, but it was kind of in the middle of nowhere and didn't attract out-of-towners (no one has dreams of moving there the way they due to San Francisco or Miami or Boston). As others said, I recommend getting the job before you move. It's a little harder to get a job as an out-of-state applicant, so you might have to send out more applications than local people would, but it's vital that you have that job in hand. Consider small or mid-sized midwestern cities as well as the south. And you may have to let go of your "calling" in order to get your first job. Look at hospitals that have busy women's health floors, and then apply for med-surg as well as OBGYN. After you've put in a year or two on med-surg, and done an excellent job, you may have better luck applying for transfer within the same hospital than in applying "blind".