Sick and Tired

I'm sick and tired of the economy being the blame for everything! LOL! My thought process is...if the economy is bad...and no one is buying stuff...wouldn't prices for services decrease to create some sort of revenue? For example, I know of this church that had plans to build a new facility and it was like a 10 year process to get the adequate funds for building it, because...at the time, economy was good, services were at a moderately steady cost, still expensive, but people were budgeting for it...anyway, economy took a dump, business pulled out of renovating, construction work went down, but eventually, some of these construction companies offered there services for less, because their employees still need to put food on the table and hey, the business has other assets, so really...the business takes the hit, not so much the employees...anyway, that's MY rant...

Back to your venting...I met a CNA who came across a similar situation as you. He finally had it with the, "We want experience" line so he told a nurse director, point blank, "I'm new, you tell me you want experience, but how can I get that experience if people like you don't give me that opportunity? Give me 3 months to prove to you that I can do this, and if you don't like my work, let me go, I just want experience." Annnnd...he got it! So for anyone else reading this, be persistent! Start networking, get your nursing school to host a job fair. Start building your resume, and make some GOALS for your career. Also, an ICU nurse told me, after telling her I wanted to work in the ICU someday, to take the Critical Care classes/ACLS so you're ahead of those who haven't had experience. Nowadays, some facilities will want even their CURRRENT staff to take a Critical Care class, just to make the practice more standard.

a lot of it has to do with the cost involved in training a new grad without experience. yes, it still costs hospitals money to train a new employee, but not near what it costs to train a new grad. ever thought about working in a nursing home? i know there is quite a stigma attached, but i started out as a lpn in a nursing home, and now that i have gotten my rn, remain in that same nursing home because frankly, i love it! not to mention, the little nursing home right down the road from my house in my little town ended paying the highest wages than any hospital, clinic, or ltc facility i applied at elsewhere.

" I know that the economy isn't in a good place but there are always nursing jobs available. "

Wow. That's quite a broad statement to make based solely upon your own experience.

Quite a few experienced nurses and new grads will disagree with you. I will venture to say that you are experienced enough to understand that you don't know all, yet inexperienced enough to "vent" upon a subject about which you truly know nothing.

net/net: You most likely should not be posting on this subject. Come back and give your thoughts after you have a few years' nursing experience under your belt.....should you find a job after graduation.

The cost of training you is $60,000.00 MINIMUM.

How can they recoup?

Sign a contract? Promise to stay put--for how long?

Nope.

Hospitals are now in the power seat.

Unfortunately.

the cost of training you is $60,000.00 minimum.

how can they recoup?

sign a contract? promise to stay put--for how long?

nope.

hospitals are now in the power seat.

unfortunately.

to answer your question.... yes! we hire new bsn's into the icu, but they sign a contract for 2 years. this is a win win situation for us and if anyone wants out early to anesthesia school, some find it worth paying off the contract cost.

before we were a crna breeding ground, now we have decent retention.

The economy is bad, the hospitals have to have a well trained nurse so that it does not cost them so much.

As for Zookeepers comment: she is absolutely correct. Requiring a contract from a management standpoint is smart.

From a nursing standpoint, signing a contract is the most ridiculous thing that you can do. It has been my experience that units who have the nurses sign contracts have the most degrading working conditions. From the time that you sign your name, they own you. If you break the contract, you pay (typically) a large sum of money which you likely did not have to begin with or you would have never signed the contract.

Tread lightly in deep rough waters.

When I was in nursing school when we were stationed in Mobile, AL, I wanted to do my practicum in psych but the school didn't want to 'rob me of experience'...I said 'Well, I am going into psych after school so this WILL be my experience!'...I also used the 'Just give me a chance' story and it worked for me...I was hired by the unit the day after I got my RN and worked there till we got restationed...we're now moving back and I'm hoping to go right back to work there! :) Good luck!

When I was manager of an automotive store, I told my assistant manager. "Make your supervisor's job easier to answer to their supervisor and they will like you."

I was fortunate enough to have the administrator ask me to work for him, than me look for work, because he knew my work from a previous work place.

One of my classmates, really pushed it to the limit and made it work.

She applied for work. When they asked for experience, she used the facility of her clinicals as a reference, she used the name of the clinical instructors as her supervisors. Guess what. She got hired.

I am not condoning lying. But just to prove a point, follow protocol to minimize liability. No matter how many years of experience you have, you still need to learn the daily operations of the place you work.

" I know that the economy isn't in a good place but there are always nursing jobs available. "

Wow. That's quite a broad statement to make based solely upon your own experience.

Quite a few experienced nurses and new grads will disagree with you. I will venture to say that you are experienced enough to understand that you don't know all, yet inexperienced enough to "vent" upon a subject about which you truly know nothing.

net/net: You most likely should not be posting on this subject. Come back and give your thoughts after you have a few years' nursing experience under your belt.....should you find a job after graduation.

It's not only my experience that I am speaking.