Someone should warn people!!!

U.S.A. Florida

Published

I am a LPN, Florida licensed that is currently living in Indiana because I am trying to relocate to FL. I have family down there and we decided to try to move after I graduated. I CANNOT FIND A JOB!!! FL lists all these LPN jobs, nice and dandy.............until you graduate and apply and they tell you that 1 year experience is needed! WHAT???? How are LPN recent grads supposed to get experience?? The hospitals don't want you, "WE ONLY HIRE RN's" they say. Where are we supposed to go??? I am so darn angry right now I can scream. Well I did scream!!!! AAAHHHHHHH!!! I don't have anything against RN's but why do they not give LPN's the same chance they give RN's. Do they realize that LPN's

1)Take state boards just like RN's.

2) Pay the same $204 for the license, $15 for the CE, and $200 just to take the exam.

3) Study for the exam endlessly, take the exam, freak out, do the "trick" , feel such relief after passing!

Then just to find out the license is worthless!!!! WORTHLESS!!! I can seriously say screw nursing and mean it!!!!:angryfire

Felecia

Don't feel so bad. I am an RN/BSN in Florida and recently lost a hospice job (for ridiculous reasons!) and now just got a nursing home job with lots and lots of looking. The hospitals will only hire you if you have some years experience in that particular job, and I mean PARTICULAR job. They will not hire anyone without particular experience, which I think is crazy. I have 14 years experince in nursing and it is tough for me to get interviews let alone jobs.

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This is a common in every occupation! Just keep looking.

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Only thing I can suggest is apply everywhere! Don't do the phone call routine. A lot of places won't even bother with calls. In Orlando, there are nursing jobs out there, I believe. Craigslist has them almost daily. You have to start somewhere--even if it's not where you ultimately want to be. Good Luck!!

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Go back to school and get your RN. The law limits what you can do as an LPN for good reason. You don't have the education to supervise, delegate, or work as a team leader, therefore your LPN degree is not valuable...suck it up and go back to school.

I know that doesn't help your anger and frustration....but it is what it is....you don't have the skills or the education that is in demand in this awful economy....so work on it. Get that RN while there are scholarship money for unemployed women from the stimulus money out there.

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Keep searching. Because RN's are so expensive many companies use 6 or 10 to 1. 6xLPN to 1xRN.

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i feel your pain. i went to school for an rn degree, and right now i am just about to take my boards, but i know a lot of my fellow classmates who passed their exams can't find jobs, and it is really frustrating after you spend all this hard work in school, and pay so much money, just to find out they only want experienced rn's. i applied so many places and only got one call back for an interview just to find out my qualifications weren't up to par. so, its not just lpn. one thing that really bugs me is these direct care worker jobs used for home care which do almost everything a cna or rn does except give meds and they pay them only 7 to 9 dollars an hour. when i was persuing nursing a 3 years ago just doing my prereqs, it seemed like getting a job would of been no problem, but i guess due to the economy or whatever they say is the reason theyre not hireing like you would think. ok, done venting :).

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well, i am coming from the other end.... i have been an LPN for 32 years working in hospitals only. in my present job, i have been a floor nurse for 27 plus years and was told that i had 2 years to get my rn or be terminated. (the hospital did offer to pay for school but i have no prerequisites and basically would be starting from scratch)... by the time i finished and IF i got into a nursing program, i would be ready to retire. all this for magnet status baloney. i am beyond devastated. being a loyal and good nurse means nothing.... experience also means nothing. it is disgusting.

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deadnursewalking, you have made me think today. And I know for a fact loyalty and clinical competence mean nothing in the current economic condition and employment arena. Better days is all we can hope for.

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Hi, Temp services, or in home cares might be the way to get time on your side! Also in ans to a question someone had about getting hired: Yrs ago when I was in nursing school instructors told us that before too long there would be changes in Nursing, and that eventually there might just be 2 kinds of nurse. A technical nurse; that did most the bedside pt cares, and charting, etc, and a Bicleariate (sp)degree nurse? Don't know if I spelled that right, but thats what we had been told! Nursing homes, or in home cares may be what one does now to get some working experience! Yrs ago, I got hired right away even before results in from the state boards, and I worked as float every day and after 6 mo's I was given fulltime on evening shift. Back then the hospitals only hired ones that had grades in top 1/3 of their class. After 6 mo's I was given full time work evenings on oncology floor. Several yrs later I went to med/surg floor, yrs after that I went to nursing homes to work in an other state as I had relocated! Persistance is good....and good idea every wk to check the main message board regarding any job positions coming up for hire; every place has a message board where they put that info. The option also would be to go back to school for still more training in a specialized field! Do a little research about specialized positions in medical. My granddaughter just grad from phleobotomy class, and got a great job as lab tech, working front and back of the office, doing the scheduling, and office work as well as doing EKGs, and other things! She likes the job! My daughter also was lab tech for a lg clinic that had several offices in the area, and she worked the front and back blood work, etc, every wk shed be working a diff clinic; rotation. She liked it also, however......a very ill person was in for her to draw blood on, and the woman vomited all over my daughter; got it on her face, eyes,etc..... never did find out what was wrong with that woman: ever since my daughter got some strange skin condition, and can not work any more! Unbelievable, but it happens sometimmes, no matter how careful you are. Right now is a terrible time for job looking with ecconomy as it is, but I'd say if no ones hireing local then you might have to go out of town for a job. Have you checked with any other states via computer? TX used to have recruters looking for good nurses, and gave even generous bonuses if you relocated! Another place to get hired also might be the V A hospitals. I think every state has one? 2 of my class mates got hired right away after grad and relocated to Arizona, and somewhere down south, and they really liked their jobs!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

There was a slowdown in the hiring of nurses at my hospital for quite a few months (as in no new hires....of any sort of nurse because we were trying to save jobs for the current nurses to have when 2 of the units closed).

On a side note, when I was in school (for BSN), I worked as a nurse extern. They pretty much hire you right out of school (if the managers are on top of things & work with you to save a position) once you pass your boards. I passed the test & was hired as an official RN on my unit the same day. Perhaps this would be an option for those people working on their LPNs - I do have to agree with several previous posters that you are setting yourself up for hiring difficulties when you do not have your RN or BSN. (The inpatient side where I work only hires RNs, no LPNs.)

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Specializes in med/surg.
The situation is pretty awfull in the Miami area too. Most of the people I graduated with dont have jobs. They even have BSNs. Your right, though, without experience its impossible to get hired. JAckson and Baptist havent even opened up jobs for new RN grads like they did every other year. So lots of BSN new grads are pretty screwed around here. Ive heard those hospitals might not even have new grad jobs for the rest of this year!!! Ouch!!!

I really didnt see that many LPNs at either JAckson or Baptist. I ran into a couple but thats it. Ive heard the nursing homes and stuff is where the LPNs dominate. But those places prolly arent even hiring. I think just picking up the yellow pages and calling every single nursing related biz in there is the only way for leads. It might take hours and hours or days of dedicated calling but you might get thru.

So ya, your not the only one screaming, the nursing market for new grads is horrendous right now...

Here in CA they are asking for BSN's for nursing homes(?) I am an RN and can't get a job because I don't have "1 year recent acute care experience." I am taking some courses to get into other than hospital jobs. At UCSD in San Diego, they are hiring new grad nurses. I don't know if they are both LVN and RNs. But I can't get a job there. They have a program only for new grads. Probably at a low salary. So I am just taking courses for now, and waiting for the "big Baby Boom" to come around. Right now they are only hiring advanced degree RNs, mostly nights and 12-hour shifts.

Good luck.

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Specializes in med/surg.
Don't feel so bad. I am an RN/BSN in Florida and recently lost a hospice job (for ridiculous reasons!) and now just got a nursing home job with lots and lots of looking. The hospitals will only hire you if you have some years experience in that particular job, and I mean PARTICULAR job. They will not hire anyone without particular experience, which I think is crazy. I have 14 years experince in nursing and it is tough for me to get interviews let alone jobs.

I really think the company's are shooting themselves in the foot. I also feel they are taking advantage now because of the economy and probably pushing those nurses that are working now over the edge. But I believe when the nursing boom comes around, these nurses that are staying employed, will flee when the baby boomers start coming around.

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