Hi all! I've been on this site for a while now, but haven't posted much. however, i feel like it'll just make me (and hopefully a few others) feel a bit better about this whole job situation if we vent it out together. i just need to complain, and i need people who understand how frustrated and hopeless i'm feeling.
i graduated from a somewhat prestigious university over a year ago, and passed my nclex without a bead of sweat. great grades, great clinical experience, killer references and resume....still can't get a job. i live in the northeast, where things are tight...but still. i work at the grocery store...THE GROCERY STORE! i paid $100,000 to get a degree so that people can supervise how i bag their eggs and talk to me like i'm stupid. i have nothing against my current job - they're great to me and it pays my bills kinda sorta for now - but it's so damn frustrating!
on top of all of this, i'm getting so sick of people constantly saying to me "but i thought we needed nurses!"...when is oprah gonna do a show about all of us who are graduating and finding a completely closed off job market? and now that a second year of nurses are finishing up, us 2008 grads are getting more and more lost.
it's not like i'm not trying - i apply to jobs nearly non stop. i call and ask for nurse managers and recruiters personally, who never answer their phones or my voicemails. i feel like a complete and total failure pretty much all of the time, and don't know what to do. i have at least 15 friends in the same boat, but none of them currently live nearby and i don't have anyone to talk to about these feelings. i cry a lot when i'm alone, but put on a big smile and just tell people i'm staying optimistic and i'm still looking etc. etc.
anyway - if you wanna chime in, please do. i know our families and friends are probably getting sick of listening to us talk about this stuff, so it feels better to talk to strangers who understand. :)
much love and keep the faith, my friends. we're gonna rise above this someday.
BUg out...I am also considering applying to a ltc facility, is the nurse/patient ratio really bad??? that is the main thing that terrifies me! I dont want to loose my license because i messed up doing something because i was sooo busy....
I have also heard that they pay more in ltc which is a plus in my end because we are really struggling with just my husbands income, do you have to assess, give meds to ALL patients?? and how lond did they train you for?? I know it will be different for me but i just want some info on it...thanks!
The ratio can be bad. At my LTC/SNF I have 12-14 patients, my wife at her LTC/SNF has 25-30 patients so it just depends upon the facility. We both make $29/hr, 8 hour shifts and overtime is no big thing for either of us. If want to go home on time we can rush, if we want to stretch things out and really be thorough with our charting and paperwork then 1-2 hours of overtime a shift is not uncommon. At $43.50 an hour for overtime we prefer to be thorough...safety pays!
Your patients tend to be very stable and take only a few meds compared to acute care patients. You do not have to do the full head to toe uber assessment like you do for acute care patients so the focused assessment is very quick. Your looking for obvious problems ie resp distress, SOB and the subtle issues like bed sores etc.
Once you get the hang of things and you learn your patients then it is really easy. You have the same exact patients for weeks to months to years at a time. Their meds very rarely change so it is easy to memorize what they get, you can anticipate exactly what their needs will be. Most of my patients receive meds once per shift and only 2-4 PO at that.
I was trained for 8 shifts...not a long time but it really does not take too long to pick things up. The thing I struggle with the most is all the damn paperwork. Make a bazillion copies here and send them out there and take the pink slip to the blue box and call this number and do this and that.
The Nursing side of things is easy...the secretary side of things sucks. I love my patients, I love my facility, and I love the people I work with. I was Tele trained and never imagined finding a home in a LTC/SNF but I really like it.
The ratio can be bad. At my LTC/SNF I have 12-14 patients, my wife at her LTC/SNF has 25-30 patients so it just depends upon the facility. We both make $29/hr, 8 hour shifts and overtime is no big thing for either of us. If want to go home on time we can rush, if we want to stretch things out and really be thorough with our charting and paperwork then 1-2 hours of overtime a shift is not uncommon. At $43.50 an hour for overtime we prefer to be thorough...safety pays!
Your patients tend to be very stable and take only a few meds compared to acute care patients. You do not have to do the full head to toe uber assessment like you do for acute care patients so the focused assessment is very quick. Your looking for obvious problems ie resp distress, SOB and the subtle issues like bed sores etc.
Once you get the hang of things and you learn your patients then it is really easy. You have the same exact patients for weeks to months to years at a time. Their meds very rarely change so it is easy to memorize what they get, you can anticipate exactly what their needs will be. Most of my patients receive meds once per shift and only 2-4 PO at that.
I was trained for 8 shifts...not a long time but it really does not take too long to pick things up. The thing I struggle with the most is all the damn paperwork. Make a bazillion copies here and send them out there and take the pink slip to the blue box and call this number and do this and that.
The Nursing side of things is easy...the secretary side of things sucks. I love my patients, I love my facility, and I love the people I work with. I was Tele trained and never imagined finding a home in a LTC/SNF but I really like it.
wow..thanks for the reply! It does sound like a good place to work..and pay...wow that is a big bonus! i think they pay about the same here...maybe a little less...i would love to work 8 hour shifts, and be able to go home to my baby....i think i will apply to the ltc facilities in my area..thanks so much for the input!
Yeah I have applied to many LTC facilities in my area and non of them are willing to hire NG's so now I really don't know what to do from here. I know everyone is in the same boat, but it feels terrible anyway. I am thinking that relocating is the only option right now, but my family is very opposed to me moving away by myself and I don't blame them as I would be scared and lonely too. SO what are we going to do now? I have not any clue. All I hear is everyone say that you will find something eventually, but dah, I mean we won't be unemployeed forever, but a year or more is still scary and not the eventually I was looking for. I am glad this forum lets us vent, because I really need it, and I really need to vent to people who understand. My dad is very money conscious and does not really understanding how serious I am about this whole really hard to find a nursing job as a New Grad nowadays, and it is so annoying, like I am making this whole thing up and just like being unemployeed and broke..haha thats a good joke...Sorry everyone I feel better, now I wish you all luck in your job searches and really hope this turns around for us soon.
i AGREE with you k.morris. it really really really irks me when people say that this will pick up eventually. the big question is WHEN????? what if it takes yrs to turn around? are we just gonna sit around jobless til then? URGHHH
I understand all of this. I'm still looking too. A lot of friends of mine are stunned that I'm not working as a nurse yet. It's shocking to some people that you go on an interview and don't get hired on the spot. So far nobody I've interviewed with has been willing to hire a NG. Both hospitals and nursing homes, etc in my area are completely ignoring me. I've submitted applications over and over, made tons and tons of phone calls and just shown up several times. It's very frustrating.
I am going into my last semester at a Michigan University, and I am sorry to tell you that the job climate there is horrible. My friends that graduated in May had awful times finding jobs, some of them still don't have them. I don't know where in MI you are, but I know that in metro-Detroit, nearly every hospital has a hiring freeze righ tnow. Those that don't are specifically looking for experience. It's a really scary and discouraging situation for those of us that are about to graduate. The collapse of the auto industry has really affected every other industry. On top of there just being less jobs, nurses at retirement age aren't retiring right now (not that I can blame them). I haven't looked very intensely there, because my family relocated to CT (where the job situation isn't much better), but as far as I know the LTC and clinics aren't hiring either.
Once the outlook does improve, you should really consider getting a student nurse or patient tech position. It will give you experience and an edge when you are looking for an RN position. Unfortuanatly, those positions are hard to come by right now too. Keep looking though, and good luck! I wish you well in your schooling.
Graduated in May with my RN-BSN and relocated from Chicago to Sioux Falls to be with my fiance. I still don't have a job after applying to so many that I cannot count. The thing that bothers me most (besides not having a job), is going on interviews and then never hearing back from the facility that you interviewed with. I interviewed at 2 LTC facilities and never heard anything back from them. One of them I interviewed with a month ago and the other 2 months ago. And I did follow up with them and the DON from both will not respond to my phone calls or emails. Another thing that errks me is that one of the LTC facilities had to reschedule my interview 3 times because the DON kept double scheduling herself. I understand the economy is bad and all that, but if a place interviews you they should at least have the common courtesy of telling their applicants that they did not get the position, instead of ignoring them and hoping they get the picture. Sorry, I just have vent its so frustrating.
Sooo I had a dream last night that I went in to put in an application at my local hospital and all the nurses was like OH yes we need you!!! Where do live, is it close? Looking over my resume, etc. Then right before I could talk to the DON I woke up, lol. This is truly taking over my life. I recently accepted an offer with a home health agency but all I will do is supervised pca visits, which means no actual nursing care....I'm just waiting for something better. Its almost like why did I go to school??? I worked as a PCA throughout my college career and just wanting to work in a hospital. I recently checked into nursing residency programs and now some of them dont want to hear from May graduates....:uhoh21: really??? I just continue to pray things get better....Oh yea, I'm also looking into graduate school, why not go back in this economy???
DestinedRN09, maybe you're dream will lead to something similar...! I only say that because it's happened to me twice now..I had a dream that I passed the NCLEX with 75 questions and the other was that I would get my CA license (I was endorsing from another state and there were a lot of little things that kept preventing me from getting it)...and each one came true! I'm still waiting for that dream about being hired though... lol
Yeah, it may just be coincidence, but I like to think otherwise
I've called more than 50 hospitals. Few of them are hiring NGs, but later in the Fall and some not until next year. Haven't tried LTC yet, but hesitant to since I spoke to an RN and she said many hospitals here in CA, don't consider LTC "experience" since many are ambulatory.
50+ calls to hospitals
12 or so applications sent
2 career fairs attended
1 interview
0 job offers
SUCKS, but in the mean time, to network and be kept busy, I'm in the process of volunteering at a VA hospital (along side nurses) and the local American Red Cross (a part of RN volunteer staff).
Good luck. Hope to hear some good news from any of ya'll soon
So I'm pretty much in the same boat as many other people but I just needed to vent to someone other than my fiance. Currently I live in nyc but I'm moving up to Albany to move in with him (my fiance). Problem is I can't. I do not want to move in and not be able to afford living up there without a job nor do I want to put more of a burden financially on him especially since he is in his first year of an entrly lvl position. I think I've applied to every hospital I can think of (Albany med, st. peters, seton/st. mary's, ellis, albany memorial and samaritan)...am I missing any I mean these can't be the only hospitals in the area? Its really frustrating because I want to work...I graduated in June took my boards first week of August and passed and now I feel like every hospital has turned me down. I've called and of course I've gotten "thank you for your interest in Insert hospital name here but unfortunately we do not have any positions open for new grads"...mind you what gets me is that they have positions open on their site and I know they want someone with experience but I'm sorry if they didn't want me to apply they should have just put it on the job description that they want someone with experience and not give me false hopes about scheduling an interview date, not hear from them after I tell them dates I'm free only to get an email back after a week of calling only to say (in other words) "oops my bad didn't see the part that said you were a new grad sorry and better luck next time ." How are you supposed to get experience if you can't work, how are you supposed to get a job if you have no experience...and i'm so sick of reading...."oh one of the easiest fields to get a job in is nursing" well its complete bull... I'm just really frustrated...I've cried so much about it that I have the puffiest eyes you have ever seen...what can I do if there are no other hospitals in the area to apply to...do I spend another year in the city living off of my parents where jobs are even harder to find and also add on to the 3 years already apart from my fiance? I mean I really don't know what to do anymore....I'm still waiting to here from albany med and samaritan and albany memorial but after calling and hearing how they get 100's of applications I'm just slowly losing hope I'm even thinking about joining a semi-private online group full of nurses from one of the hospitals just to see if i can beg them to tell a nurse manager about me...I don't know what to do anymore...any advice would be great..
." How are you supposed to get experience if you can't work, how are you supposed to get a job if you have no experience...and i'm so sick of reading...."oh one of the easiest fields to get a job in is nursing" well its complete bull...
I'm just really frustrated...I've cried so much about it that I have the puffiest eyes you have ever seen...what can I do if there are no other hospitals in the area to apply to...do I spend another year in the city living off of my parents where jobs are even harder to find and also add on to the 3 years already apart from my fiance? I mean I really don't know what to do anymore....I'm still waiting to here from albany med and samaritan and albany memorial but after calling and hearing how they get 100's of applications I'm just slowly losing hope I'm even thinking about joining a semi-private online group full of nurses from one of the hospitals just to see if i can beg them to tell a nurse manager about me...I don't know what to do anymore...any advice would be great..
Bug Out, BSN
344 Posts
The ratio can be bad. At my LTC/SNF I have 12-14 patients, my wife at her LTC/SNF has 25-30 patients so it just depends upon the facility. We both make $29/hr, 8 hour shifts and overtime is no big thing for either of us. If want to go home on time we can rush, if we want to stretch things out and really be thorough with our charting and paperwork then 1-2 hours of overtime a shift is not uncommon. At $43.50 an hour for overtime we prefer to be thorough...safety pays!
Your patients tend to be very stable and take only a few meds compared to acute care patients. You do not have to do the full head to toe uber assessment like you do for acute care patients so the focused assessment is very quick. Your looking for obvious problems ie resp distress, SOB and the subtle issues like bed sores etc.
Once you get the hang of things and you learn your patients then it is really easy. You have the same exact patients for weeks to months to years at a time. Their meds very rarely change so it is easy to memorize what they get, you can anticipate exactly what their needs will be. Most of my patients receive meds once per shift and only 2-4 PO at that.
I was trained for 8 shifts...not a long time but it really does not take too long to pick things up. The thing I struggle with the most is all the damn paperwork. Make a bazillion copies here and send them out there and take the pink slip to the blue box and call this number and do this and that.
The Nursing side of things is easy...the secretary side of things sucks. I love my patients, I love my facility, and I love the people I work with. I was Tele trained and never imagined finding a home in a LTC/SNF but I really like it.