Strategy for nursing 2nd career, Toronto

Published

Hi, name is Jack. I got a Bcomm at UofT, worked for a year, decided to change to nursing. Notice that nursing, even with the HFO new grad program, still sucks in getting a job. Notice also hospitals replacing RN with RPN to save money. Notice also more people getting into nursing.

So I will try to get in to UofT 2nd entry program. My strategy is thus in order to get a job after I graduate 3 years from now. So please comment on this strategy.

1. Volunteer from now and til I finish the 2 year program, where I start next fall, at a hospital and network.

2. Volunteer at the speciality I want or in a speciality.

2. Get a placement at the hospital where I have volunteered and try to match the speciality in which I volunteered for.

3. Get a HFO job at the hospital where I did my placement that's related to my speciality during placement and volunteer.

4. Take offer I am given after the HFO, hopefully the economy is better in 3 years, or take any offer despite a unit I hate, location or time.

The 4 steps will give me when I graduate:

- 3 years of volunteer experience at a hospital hopefully getting to know the managers

- 6 months of HFO new grad experience

Any comments? From all the experienced RN, if you had done this before you graduated, do you think you may have landed a job sooner?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Volunteering positions in hospitals don't involve working in patient care.You would be working at information desks, delivering lab samples,you may transport patients in wheelchairs/gurneys to different units and deliver mail. You may not have lot of networking opportunities. You would need to get to know hiring managers who usually hang out in their offices, not on the floor.Volunteers really don't get involved with the nursing staff or have time to schmooze with the managers. They will see a volunteer that wants to chat instead of work.You really can't know in school what area you want to work in.You may have something in mind but until you have had some experience you really can't make that decision.You also will have to do placements in school in other areas including nursing homes.You can't just focus in one area during clinicals.You don't volunteer in a certain speciality, you will volunteer where you are assigned.Getting a clinical placement in the hospital that you volunteered in is not that simple.For starters most placements are assigned by the program, you don't usually get to pick. Plus schools have agreements with certain facilites to accomodate students.The school you attend will have certain ones they place people in. You may or may not get a HFO job after grad.You can't count on it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

double post

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Got to agree with Lori. I work in a specialty. The only volunteers we see are the ones that deliver the newspapers. They have no real contact with staff or patients other than a quick "Hello". There are no volunteers in the OR, Dialysis or ICU/NICU at my hospital.

Students only really get specialty experience in their final placement and even then it's often not their choice of specialties. I had my heart set on Gynie and wound up on a specialty geriatrics unit. But I did become very good at cathing elderly females.

I think the OP needs to stop thinking with a business school five year plan background and learn to go with the flow. It's the only way to get through nursing school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Actually, because of the reason listed by Lori, I am thinking of volunteering for UHN volunteer program that get to deal with patients in oncology. You get training to deal with death, support and comfort the patient.

You can find more info here: http://www.uhn.ca/Careers_at_UHN/volunteering_at_uhn/volunteering_uhn/HBB/index.asp

or

http://www.uhn.ca/Careers_at_UHN/volunteering_at_uhn/PMCC_visiting_program/cardiac_volunteer_opps.asp

Either program is a visiting program type offering support with a lot of direct contact with patients.

Another program is the help program at the UHN that volunteers get training from doctors and nurses and you work side by side with them. It is a program for pre med and pre nursing students. You get to learn how to feed the elderly, get trained about the texture of liquid and such.

In this sense, you think it will work? Also they give you a reference letter after 140 hours of volunteer work.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Yes that will be a benefit before going to nursing school but it will have no effect on getting a job or getting into a nursing program.You learn about feeding when you are in nursing school.You will not have control over where your clinical placements will be done and you can't do them only where you are interested.Potential employers will not count volunteering when they ask for experience.The things these programs teach you are things that nursing students learn anyways.They are not special skills that will make you any different.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Volunteering in LTC would give you a leg up in that facility. But I doubt that is not the 'specialty' you are wanting.

New plan - get good grades, impress your teachers (references), consolidate in an area you want to work or hospital and do well, network, study, apply everywhere, pass exam, take whatever job you get, get experiences, maybe take a few courses geared to specialty, get some seniority, apply for specialty area, get job in specialty area and finally live happily ever after, even if it consists of poop.

May I ask were it is you want to work?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I agree. You really can't do anything else other than what all the students try to do. Even getting good grades doesn't really matter when it comes to getting work. The employers only sees that you have your license, but not if you were a C or an A student.As Daisy said, you will have to take whatever job you can get.Don't get the idea that you will get the dream job in the speciality you want right out of school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in geriatrics.

Agree with others. Get good grades, get to know some of your instructors very well, and make friends. You need references and connections these days. Also be prepared to relocate. Getting hired from your consolidation is not definite anymore, and HFO is a joke. Few positions, tons of applicants. Hopefully, ON changes for the better in the coming years. Who knows? But, ON has been terrible for new grads for four years now.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Yeah that's one thing I hadn't thought of.The number of places with HFO jobs is dwindling.Very few employers participate these days.Plus many new grads don't get offered jobs after the HFO positions are finished.

Have you completed the prerequisites for the BSN program at U of T?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in geriatrics.

Most of the people I knew hired through HFO were laid off after 6 months, due to lack of funding. What's the point in hiring people, if you can't truly afford it? Cheap labour, I suppose. I wonder when ON will bounce back. The market seems more promising for RPN's, but it's hard to say.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I will be taking my prereq this fall and winter. I'll apply to a few university. My mentality after coming from working in finance is that you get paid $12/hr for doing sales and customer service. Relocation is not an option since finance jobs only hire local. Why would they import you if there is a much larger supply?

So I don't mind relocation for nursing, don't my doing crappy work, don't mind part time or casual, because I rather get paid $25/hr rather than $12/hr for doing the same type of crummy work. Plus in nursing, you have that pay scale per year of experience whereas in finance, 10 years down the road, you have no guarantee and have no idea where you can go. In addition you get to climb a corporate ladder that has another 10,000 more senior people than you waiting for that promotion and long overdue since the market crash.

In finance, you get MBA, CFA, CGA, CMA and CA designation competing for that same job. Even getting a MBA, you still face a lot of competition much much more than nursing, for that $24/hr job. So I feel that it makes economic sense to get into healthcare, though nursing isn't immune to economic downturns, at least it is better than finance. So why would I spend another 5 year plus getting that CFA and CMA designation with no better odds.

I will be applying to UHN for those listed programs to volunteer. At least get a reference letter out of it to apply for school. York ask for philosophy is kind of ridiculous so my main university is UofT/Mcmaster.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion