I wrote this with the intention to instill hope to all the new grad nurses who are walking in my shoes. Yes it is one tiresome journey, but this story does have a happy ending.
The Story of a New Graduate Nurse
For as long as I can remember, I've considered myself a dreamer- I got it tattooed on my wrist in Latin for crying out loud. However, these past few months have definitely made me less dreamer more pragmatist/pessimist/cynic. This is the story of a new graduate nurse.
I started each day a with a cup of coffee and a splash of hope. iGoogle was replaced by Indeed.com as my homepage. I applied to nursing jobs up and down the state for days, which then turned into weeks. After noticing that California was in a severe nursing drought, I expanded my search to include the entire nation. But it was the same story everywhere. *NO NEW GRADS PLEASE!!!* *SORRY NOT ACCEPTING NEW GRADS AT THIS TIME* These prickly details were scattered ubiquitously in 95% of all job searches. It was, to say the least, disheartening.
Being a part of the new graduate nurse cohort, I felt like we had some sort of virulent disease. As if the bubonic plague, ebola, small pox, H1N1, and cholera consummated, had a love child, and we were all carriers. I literally searched for some supportive online forum akin to AA (I'm not joking) where new grad nurses could vent (and I did find some). I started spewing out diatribes to anyone who would listen. "What is this story that keeps circulating around, about a huge nursing shortage? Hmmm?? No really, where is this mythical hospital that is hiring new grads left and right because I need to see it for myself." As a new grad nurse, along with thousands of others, we shattered that myth and lived everyday as our reality: new nurse + no experience = NO JOB.
Each day was a test; and each day I grew restless- devoid of any optimism. To help keep me sane, I started to create analogies. "Getting a nursing job in this economy is like winning the lottery," I would say to myself, restraining my defeatist attitude. "Each application is like buying a lottery ticket- It takes just one win to hit it big." And then yesterday, January 19th, my friend emailed me my daily horoscope in hopes to pull me out of my weary slump:
"Once upon a time you believed in fairy tales, Moonchild. You believed you could wake up in a magical land, wave your wand, and make everything right in your world. You believed you had special powers, and that dreams - even the most special dreams - could come true. Since then you've become cynical, especially lately. You may be wondering if a certain dream will ever come true, or if you can ever live a more carefree life. You hope for greater abundance and prosperity, too, but you feel disillusioned. Don't give up hope. A bit of magic is swirling toward you at this very moment. Get ready for a dream to come true."
4 months, 2 interviews, and 200 applications later, today, on January 20th, my dream came true approximately four hours ago. As I cried convulsively, forehead touching the floor, whilst in fetal position, I thought to myself, "I won the lottery, I purchased the golden ticket, winner winner chicken ******* dinner." Usually when I have some sort of revelation or epiphany, I write frenetically in my blog, but I decided to share it with the 25% of you that will actually read this. Sorry for the novel.
And to my fellow new grad RNs, keep buying those lottery tickets, continue to stifle the doubt, and remember to KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. We're in this together.
