I graduated in 2009 with a BSN. I have been looking for my first RN position for almost 6 years. I have applied for over 257 positions and have been granted 5 interviews. These interviews have resulted in responses that run for not enough experience to the position and/or interview were held to meet hiring requirements.
I have worked several weeks in a nursing home (not a good experience- too many residents) and in a summer camp. I cannot move far away from where I live and working nights are hard (family situation). I am over 50 years old.
Here is my question- is it time to quit looking for an RN position? Would getting more education (MSN or DNP) help? Should I re-train in a another medical related field (surgical technician or medical lab) or will that make me overqualified?
I need to get my life moving forward rather than stuck in neutral or going backward. What do you think?
Home Health - 1 year acute care experience, minute clinics - 3-5 years or NP, methadone clinic - none in my area, private duty - 1 year acute care experience, LTC - 1 year acute care, CNA positions - must surrender Rn license, flu shot clinics - phased out under WI law, pharmacists do them - I have been down list more than once. I have applied for everything from LTC to clinics to acute care in any department and on and on. I have had my resume professional written. I hired a employment specialist. I have had interview coaching classes. I have volunteered at hospitals and clinics. I have joined professional organizations and have worked networking channels.
I applied for every nursing position that I could find within 100 miles of where I live in the first 3 years. I would hear a whisper of a job opening and I was on it. As time passed, I was told that my degree was too old. So I tried to find a refresher course. There on none around here. In the meantime, I got my ACLS, PALS, I became an EMT, I took CE classes in pediatrics, emergency care, toe nail and foot care, geriatric care and I have read journals, lots of journals. I even taught adjunct in pre-medical classes. I think I have done everything that I could do to make myself more employable.
I have done everything that I could think of to do and then some. For whatever reason, I am not the person that the healthcare institutions wants to hire. All that I have heard is my degree is too old, I have no medical experience, I have too much life experince (ie: I am too old) As I have said, I am wrong. I accept that and am moving on. On to what I don't know.
Besides that is not the point of the question.
Where do you live? If you don't mind saying or sending it to me in a private message. I'm kind of a whiz with finding job listings and other things online. If I knew where you lived I could give it a shot and post what I find.
I should keep my well meaning big mouth shut, please know that most of us nurses are trying to help, its what we are about.We believe you are trying your best. Only you will know the answer if you are to pursue a career in nursing any further , Best of luck :)
Also, maybe we could put our heads together and come up with some creative solutions to help you be able to work nights if we knew what is hindering you from taking those shifts? Is it because your dad needs care? Sometimes there are programs that you can qualify for that will help with services like that. Just give us a bit more info, if you feel comfortable, help us help you
Specializes in Care Coordination, MDS, med-surg, Peds.
As an 'older" nurse (57). I know it can be hard to get hired when you are older.
This means, unfortunately, that you may need to loose your reins and take a look at what you will and will not do and, truly, throw away the will not do list. If you are more open to more flexible times, shifts, places, you may have more opportunities.
Try correctional, not all LTC's want hosp experience, try assisted living facilities, care management, MDS in nursing himes, Staff development or Quality assuance/compliance at facilities, camps. Once I worked part time at a boarding home passing meds and cooking!!
Look at insurance companies, some still hire for insurance exams. Look at factories for Occupational Health nurses. There are options...
How about doing the EMT thing, or teaching EMT courses? CPR/BLS course teacher?
Also nursing homes are admitting and managing a complex care population in which RN's are getting in to the nursing homes. As they are needed right along with the LPN's. So keep your options open put all cards on the table. As nurses wear a lot of hats...so check out different companies and so on. Nurses not only do bedside care there are other options and fields that you can explore. There is nothing wrong with bedside nursing but people transition at times to explore other areas in nursing. Give yourself time and look around and don't limit yourself. Even if you think you aren't 100% qualified for a position apply for it anyway. Every nurse has shortcomings and bright spots.....the only pro is in professional. Learning is life long. Don't give up on your quest.
Just google wellness/flu vaccine clinic. You will find tons out there. They take anyone with a license and clean background. I worked for Maxim before and had good experience. You may not be able to get 40 hours a week, but it's something. I think when I worked for them as a new grad I was able to work 20-25 hours a week. No benefits and pay is average.
Do you like kids? Camps are recruiting nurses for the summer right now, and an RN with EMT experience could be useful. Day camps for kids with special needs usually want a nurse on site. Care.com and sittercity.com have babysitters for kids with special needs.
I totally get that you have limitations, and have a right to want acute care. Being willing to commute is great. And ultimately if your family situation just won't let you work nights, you do have to put them first. (BTW, Are you sure no one else can help? We nurses always think we can care best, even when actual licensed skill is not needed or permitted at home.)
Don't go back to school til you do have some solid experience. I am older than you, and am back in school, but have tons of wide experience and some deep experience with an applicable certification or two....That means I will have a better chance of repaying the loans or even opportunities to work them off (even if I never got an NP job) because I am already hire-able in more advanced-experience-and-responsibility jobs.
But here's the kicker: Most nurses are starting their careers at a younger age, and thus have the stamina and often the reduced home responsibilities that go with being younger. That's why medical doctor programs can abuse their interns--youth and only youth can survive the internship and residency, with extremely rare exceptions.
You aren't that young, but you will be expected to work as if you were, in the beginning. School recruiters should have shared that, but seldom do.
It's not that severe for nurses. (For med school, it has been 36 hour shifts with naps, and early-AM rounds with the residents and attendings; only now is that changing somewhat.) But it's bad enough. That's why it's not just a hazing or nurses-eating-their-young game that causes new nurses to put in their dues on night and rotating shifts before moving up to first bearable (and then, eventually, almost cushy) shifts. And though it's not so typical as it once was, nurses used to have to do general care for a year or two, before moving into specialty areas that had, say, 12 hour shifts x 3 with 40-hour pay.
In the new market, you may have to start with nursing home care, then general acute care or outpatient care, then acute specialty or critical care. Or whatever is most needed right now, but unpopular. And when you move a step up in hours, pay, or choice of work, don't expect to step up in all 3 at once! Usually you will sacrifice something to move up a step in something you want more. Night shift to eves to days, yes. Acute care to CCU, yes, but not on days at first, and not much more pay that first year, because you're back to being a (CCU) trainee, especially if you're going to another facility!
Always calculate what they are getting from you from your first shift, not what you think you have to give. If you need more experience or training to be fully functional, you are a TRAINEE.
Consider what I had to do to get my experience:
1) I worked nightmarishly understaffed hospitals--like being the new charge RN (with much LPN experience) on an ortho unit of 48 patients, with another RN and/or 1 LPN, and a floating aide for only morning V/S and I/O's. (FL, early 1990's; don't know how they are now). Or, a very few years later, night shift acute medical charge (with all the attendant paperwork, etc., plus a full patient load of my own), some patients that should have been in ICU or at least step-down, 1 LPN (cuz the other called in sick) and one CNA for V/S and outputs. (When one of our patients went into status epilepticus, WE wheeled him down about 200 feet of hall to ICU so he could get IV Ativan, because they had standing order protocols there and we could not get an order fast enough. That left almost nobody on our unit for about 5 minutes in which anything could have happened. I quit very soon after.) I would never recommend allowing this kind of staffing now, but such abuses were common in always-short-staffed Florida nursing back then. In both jobs, I worked 12-hour nights, including every weekend.
2) I worked with AIDS patients back when it was a terrifying mystery, and nurses were dressed as if for nuclear warfare to care for them, and when their isolation linen and trays piled up in their rooms because most staff were afraid to discard them! (It was seen like Ebola is now.) That usually earned me the Hepatitis patient, with Hep A, B AND C and drug withdrawal, because they knew I would cope AND care. And because I was the float/bottom of the ladder.
4) I took rotating shifts, too many exhausting 12s in a row, floating when I didn't want to because I was the junior member on my shift.
5) I had some long commutes. Still do.
6) I did without benefits so I could go back to school, even basic health insurance at age 32, and supplemented my regular job with night shift home care in 3 different areas of care, so I could study while my patients napped. (It's a myth the really sick ones sleep for more than an hour or two.)
5) I purposely took on challenging new work, like hemodialysis, to learn and grow.
7) I did my share of nursing home jobs, and 48-75 beds to pass meds on was commonplace. Sometimes all I did between phones, wound care, falls, etc., until the shift was over was pass meds from one end of the hall to the other. When 1 pass ended the other was more than due to begin!
...and, yes, I graduated back when long-term care was seen as less prestigious than acute, and a place where you could get stuck if your acute skills faded....and yet my first job was still in a nursing home.
So, if you are quite limited for legitimate reasons, BUT THE LIMITATIONS HAPPEN TO BE in areas where new nurses must go to gain experience (aka paying your dues), then not only is it tougher for you to get started at all, but far less likely that you will get quickly into the area you want (acute). Remember, as a trainee, you will be lucky to get ONE thing you want: shift, type of care, location, hours, etc.
The one thing you have control over is your expectations. No one is going to give you a "get out of jail free" ticket because you are older; they will expect you to be as humble and ready to work the cr@p jobs in the beginning as any 20- year old. Refusing night shift and nursing homes and (whatever), even with your very good reasons, will get you passed by for new-grad jobs. For you it's not an entitlement issue, but for your coworkers it would be.
I'm in NP school, and I speak as gently as I can, knowing I will be a trainee, too, in not too long. I will work less desirable first jobs than people young enough in some cases to be my child, and have to do it with a smile, even if I was formerly a day shift manager in my choice of specialties. (Those will help me move up faster later, and may widen my choices a bit, but the principle is the same.)
Likewise, you have to do what you feel is safe for your license and your patients, but before you decide 48 is too many to bear, check what is typical for your area. Support staff and resources, and the type of nursing home are factors. There's a big difference between "I don't think this is safe!" and "That is way too many to care for." Expect to be very tired at the end of a nursing shift. (As a profession we need to make things better, but we are talking about your first job in the here and now.)
Maybe you will move up, and find ways to staff such a facility better. That can be a back-door way to be ready--eventually-- to move up in acute care. Why? Because a nurse with some recent experience in Acute Care and years of high level long-term care managerial experience is more prepared for acute management in many ways than a nurse with a ton of acute care experience and little or no managerial, other than team leader or shift charge. (Been there!)
Others are right in saying networking is important. Volunteering at health fairs to do V/S and weights might seem like a come-down, but you will meet others and can show a professional demeanor/dedication. Consider also asking local nursing managers what would make you employable.
Yes, take a refresher! You need it; it will show willingness, and you will meet others who have been out of the market for a while, or out of acute care, who can share what they've discovered.
Thank you all for your responses to my query. I have made the choice not to pursue nursing employment. Just to clarify a few points. I can not work nights because I need a very set pattern in my life. I am Aspergers. I did not know it at the time that I went to nursing school. I would never have went had I known. The Aspergers is also the reason why I cannot work in a nursing home. Too many residents. The environment is too overwhelming.
Nursing is an excellent career for someone who is neurotypical (normal) but for someone who is a slight bit different, it is pure hell. Nursing is suppose to be one of the most caring professions, but that is not the case. Nurses and the nursing career can be very nasty. That is what I would tell anyone considering the profession.
There is no nursing shortage, but a shortage of nurses that fit the stereotypical role of a nurse. That is a sad state. Nursing is losing out on some really kick ass good, compassionate nurses. But then nursing is not alone. Employers want stereotypical employees. Everybody must fit the norm or they can not find employment. Be the slight bit different, or not have a car or not have access to a support system and these people are cast aside. The next time there is a complaint about a fellow nurse coming into work hungover, still drunk for the night before, has to rush home because their child is sick, is incompetent or leaves for another job in another town, just remember me. I may not be able to work nights, but I am an extremely good nurse and I am well past all-night drinking, children issues and I own my own home. I am not leaving.
FYI: younger nurses do have family and home responsibilities. They are called children and spouses. These are things that are protected under federal law. Taking care of an elder parent is not protected.
I have given up on the nursing profession. I will leave that to all of you. I will maintain my license. I worked way to hard for it and will be paying back my loans for the rest of my life. Good bye fellow nurses, my time among you has truly been terrible. The memories will not be fond.
Thanks for the update. Nursing is not for everyone, and it is ok that you decided it was not for you. While you feel your time and memories in nursing are horrible, many of us offered suggestions to help you get back on your feet and get a nursing job. With Aspergers I think you would benefit from a job like accounting where there is less social interactions and all the interruptions common to working as a nurse. It can be hard to concentrate when you are being pulled in many directions. What about looking at your local tech college for training in something like medical coding. See if the college has a personality/aptitude test to suggest what might be a good job for you. That is if you want to go back to school given your present student loan responsibilities. Again I suggest a public community college because they are cheaper and have shorter, targeted job training courses and may have internships that help with job placement. You would have to look into that and see if that was an option. Your best option for student loans is income based repayment. If you feel you cannot work, perhaps you can apply for disability, it is common to be denied the first time and sometimes a person needs a lawyer to get disability approved, but it may be something to think about.
I wish you the best. Be gentle to yourself. Spend time with your father and loved ones. In the end family, friends and loved ones mean more than a job! That is what is really important in life. Make meaningful memories with your father. Best of luck to you!
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
I am sorry things turned out this way. With Aspergers I am surprised you made it through nursing school and I would never advise someone with Aspergers to be a nurse. The politics are rampant and people rarely show their hand and say what they mean. Interruptions in care are the norm, not the exception and the ability to intuit things regarding patient emotions, reactions and conditions as part of both your physical assessment and psychosocial assessment as well as priority setting can be challenging when the world is more easily perceived as black and white. There are just so many variables, many of which even people without the unique Aspergers challenges find difficult to negotiate without stepping on the proverbial land mine.
I can tell you that someone very close to me with Aspergers has gone on to become a respiratory therapist. He is 47 years old, at his first job as an RT in an allergy clinic now for six months and is thriving.
My only advice would be this - don't let bitterness overtake you. Everything you have ever been is still within you, untouched and unbreakable. The nursing profession has no power over you. It not being a good fit is no judgement on you or the unique person you are. You have a lot to give. I hope you find what you need. Don't give up.
middleagednurse
554 Posts
Have you tried for private duty? It wouldn't hurt to apply. Perhaps you could be assigned some "easy" patients at first.