To the unemployed new grads... what ARE you doing?

Nurses New Nurse

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Hi guys and gals,

It's a crappy job market and economy. I was just wondering what my fellow umemployed new grads were doing while they are job hunting and pulling out their hair. I'm just finishing up my last couple flu clinics while still looking for a job. What about you? Are you parking cars or working at Starbucks just to make a few dollars until you land that nursing position?

I'm curious what the responses are.

Graduated Aug 2010....getting ready to take my NCLEX finally... currently working the same job I was working while attending school and paying off bills. I am looking forward to the first RN job....just not the paycut that will go with it!

Specializes in LTC.

Heard some interesting info today re: nursing hiring. I am in a hospital waiting for my husband to come out of a 4 hour surgery; I am on the list to be interviewed by this hospital when they open up new grad interviews again in several months (me and about a hundred others, probably.) I was in Pre-Op area with him and got talking to one of the nurses there, who recognized me from having gone thru several clinical rotations here. She said they were on a hiring freeze and are only hiring from within. I wonder how that can be if they are going to be interviewing new grads - some of whom like myself are from outside and some of whom are working here as CNA's. Anybody got any thoughts?

Just got laid off from my Nurse Tech job since I just graduated, so I've went back to being a home health aide. I'm also doing NCLEX pratice questions. I'm kinda upset because I have this degree and I'm getting paid less than a CNA who works at the same company as I. eeeewww

Hi Chris,

Brand new here. I actually wanted to respond to this post you made in 2004 but the post is so old, they won't let me reply there and I'm too new and not allowed to PM you.

This is what you wrote in a post about IV starts:

I actually start my first RN job tomorrow night, and my duties (allegedly) are to draw blood for labs on research patients.

Of course I haven't done a stick in a year. :eek:

I wanted to write to you specifically since I have a similar situation. It's also been a year since I did an IV start and I never did too many of those before that since I worked in a Sleep Clinic, in few weeks I start work in a research lab where I'll be the only RN, drawing bloods and inserting IVs on research patients. (It's for my research project, I start my M.Sc in the Fall). I was thinking of requesting that we take some of the grant money to hire a research nurse to be with me the first few days or weeks until I get the hang of it. I have some major anxiety over this.

Do you remember that first day in the lab, it's been a few years but just a follow-up on your story about how you got through those first beginning weeks would grant you undying gratitude from a stranger from Canada ;). (I've read the gazillion posts on IV starts, so I think I may be covered as far as tricks of the trade)

I've tried looking up some phleb or IV initiation courses, most require that I travel over to Ontario a couple of times, or plunk down $$$ for a workshop. But I doubt those courses will tell me anything different from what I've read on this forum from what I can discern, and the practical component entails sticking other "healthy" classmates.

Most of the participants for my study will be overweight or obese.

Hope to hear from you soon! Congrats for your FNP!

This is for everyone who says to "just go and get some volunteer work" to get your foot in the door. First of all, if you decide to volunteer at a given hospital for 8 months, you have to be sure that they're willing to hire new graduates. Some hospitals don't--even if they know you, like you, and have worked with you. I, and many MANY other people, have heard some variation of "Well, you've been a great volunteer here. But there really aren't any job openings right now. Thanks for all the free work!" (pat on the shoulder). And if they do hire new graduates, you're still competing with students, interns, and externs who have been doing *actual* nursing work. Who is HR going to call back? The new nurse who learned how to chart, start IVs, and give meds on their unit as a student? Or the new nurse who pushed around a book cart to all the patient rooms for two hours a week? And keep in mind that some volunteer departments are not keen on being used as a job training tool. Just like HR, their job is to screen, recruit, and train people to fill a certain role in the hospital. They ask for a specific time commitment, so if they see RN on your resume, they may throw it out, thinking that you'll stick with them for a few weeks, then leave them when you get your dream job. Think that never happens? IT HAPPENED TO ME. About a month ago, I interviewed to be a hospital volunteer, and they told me they would not let me volunteer until I got a full-time job somewhere else.

Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
Think that never happens? IT HAPPENED TO ME. About a month ago, I interviewed to be a hospital volunteer, and they told me they would not let me volunteer until I got a full-time job somewhere else.

First off, take a deep breath.

Secondly, remember that the advice in this thread isn't "Go volunteer instead of work," it's "Go volunteer instead of sitting on your ass at home doing nothing to improve your resume." If you can't get paying work, doing volunteering is better than nothing at all, and prevents the dreaded Gap in Employment.

I took 8 months to thru-hike the AT. After, I got 2 job offers because of the hike - not because of my BSN.

First off, take a deep breath.

Secondly, remember that the advice in this thread isn't "Go volunteer instead of work," it's "Go volunteer instead of sitting on your ass at home doing nothing to improve your resume." If you can't get paying work, doing volunteering is better than nothing at all, and prevents the dreaded Gap in Employment.

Firstly, take a step back and reread my post. Did I not write clearly enough for you? At what point did I say that volunteer work was preferable to working? What I said was that many volunteer departments will NOT call you back if you disclose that you're an unemployed nurse. They have no interest in being used as a job training tool. I did get a call back from a cancer treatment facility eventually, but only because I said I was a social worker on my application. And as I said, not all volunteer positions are going to help you with your nursing skills (hint, pushing around a book cart on a nursing unit). Secondly, if you're going to volunteer to help your Job Search, you might just end up wasting your time if you don't choose wisely. If you do it just to make recruiters overlook the employment break, then a non-medical position is not going to count. As I said, you can spend 8 hours a day pushing a book cart around a nursing unit, but to a recruiter, that's the same as nothing. It does nothing for your skills. If you're volunteering because you want to network, then is the position actually going to put you in contact with the right people? Doctors don't hire nurses. Nurse don't hire nurses. NURSE MANAGERS hire nurses. You're going to need a place where you'll get to know professionals who have hiring authority (so doing art projects with pediatric patients in a waiting area isn't going to give you the same amount of networking opportunities as you would have in a nursing unit.) And then you also have to consider if that facility is hiring at all: if you volunteer for 8 months, hoping that it will turn into a paying job, then you better hope that there won't be any hiring freezes or lay-offs. Seriously, I should write a book about all the bad, incomplete advice that new grads give each other. "Just volunteer" is one example, for all the reasons I just laid out. If someone had bothered to explain to me all the ins and outs of the hiring process, then maybe it wouldn't have taken me 9 months to find a job.
Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
Firstly, take a step back and reread my post. Did I not write clearly enough for you? At what point did I say that volunteer work was preferable to working?
...You didn't, and that's not what I said, either. With this:
...And if they do hire new graduates, you're still competing with students, interns, and externs who have been doing *actual* nursing work. Who is HR going to call back? The new nurse who learned how to chart, start IVs, and give meds on their unit as a student? Or the new nurse who pushed around a book cart to all the patient rooms for two hours a week?
You implied that the advice was to go volunteer instead of work. The problem is that there are more new grads than jobs in many places, and if you're not getting hired right out of school you need to do SOMETHING, which is better than NOTHING.With that in mind, take a step back and reread my post.You got burned. We get it. Calm down.

I was just reading an article the other day on the CNN app, stating that the nursing market has been flooded and due to the economy that older nurses are not retiring so new grads have no where to go. You would think that all of these pop up college courses for nursing would get smart and put a freeze on churning out new grads so the ones already looking can find something.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I was just reading an article the other day on the CNN app stating that the nursing market has been flooded and due to the economy that older nurses are not retiring so new grads have no where to go. You would think that all of these pop up college courses for nursing would get smart and put a freeze on churning out new grads so the ones already looking can find something.[/quote']

^^^Um...NO, they are not going to because they are making MILLIONS, I repeat MILLIONS off state and local governments to run their school...while the students who don't realize that there is a non existent shortage...In a perfect world, the government would prevent non-accredited schools to not get an ounce of ANY assistance, or even prevent schools who don't get the proper accreditation from enrolling students...however, we don't live in that world and people must do logical due diligence in choosing to go into choosing nursing in this climate with eyes wide open.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

I think volunteering provides 2 things. A chance to network and a sense of purpose.

Instead of an online resume you can slip a paper resume in a nurse managers in box and maybe if you have shared a smile or two with her she might consider you or some other hospital staff member might.

The other thing is a sense of purpose/accomplishment. It is so soul draining to search for a job and hit all those walls. And don't think that does not eventually have a way of changing your attitude and general way of being and others sense that as well. So doing something for others can help mitigate that.

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