Trouble getting job after bachelor degree.

[Masterja, BSN, RN]

Hello allnurses community. I am hoping someone can provide guidance on a surprising challenge I am experiencing now that I have obtained my BScN.

I have been an RN since 2011, first job in internal medicine. In 2016, I was accepted to a BScN program. While working on my degree, I was hired in a private outpatient facility and left the medicine floor. Now having my BScN for 4 years, I would like to go back to bedside. Unfortunately, many employers in my area are not hiring bachelor level nurses as they want associate-level nurses instead. One hospital mentioned the cost of hiring a bachelor RN as their reason for not accepting my offer, others have just not responded to my application.

Is it my resume that potentially needs improving? Is there currently no need for BScN nurses? With the new RN grads coming out soon, is it the wrong time to apply? I am not in the USA, but Canada.

Thanks for any words of guidance, or just words of encouragement.

[2BS Nurse, BSN]

Hmmm, not sure Canada hires with the same expectations as the U.S. Here in the U.S., BSN nurses are not more expensive (there may be some exceptions). Where I live, completing the BSN does not earn you a pay increase.

[Masterja, BSN, RN]

Thank you for the response. It's interesting to know the U.S. doesn't increase pay with degrees. A BScN nurse typically can expect an extra $2 to $5 per hour depending on their role or facility.

I have began speaking with my old colleagues and have been trying to improve my resume, they're also surprised of no responses as well. The hunt for a responsive employer continues.

[erinbrooke79, ASN, BSN]

I got my BSN in 2020 and really regretted it. Hospitals in my state advertise BSN as a requirement, but I have 21 years of experience in critical care with 10 of the 21 years as a house supervisor so I could get a job at a hospital with just my associates. I thought a BSN would open more doors, but it definitely has not. For a position not at the bedside, now everyone wants you to have a master's degree, but I'm scared to do all of that in case it is as much of a waste of time as my bachelor's degree was because you have to have experience in the rolls I've seen which require a master's degree! I don't know how you're supposed to get experience if everyone wants you to have experience. I feel your frustration.  I hope you get better soon! 

[Masterja, BSN, RN]

Thank you for your response.

I hope things also start to get better for you too! I certainly agree with having that feeling of thinking the degree was a waste of time. While it opened doors for me, it only opened a few.

Now that I have gone over my resume, I added and removed some things to make it stand out. Oddly enough, it was an old classmate who has now introduced me to the director of nursing at a larger hospital who will be doing an interview with me next week! Ah, how nice to have connections. Thanks for all the responses.

[londonflo]

Masterja said:

. Oddly enough, it was an old classmate who has now introduced me to the director of nursing at a larger hospital who will be doing an interview with me next week! Ah, how nice to have connections

This isn't odd at all. I used to tell students, look around, you have 60 job connections in this class alone. I went to a cocktails party with a nursing friend and got an interview for my first teaching job and got the job.