Trying to get my foot in the door, but having a hard time

[caribbeanbeauty]

I am a new nurse and I have always love psych. I am currently working in an assited living facility and have two roles. one, I work on Mondays and Fridays as a psyc nurse and every other weekend as a floor nurse. I would love to go into psych nursing full time. I live in the DC area. Most of the places that I have applied to is asking for 2 years experience.

Can anyone share experiences, on how I can get my foot in the door, or anyone live in the DC area that can tell me of hospitals or facilites that are hiring in this area. Thanks in advance for all the responses.

[elkpark]

Just how desperately do you want to get into psych full-time? You can always relocate. Larger urban areas tend to have a large enough pool of applicants that facilities can make rules like "2 years experience" and stick to them. When I first graduated (many years ago) and wanted to go into psych, it was well known that all the psych facilities in the urban area in which I went to school (and had lived for many years) wouldn't hire new grads -- only those with two years of med-surg experience (or experienced psych nurses) need apply. I found a position on the psych unit of a smaller community hospital in a rural area about three hours away, and up and moved. They had v. few applicants for open positions (all the nurses in the area interested in psych were already working on the unit :)) and were delighted to get someone "fresh off the assembly line" with all the up-to-date "book learning." It ended up being a great experience.