Useless degree! At what point do you quit trying?

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2012

OK, so your resume is perfect. What's the rest of your application technique?

Do you check hospital websites daily for jobs you can apply for so that your resume is among the first wave of applicants? Do you call to follow up on your application? Are you networking in professional organizations and at conferences and CE offerings (if getting a job is about knowing the right people, you have to start meeting these people)? Do you fill out the online application completely no matter how redundant it is to your resume? Do you include a cover letter tailored to the position and the facility you're applying to? Are you considering positions where you might have a long commute or a lower wage than is offered in Philadelphia proper? Are you contacting hospitals to see if they offer opportunities to shadow to see what a unit is like (more networking!)? Have you contacted your professors and classmates who do have jobs to see if they have any connections or tips? Have you looked in to flu clinics like Provant and Mollen? Have you thought about getting endorsed in Jersey and Delaware to expand your search field? Have you looked in to non-nursing jobs that get you on the unit or connect you with people who are in a position to hire clinical nursing staff?

Applying for jobs can be exhausting, and if it's not, there's a good chance it's because some of the steps of the process are missing. Take a week or two off from looking and come back with renewed energy and determination. Try to limit your list of "can'ts" (can't relocate, ok, that's fair, selling a house and uprooting a family isn't always doable) and make sure your frustration isn't spilling out in interactions with HR and managers and working against you.

DoGoodThenGo · Jan 31, 2012

Should like to say something.

Know many new nurses and or those interested in the profession to a hospital gig for various reasons ranging from aquiring post-grad experience to permanent employment. This this end LTC, ACC, Home Care, etc.. are some what frowned upon but guess what? The current trend is towards moving more and more non acute and even some sub-acute care *out* of hospitals and into the community. Hospitals in most every area of this country are closing and or reducing beds. In the instances where new facilities are built they are often have far fewer inpatient beds and those which remain are dedicated again to various levels of acute care.

The subject many tippy-toe around is that within many areas of the United States there are too many hospitals in a given area chasing the same patients. It could be argued one of the reasons US hospitals charge such outrageous rates compared to the rest of the world for the same procedures/diseases is the huge amount of redundancies causes by every hospital in a given area having "state of the art" this or that. All of which contributes to the overhead which must be made up from patient charges.

What this means for nurses is that for many areas of the USA there is going to be strong competition for what hospital jobs there are as facilities scale back their nursing service to suit patient loads and inpatient beds diminish. OTHO growth of healthcare away from hospitals means that more nurses will be needed/working in the aforementioned areas (homecare, LTC, etc...)

Can tell you right now there are scores of nurses working in Brooklyn, NYC hospitals on tenterhooks as the fate of several hospitals hangs in the balance. New Your State has made it clear; there are too many beds and somebody has got to go. To that end the state is pushing mergers and or closing a full service hospital to have the facility reopen as LTC, urgent care or whatever similar as to what happened over a year ago with North General Hospital in Harlem. When this occurs you'll have yet more seasoned NYC area nurses looking for full or part-time hospital gigs, and more beds removed from the system.

Those for whom it's a hospital gig or bust, I'd seriously consider the growth states such as Texas and North Dakota. Here in the Northeast from New Jersey to Maine things are looking various shades of grim.

SuburbanGypsy · Feb 2, 2012

does that mean you're not willing to take a job 45 minutes away for 21 bucks an hour?
if you have the opportunity, even though it might not seem worth it, i would just say to do it. beats being at home doing nothing. and at least you're getting some kind of experience.
i recently picked up a job 30 minutes away at a private surgery center. 19 bucks an hour...
i dont plan on staying there long, as i'm still searching for a job at a hospital. but if nothing turns up, at least i'm still getting some experience.

I would jump at the opportunity if it became available.

But the reason i mention it is i know someone who landed a job in "environmental services" for $20 an hour. His education stopped at high school.

It is only mentioned emphasize the point that after blowing tens of thousands of dollars on this education. Where my skills would be used to care for people potentially saving their lives, i could have saved my money, applied for the cleanup crew years ago, and basically made close to the same starting rate for pushing a mop around.

Doesn't seem right.

StarryEyed, RN · Feb 2, 2012

But would you feel happy having stopped at high school, "pushing a mop around" as you stated and making that STARTING rate? You have to realize, it's just that. a starting rate. You think they're rate climb as high as yours would having started at the same rate? Also you can grin & bear that rate then transfer to where you are happier. I mean, if I had a choice to just "push a mop around for $20 and not use my education. Or do nursing work for barely higher, I would w/o a doubt choose nursing and get experience while doing it.

I'm sorry you haven't been having any luck at all. I know you said you've had your resume look at be people you trust. However, since that hasn't turned up anything have someone else look at it. You can't expect better results if you're turning in the same thing over and over. I am definitely not trying to insinuate that you're not trying hard enough. I know what it's like. I was out of work for almost a year before I got hired at the hospital. Filling out apps, resume revising, cover letter writing, etc was basically my full-time job (if not more) that whole time cuz I felt guilty doing anything else while I didn't have a job.

I'm assuming you want this bad enough, and if so, it will show when you get a chance to meet people who could potentially land you a job. Please don't give up. It really sucks that hospitals aren't hiring more new grads. But honestly I get both sides of it. how do we get experience if no one will give it to us? But also, they spend TONS of money hiring new grads and as is seen on these boards, most people have the mentality of "take anything for a year, then leave w/the experience" which of course will pit the hospital against new grads cuz you wants to be the one to spend all that money training only to have that nurse leave them high & dry and go to another hospital who will be benefitting from training they didn't pay for. It sucks. it really does. But let them see that you won't be like that.

Best of luck in your Job Search. Hopefully it turns up soon and hopefully it will be at a place you are happy working in.

SuburbanGypsy · Feb 3, 2012

But would you feel happy having stopped at high school, "pushing a mop around" as you stated and making that STARTING rate? You have to realize, it's just that. a starting rate. You think they're rate climb as high as yours would having started at the same rate? Also you can grin & bear that rate then transfer to where you are happier. I mean, if I had a choice to just "push a mop around for $20 and not use my education. Or do nursing work for barely higher, I would w/o a doubt choose nursing and get experience while doing it.

I am not a status seeker. I could work anywhere.

The reason i went into nursing is because my entire life, i am predisposed to automatically help people.

That's just who i am.

A natural caregiver.

Nursing just seemed like the most logical choice for what i feel is my calling.

I'm just wondering why it has reached the point where people educate themselves to the point of extreme debt, and are in no better shape starting out.

BUT

It's very disheartening when you hear one thing in school, and the real world doesn't seem to reflect that.

Why not give a more realistic view on what to expect.

That's what's got me the most bitter. It the misrepresentations that i received in school.

That nursing was a booming profession when in reality, it's not anymore.

RN_2005 · Jan 10, 2013

The supposed "nursing shortage" is ********. The term is used merely as a means for [primarily] 2-year colleges to drum up business. And if you are a 'mature' student, say 40-45+, going back to school to finally get that degree, nursing or otherwise, you might as well throw your money to the wind. No one wants to hire older workers anymore .... NO ONE. Discrimination? Yes, but employers have found many creative ways around it so as not to be held to it legally. Just sayin ....

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2013

And if you are a 'mature' student, say 40-45+, going back to school to finally get that degree, nursing or otherwise, you might as well throw your money to the wind. No one wants to hire older workers anymore .... NO ONE. Discrimination? Yes, but employers have found many creative ways around it so as not to be held to it legally. Just sayin ....

I beg to differ: your claim that "NO ONE wants to hire older workers anymore" is simply NOT TRUE.

I fall into that 40-45 range you posted, and I just graduated in 2012 from a top NYC metro area nursing school. I had a job offer right after graduation in May and started working 45 days later. My classmate who is 63 was also hired on the same unit a few months later ... again, graduated in 2012 from a top NYC metro area nursing school with BSNs. Yes, the job market is tough out there, but it's not impossible to find work. Fortunately, our hospital values the nurse with life experience enough to give us a chance, and we are proving our worth 10 times over.

danarooo, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2013

I feel your pain. It took me a long time to find a job, and it's not even in a "clinica" area. I looked into volunteering, but any place that I could have had a chance to even be around and meet other RN's were already flooded with volunteers (probably new grad RNs) and weren't taking any more. Moving wasn't an option for me either. I know moving may have to be done, but with no job (which = no money) and kids, and if your husband travels and can't leave his job (military, contracted etc...) then moving is just another suggestion that works for others but isn't feasable for you. I started by doing flu shots and public health screenings with an agency. They would not let me do homehealth because most homehealth agencies require a specific amount of experience on trachs and other things because you don't have the safety net of other nurses on a unit like in a hospital to ask when you are stuck - your in a home and your it. In my area, LTC's hire way more LPNs and the RNs run the floor, so these spots are usually filled too (as stated by several DONs I cold called).

The market is horrible, and it really is who you know. Joining your states nursing association can be expensive, and if you don't work as a nurse and are new to an area (like I was) than meeting nurses is almost impossible. Refine your resume. Hiring someone to write it or rewrite is can be a bit expensive, I looked in to it. I went online and did my own research and picked a few different templates and modeled my resume after them and began to get a few more calls (make a spreadsheet to track which resume gets the most responses). It was still hard as hell to get hired. I took a job that at first seemed great, but now is turning into a frustration because of a micromanaging boss who isn't a nurse at all and some of the things I was promised would happen in the future I am now seeing will not...but I have a job (love the job, not the mircromanaging non-nurse boss --nice person, bad boss). I now have a paycheck and can join my nursing association, pay someone to look at my resume and pay for CE's and nursing refresher classes. I am now able to meet other nurses occasionally and have started developing relationships. Although I'm not getting that all important clinical experience, I am closer to being able to do that. As long as you can get a job somewhere in nursing you can begin to work your way toward your goal, yes it's long and hard and frustrating but you can do it!

These hospitals (& other facilities) who are messing over new grads (and seasoned nurses), they will need us some day and things won't always be totally on their terms. These RN's returning from retirement will have to leave nursing again because it's hard work and they are aging. You may be able to build on your nursing degree and take it in another direction, open a business related to nursing (apply for grant money), or go into a feild that will accept a nursing degree (drug reps?). If your state uses Medication Aides (or techs) then get yourself certified to teach those classes (or CNA classes if your state doesn't require X amount of experience in a specific setting to get certified). Look at medispas, they use RN's (it's not "meat & potatos" nursing skills but it's a job). Get yourself certified to teach first aid/cpr/aed for lay and healthcare providers too (not too terribly expensive, you may have to borrow from someone or save up for it). If you can get out there in any way and be able to say "I'm and RN" that will help you build some connections. I wish you the best of luck. There are so many options, but you don't know what you don't know so turn over every rock you come across.

Good luck!

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jan 13, 2013

Suburban Gypsy:

First, I know 2 childhood friends who are ADNs that took two years to find a position. One is a public health nurse for the department of health, the other moved out if state and got a job in Virginia-she now works at Einstein MC.

As aloof as I may sound, I still believe that you will find a job.

I know my job is hiring, and they have a preceptorship. In the past, they have accepted people in your situation, and I have precepted in this program.The program is 18 months. We've had 6 people in the program, 2 got hired at a local children's hospital, one is a candidate at another children's hospital. I have accepted a position at a PICU, based on the working relationships with both area Children's hospitals. The also have a home are division that are in need of nurses as well. I'm not sure if you are interested in pediatrics as well as working with children with special needs, but It may be a start of getting a great base of nursing experience. This has been my specialty for 7 years as an LPN, so I am a new grad with LPN experience, and that got me 200 rejections a week. A nurse recruiter at a local area hospital gave me tips on improving my résumé....I tweaked it, and kept improving it, and I started getting phone calls until the position I start in February which hired new grads contacted me...that process took about 8 months. I have friends who got acceptance jobs that couldn't take the job because of hiring freezes...they turned aground and still got a job-took them about 4 months, one accepted a dialysis job as a new grad and loves it...some had jobs before they left school. My cohorts range from 21-50+ traditional-2nd degree and non traditional students. It just happens I guess...pardon my aloofness again. If you don't want to try my job, You can teach CNAs at Red Cross, Health Department, HH is willing to train someone in your position and give you a chance. If you are SERIOUSLY considering finding some avenues, please feel free to PM me.

Medgurl32 · Jan 15, 2013

I beg to differ: your claim that "NO ONE wants to hire older workers anymore" is simply NOT TRUE.
I fall into that 40-45 range you posted, and I just graduated in 2012 from a top NYC metro area nursing school. I had a job offer right after graduation in May and started working 45 days later. My classmate who is 63 was also hired on the same unit a few months later ... again, graduated in 2012 from a top NYC metro area nursing school with BSNs. Yes, the job market is tough out there, but it's not impossible to find work. Fortunately, our hospital values the nurse with life experience enough to give us a chance, and we are proving our worth 10 times over.

Well I would like to know what school you attended because im looking for one in Nyc

Anoetos, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2013

The supposed "nursing shortage" is ********. The term is used merely as a means for [primarily] 2-year colleges to drum up business. And if you are a 'mature' student say 40-45+, going back to school to finally get that degree, nursing or otherwise, you might as well throw your money to the wind. No one wants to hire older workers anymore .... NO ONE. Discrimination? Yes, but employers have found many creative ways around it so as not to be held to it legally. Just sayin ....[/quote']
Also not true. I graduated at 46 years old and am now 47. I have a great job, that I love, as a staff nurse in a medical progressive unit.
I don't know how many times I can say this, but GET A JOB IN A HOSPITAL BEFORE YOU GRADUATE.

pbajil · Feb 2, 2013

SuburbanGypsy - I live in the area and sent you a PM.