Volunteering

I applied to those hospitals to volunteer...was denied at each. Never thought volunteering would be as hard as finding a real job. In any case, good luck with that!

Most volunteer jobs are non clinical (information desk, gift shop) and rarely lead to employment especially in a major metropolitan area like NYC. The major NYC hospitals have hundreds of applications for a single opening

A less urban area with more demand for nurses maybe it would help.

I'm taking my NCLEX-PN (LPN) next month. Just in case it's difficult finding a job, I started a 2.5 month EMT course right after my pinning ceremony. I'll start clinical ambulance rides next week, and finish the program April 29 2017 - I'll take the NREMT in May 2017.

I say that to say this - there are several volunteer EMS that accept volunteer EMTs. While its not "nursing" per se, there is trauma and medical assessments, in a stressful environment, with a great deal of independence, collaborating with a doctor for permission to perform certain treatments and medications, providing possibly nebulizers, wound care, oxygen, performing in a code, obtaining histories, and inputting data in an electronic prehospital care report. Wow, sounds a lot like nursing to me, and it's not a 2-year paramedic program, but a 2.5 month EMT program - I think it's worth the extra time and money as an investment into future gainful employment as an RN (or LPN in my case).