So I graduated from nursing school last semester and have been looking for jobs. It has been a whirlwind of emotions. I just received an offer for a LTC. The base rate is on par with the area, but the differentials and benefits are not great. I also had an interview for a dream position. The manager emailed me and said that they would be happy for me to the join the team, but she has to make sure that there is a spot available for HR. I know for a fact that if there isn't one available now (though there is a job application in review status) there will be one within a month as I talked with a staff member who is leaving the area in a few weeks.
I also have another interview coming up for a new grad residency program at a small hospital on Tuesday.
At this point, I don't know what to do. Should I just accept the nursing position at the LTC? Wait to hear back from my dream job? Interview for the new grad residency program?
I feel overwhelmed, angry, depressed and desperate.
If I go with the nursing home, I feel like that it is death to any potential job in an acute care hospital and career advancement. At the same time, I don't want to accept a job and then turn around and quit within six months!
I don't have any student loans and I live at home. My mother is okay with me staying as long as possible, and I do have money saved up from my nursing assistant job.
I just hate hearing people say bad things about job hopping. I would take the job if I knew there wasn't a stigma against those who do job hop.
But you are right. I do NOT want to work in LTC. It is about as far away from my goals as you can imagine.
If your goal is unemployment, then perhaps you need to rethink your stance on LTC.
ETA: I don't want to work in LTC, either, but at least I've done it and know *** I'm talking about.
Yes they do, as well as a doable job. To read the burnt out/I hate nursing threads are tragic, no one starts out planning on hating what turns out to be an impossible job.
Just read through some of my comments and man. I didn't mean to come off as I did, and I am sorry if I offended anyone. This job hunting and interviewing has just taken an emotional toll, and I feel drained and anxious.
I always feel so sorry for LTC nurses when I read threads like this. They must feel so crapped on, and by their own colleagues.
I've met and worked with some good LTC nurses in my clinical rotation this semester, and they don't deserve to be seen as the scum on the bottom of the nursing barrel.
It's not the nurses that are looked down upon, it's their working conditions. Speaking generally, not to OP's friends.
What disturbs me is the premise that they're fortunate to have those jobs. Unless posters are exxagerating about the patient ratios and their responsibilities, if that's the case, let's please clear that up.
In my circle of new grad nurses, people would look down at me for accepting this. Sad, but true.
There was a recent thread about a new nurse who worked at a SNF who had a friend treat her horribly because she wasn't in the hospital.
Anyone who would look down on you for working as a nurse is not your friend. The idea that SNF nursing isn't real nursing or that the acute care setting is the be all and end all is nonsense.
You sound like you're in a great position to hold out for a job you want. If something feels off about the SNF job (not just the bigotry of your classmates), don't take it and wait. Best of luck to you!
I would hold out a little longer and try to get a hospital job. I took a LTC job as one of the first and I continued looking while I worked to get cash flow in because I had to. It wasn't for me at all... But I did get a job at a hospital a few months later and honestly two months was all I could take of that LTC.The manager where I am at did not even flinch when I told her I was at an LTC and didn't care that I would have to quit. As much as I didn't care for it the two months there crammed in quite a bit of time management by necessity lessons. If you take it you will get a crash course in managing a heck of a lot of patients and not enough time so the hospital will be a quicker adjustment as far as time goes. I don't regret I took it cause it showed me that will not be an avenue I pursue in the future and it taught me bootcamp fast how to learn and manage my day. Good luck to you. And hope you find the spot you are meant to be as a new nurse:)
I don't blame the OP for not wanting to work in LTC. I graduated in 2008, just before the economy collapsed. I didn't want to work in LTC, but after a 10-month job search and a cancelled (LTC) job offer, I had no other options. I worked in 3 different facilities over 16 months and cared for 15, 17, 25, and (for one nightmare shift) 60 patients. That was my last shift in LTC. I will only go back if my family is immediate danger of homelessness.
Check out the Geriatrics/LTC threads. People avoid LTC jobs for a reason.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Did I say that I was more deserving? No.
But the LTC working conditions are horrible per every experienced nurse I have talked to. I have taken care of patients who have come from nursing homes due to neglect. I would never but my loved one in a nursing home.
Am I entitled? Maybe. But I was told some ******** that hard work would bring rewards. I put myself in through nursing school working two jobs. I got my BSN and I worked as a nursinf assistant and received great performance reviews. I am entitled to feel what I am feeling.
If my attitude was so awful and it showed then why was hired the very next day after a fifteen minute interview? My ****** attitude must not have been too off-putting for to be offered a job and to have an informal offer in the hospital.
It amazes me how people like to talk down to my generation when your crowd was able to get a job for much less education and years sacrificed and for better benefits. Try being a new grad with a diploma today.
I was sympathetic until you started dissing diploma nurses. You very well may have a preceptor who is a diploma nurse, or even work with diploma nurses in your new job. How horrid!
I'm not going to try to explain to you what nursing school in a diploma program was like years ago. I am confident that I got an excellent education. I have never been treated like I was a "lesser than" because I didn't have a BSN. With one exception, I've gotten every job I applied for. Had I not gotten ill and needed to go on permanent disability, I would have finished the BSN I was working on, but I was working on it for personal satisfaction, nothing more.
Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread. You may need to think about how you come across, since multiple posters have commented on the attitude that seems to pervade your threads/comments. Your hard work should entitle you to a good job, but no more so than anyone else.
I do hope you find a job that will suit you, even if it isn't your "dream" job. It may take some time before you get into the NICU, but you can always apply nursing experience from one specialty to another.
I was sympathetic until you started dissing diploma nurses. You very well may have a preceptor who is a diploma nurse, or even work with diploma nurses in your new job. How horrid!
I'm not going to try to explain to you what nursing school in a diploma program was like years ago. I am confident that I got an excellent education. I have never been treated like I was a "lesser than" because I didn't have a BSN. With one exception, I've gotten every job I applied for. Had I not gotten ill and needed to go on permanent disability, I would have finished the BSN I was working on, but I was working on it for personal satisfaction, nothing more.
Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread. You may need to think about how you come across, since multiple posters have commented on the attitude that seems to pervade your threads/comments. Your hard work should entitle you to a good job, but no more so than anyone else.
I do hope you find a job that will suit you, even if it isn't your "dream" job. It may take some time before you get into the NICU, but you can always apply nursing experience from one specialty to another.
I wasn't dissing diploma nurses, and I'm not sure how you got that perception (projecting, much?).
I am just stating that back then, you could get a job easily with a diploma. Now the job market and the competition have become so fierce, you need a BSN and so many internships and connections to land a job.
People need to stop reading into my posts and misconstruing what it is I am saying. No one is dissing LTC, no one is dissing diploma nurses. But the reality is that the standards have changed and nursing has become way more competitive that even a BSN isn't a guarantee to an acute care position anymore.
It's not the nurses that are looked down upon, it's their working conditions. Speaking generally, not to OP's friends.
What disturbs me is the premise that they're fortunate to have those jobs. Unless posters are exxagerating about the patient ratios and their responsibilities, if that's the case, let's please clear that up.
Apparently nurses should just feel grateful to have any job and never complain about ANYTHING to anyone or else we will be labeled as snobs. That is the vibe I'm getting from some posters here.
VANurse2010
1,526 Posts
If your goal is unemployment, then perhaps you need to rethink your stance on LTC.
ETA: I don't want to work in LTC, either, but at least I've done it and know *** I'm talking about.