What is the point of becoming a nurse?!

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I am starting to see from threads and other sites that cities are being flooded with new grads and their are barely any jobs in the market. What is the point of going through nursing school and spending all that money to graduate and not get a job. I live in Houston, TX and every place I call says that they are only hiring nurses with experience.

I also live in Houston TX and was offered a RN job in the Medical Center within three weeks of graduation (as a 2-year ADN RN). I was offered the position in late May with a start date of late July. I thought I was dreaming and that during that time something would happen and the position would suddenly vanish but it didn't. The job hunt can be difficult but it's not completely impossible. I believe the job postings for St. Luke's specifically state "no new grads will be considered" and the Methodist system wants bachelor level students but not necessarily a BSN. It does seem like the market is flooded and nursing schools continue to pump out new grads at an amazing rate so I think it will probably get tougher and tougher to find an "in" to get that first nursing position. Perhaps CNA or PCA experience helps especially if you can progress to a RN within that same organization. For instance, I have a friend who worked as a scheduler at MD Anderson and was able to get promoted as a RN upon certification. Just realize as a potential new grad you may have to take whatever position you can get and it might not (probably won't) be your dream nursing position but you can get the experience you need and move on to bigger and better job opportunities later.

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It's not as hard to find a nursing job as people make it out to be. Too many new grads waste time applying at places that don't hire new grads. So you can't get the hospital job you wanted. So what?

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Join the Army or Navy. They're always looking for Nurses. Problem solved, there's your experience.

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Join the Army or Navy. They're always looking for Nurses. Problem solved, there's your experience.

Not true. We're oversaturated, dealing with budget cuts, and our senior nurses aren't retiring, either. Oh, and unless you want to be a military nurse with all the responsibility and sacrifice that the position involves, please don't join.

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I graduated last December w my BSN, and am currently working in LTC/short term rehabilitation. It's not ideal and pays a few dollars less then a hospital. However our area has 4 major universities and multiple ADN programs flooding w new grads. I have a home and family so I wasn't really going to relocate. Needless to say I am thankful to have a job and am gaining experience and loving it!

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You either have a heart and passion for people and know that you would be an asset to the medical field or you don't. And if you are truly passionate about something, you will do anything in your power to see it through. Who cares what you make monetarily? I understand you, as well as every other person here, have bills to pay. But it sounds to me like you're giving up before you've even started.

If you truly have a heart for people and you have a nursing degree. There's nothing anybody can do to prevent you from fulfilling your dreams/goals. In the meantime, I would focus on being the class nerd. I would make my focus on getting the best grades I could. I would volunteer for as many procedures as possible during clinicals, and MOST of all, I would start volunteering as much as my time as humanly possible at various facilities that have the potential of hiring me in the future. That way, when you walk in to apply for a job, your not just another application in the pile. Your name and face will already be recognized by many staff as well as the fact that you're a selfless individual whose focus is on the patients.

The worst case scenario would be that you made some new friends, satisfied some patients, learned some new procedures, and didn't get a job. But from that experience, you can ask any of those people that you saw each day for a letter of reference about your selfless acts of devoting your time to patients just out of your love of people, not because you were getting a paycheck.

Now, that being said, quit making excuses to quit and instead, look for ways to succeed.

Good Luck

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Specializes in ED.
Wow so some nursing students are willing to become a nurse knowing that their is no jobs out their that is crazy that motivates me so much i just hope that i can make it

"there" are no jobs out there. And yes, because for some of us THIS IS our dream and we are TRULY passionate about it!!

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Not true. We're oversaturated, dealing with budget cuts, and our senior nurses aren't retiring, either. Oh, and unless you want to be a military nurse with all the responsibility and sacrifice that the position involves, please don't join.
Thanks for posting this because I noticed a few have said this, and it's actually a big misconception. It's competitive as hell to get into the military as a nurse now. I know because it's something I have been seriously looking into, and am still considering for when I graduate. I don't quite understand where the "when there are no jobs just join the military" idea is from, but I think it's an insult to all the military nurses that serve, and to those who actually understand what it entails. It's not something to be taken lightly, and no it's not a guaranteed job.

It's actually a lifetyle, not just a job. It's also something you have to put work into in order to be considered. They want high gpa's, great recommendations from several people, they want to look at past employment, personality, leadership skills, all kinds of things. They take the best qualified, not every single person who decides they want to join and become a military nurse because they think it's a "guaranteed job." They don't have many nursing spots open at all. It's just like everything else, a bunch of people applying for a certain number of spots that are open.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Join the Army or Navy. They're always looking for Nurses. Problem solved, there's your experience.

Wow! You need to get a clue!

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Nursing is and will always be one of the most in demand jobs there is...NEVER have I ever heard of a shortage on jobs for RN. One of the most secure jobs you can have. Nurses are needed EVERYWHERE. With a RN license you will ALWAYS have a job.

That is not true. It was true, which is partially why I'm a nurse instead of a graphic artist. If both jobs involved months of arduous legwork I might have made a different choice.

Despite the talk about the dream, the truth is that demand for a particular job is an important part of the choice for many people. It was for me. If you want to do something so badly you are willing to and can afford to pound the pavement, network, volunteer, pull strings or whatever it takes for months on end, that's fine - it is not fine for many people who believed the propaganda PMFB referred to.

Idk it seems that all of us nursing students are blind to the fact that the goverment is playing us and making millions out of us to become nurses and then we have to deal with jons in the end. But im still going to work hard to become a nurse and see where it gets me :(

The nurse lobby is playing you. It is about money, though.

REALLY????????? The government is MAKING millions of us become nurses?!?!? This isn't Panem! The government doesn't make us do anything here in the United States of America. I respectfully suggest that you rethink your "career" in nursing if you are only doing it because you feel the government forced you to do it.

Job markets fluctuate along with the economy. No job is safe (including nurses and doctors)

Actually, the most of cited authority on the nursing workforce states that nursing is countercyclical, or actually gains jobs in a recession. If there really is a hiring freeze obviously hospitals can function by expanding the UAP scope or simply working with just enough bare bones nurses will put up with. They don't have to worry if the nurse quits, despite regional reports of the IOM bestowing thousands of dollars in grant money on nursing schools.

I find it puzzling how often people use statistics from people who've gotten it wrong 10/10 in the past.

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Specializes in ICU.
It's not as hard to find a nursing job as people make it out to be. Too many new grads waste time applying at places that don't hire new grads. So you can't get the hospital job you wanted. So what?

Agreed, you also have to be realistic. You may not land your "Dream job" right out of school. I have heard many new grads state they have to have a day shift job, don't want to work weekends, expect to be able to take off for children's birthdays, boyfriend's birthday, grandma's birthday, that concert I just can't miss, because I didn't sleep well last night and I am too tired to work, etc...

You might have to take a night shift job to start out, you may not be able to take off at the drop of a hat, you may not get every weekend off, and you may have to take a job on a less desirable floor until an opening comes available on your "dream floor", but you can find work if you look hard enough and have the right attitude.

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I don't know why so many of the responses here are reeking of the need to give the OP a "reality check". The OP is stating that she/he has fears about entering the nurse labour market, that's okay! You were there once too. Nursing isn't a guaranteed profession like many in the public misguidedly see it to be. Many times there is a need for nurses but hopitals are facing ever shrinking budgets and just aren't employing the needed nurses or offering postings, even though in reality these positions are justifiable and required. That is why our nurse patient ratio is so unreasonable at times; the need is there but the money or motivation to offer a position just isn't. This isn't of course unique to nursing as others have pointed out. Its okay to feel somewhat defeatist at times, to vent, or otherwise call out bad and dysfunctional themes, just don't let them stop you. If you really want to be a nurse, you will be a working nurse.

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