I'm new to the forum and have been reading up a storm on various threads and now I'm starting to freak out a bit. I have been considering a career change to the medical field for 5 years now. I WISH I would have done it 5 years ago, but I guess at this point it is neither here nor there. I am finishing up my pre reqs now. The earliest I'll be able to apply would be for spring, 2011 admission, but probably not until spring/summer 2012 admission as I will need to take a few extra classes which I've already taken, but they are too old. I'm doing that this spring and summer.
I keep reading in multiple threads how new grads are having a HARD time finding work. I'll be leaving the legal field to pursue this career. I hate my job right now, but my job is currently (I think) stable and I make decent money. I'm changing b/c I can't stand to sit behind a desk all day pushing paper with absolutely no room for advancement. I'm also a single Mom and it is going to be really rough for me to quit my job to go to nursing school when (hopefully) I'm accepted. The thought of being out of work for a year or more as a new grad looking for a job is starting to REALLY freak me out. I could possibly go back to what I do now, but I know this field is even pretty rough and if you don't already have a job, I know lots of paralegals looking for work, so I'm not sure I could easily jump back into it, especially if they knew that I had just graduated from nursing school and was wanting to go in a different career path.
I don't have previous clinical experience, though I have volunteered in hopsitals and worked in an assisted living center over the summer while in college (but that was 10 years ago!) I am trying to get back into the ED volunteering, but there is currently a wait list for volunteers, even!
Leaving Denver isn't an option for me right now. I'm not going to be super picky about where I work. I have goals of working somewhere specific in a specific department, but I am not going to be picky when it comes to getting my foot in the door and getting some experience. I would very much prefer to work in a hospital and really don't want a LTC Facility, but I wouldn't turn it away, just from previous experience, I don't think I'd like a LTC position on a permanent basis.
I woudl really like to know what it is really like for new grads right now in the Denver area and what I can expect my starting hourly rate to be. I'm expecting to have to take a paycut, but I'm not sure how much I should anticipate. I was looking at Denver Health's website. There are lots of RN listings that say no experience required and starting around $24 per hour, but on their main page it says they aren't hiring new grads right now (it looks like it was updated in September)
I know what you mean..I left my job of 9 years to go to nursing school and for months could not find a job. But I got out there and hustled everyday til I found something and am getting experience. I would much rather work in a hospital..but that just really is not an option right now. I'll get my experience and move onto a hospital in the next year or so I hope. If you really want to be a nurse and really want to work you will make it happen.
If you're in the Denver area, I would call Denver Health about finding somebody to shadow. It's a big teaching hospital, so the people there are used to arranging stuff like that. :)
Who should I talk to? When I talked to the last person (I think it was in volunteer services b/c I was asking about volunteer opportunities as well) they said they wouldn't arrange that for me, I had to know the person I was going to shadow and arrange it with them and then with the unit, but they wouldn't find someone for me to shadow, I had to find my own person, and I don't know anyone. Is there another department I should call about that?
i hear you loud and clear on working on pre-reqs!! i had finished the first year in nursing and withdrew upon becoming pregnant. low and behold, when i decided to return, not only was my first year thrown out, but my biology courses had expired. i spent a few semesters re-taking them, re-took the nln, and had to re-new my cna certification that had also expired. after all that, i applied 2 weeks before the semester started, got accepted, and will be starting my 2nd semester back in the program. it has been a journey getting back to where i'm at, but nursing is my calling - my passion and committment to the field of nursing is what has kept me from doing anything else. i had to sacrafice my education for my kids and after 11 years, i'm closing in on my goal.
you most definitly need to explore all the different areas of the medical field, there are some exciting avenues to which you can apply yourself to. a decision to return to school as a non-traditional student takes planning and sacrafice. i too am a single mother and after sacrificing my education to stay home with my kids until they were in school full-time, i now find that the sacrifice is on their end in understanding the time i need to study in order to further our growth as a family. i do the very best i can to make them happy during the semester but it gets pretty hairy sometimes and feelings get hurt. it's a huge committment and a challenge to manage but if this is what is in your heart to do, an offer of employment as a nurse will come. believe!
Who should I talk to? When I talked to the last person (I think it was in volunteer services b/c I was asking about volunteer opportunities as well) they said they wouldn't arrange that for me, I had to know the person I was going to shadow and arrange it with them and then with the unit, but they wouldn't find someone for me to shadow, I had to find my own person, and I don't know anyone. Is there another department I should call about that?
Awe, that's a drag!! I'm sorry to hear that. I wish I did know somebody at DH but I've been living in Portland the last 4 years and lost touch with everybody I went to school with.
Wow! That was an interesting dialogue, although a bit scary. I also am considering Nursing school and a possible accelerated proggram as I already have my bachelors. Has anyone else made it through a program like that?
I read all the previous post and a lot of good wisdom was shared. I graduated last May, and found all the nearby Hospitals now wanted a year's experience. I did my precepting in an Oncology unit in a big nearby Hospital and just knew I would get a job there because many of the staff were pulling for me to get the next open position. Anyway, an experienced nurse wanting to make a move took the position I was hoping to get.
I pulled myself together and pursued the reason I went into nursing in the first place; and that was as a Hospice case manager. The reason the hospital thing appealed to me was the benefits and number of days off you supposedly got.
Long story short, I got the case manager job I was meant to have. I don't have the benefits the big hospital offer or the days off they get but, I do get to work with each patient one-at-a-time, I travel and get paid for mileage, and for the most part, I'm my own boss. It's not all hunky dory because things can turn hairy real fast if you have a lot of patients turn south on you around the same time. In cases like that, I get good team support and company support; I'm not by myself.
This is the part that I hope encourages you to pursue what your heart tells you. I graduated at the age of 54, I'm a male, and I used to be a supervisor for UPS. What I'm telling you is, I had a great job, good benefits, but BROWN just wasn't doing it for me.
Thanks! It does help! The hospice case manager position actually sounds like a great position! Not something I had really thought of, but one that sounds interesting to me none-the-less. Right now I think I would like a hospital job, as that is where I always pictured myself, but that doesn't mean that it's where I'll end up or where it is absolutely the right fit for me, but like you said...If I'm determined and this is definitely where I'm supposed to be, I'll find my niche.
I really appreciate everyone's comments, for sure! I still have a couple years of pre-requsites before I can even apply and another year to two years of nursing school before I graduate. I hope to have more vounteer experience and contacts under my belt before then which will hopefully help lead me to the position I'm supposed to be in!
I too echo the sentiments of the above posters. Nursing is a wonderful career for those who love nursing. I think alot of people enter the profession for the touted job stability, financial worth and flexibility. It is definitely a hard profession but a very rewarding one at the same time. It sends a red flag up in my mind when the first thing people want to know about nursing is how much the pay is. I understand this is very important, but trust me, pay will not see you through a 12hr shift on a busy floor or unit.
I applaud you for wanting to enter such a noble profession as nursing. In my opinion, there is no better career, however I caution you to make sure it is what you really want to do. Nursing school is tough. It takes a committment and a lot of hard work but the rewards are priceless.
I wish you the best of luck. I do think nursing will recover. It may take awhile but it will turn around.
New grads in denver cannot find jobs. Nurses with experience cannot find jobs in Denver. Nurses coming back into the work place cannot find jobs in Denver. Any questions?
Green technology might be a better idea if you are looking for what will be a hot career to go to school for...
The market was flooded with nurses by the hospitals claiming "nursing shortage" for over ten years. People flocked to schools, flocked in droves. How many jobs does one think can exist? Openings forever. Always new job openings. NOT.
Keep your head up and realize that if you don't even get into nursing until 2012, you'll be in school 2-4yrs, depending upon the program you enter, it will be a whole different job market by then. If this is truly your passion you need to keep forging ahead.
I'm a 45 yr old new grad with 8yrs of clinical experience as a medical assistant. I was hired on a med/surg floor the day I took NCLEX. I got a day job starting at 25.40 per hr. It took me 10yrs to reach my goal but I did it this past Dec. 09. You can do it and don't worry about the current job market. If I've learned one thing on this journey it's that nothing ever stays the same. Now get on with it, stop doubting yourself and become that nurse you want to be!!
Best of luck to you.
PS all of my fellow classmates have found work too, and we've only been RN's for less than 1 month. :)
Thanks :) Where did you go to nursing school, tlapierre?
I know things will be different when I finally get into and graduate from nursing school, whether it be better or worse, it will be different (and I'm praying for better right now!) I was having a minor panic attack that day thinking about the fact that I'll have to quit my job here and not knowing if I'll even find a job once I graduated or how long it would take me to find a job was/is freaking me a out a bit. I will need a job...any job soon after graduation, even if that means waiting tables or something. I know it won't be easy to go back to my old job (not that I will want to come back here) I guess my fear is that the nurisng market is so saturated just as the legal market seems to be and finding a job as a new grad will be next to impossible.
I'm finishing my pre reqs n o matter what. Right now I'm trying to concentrate on just getting accepted into nursing school!
believe! 
Bre14
67 Posts
I know what you mean..I left my job of 9 years to go to nursing school and for months could not find a job. But I got out there and hustled everyday til I found something and am getting experience. I would much rather work in a hospital..but that just really is not an option right now. I'll get my experience and move onto a hospital in the next year or so I hope. If you really want to be a nurse and really want to work you will make it happen.