What is it REALLY like for new grads right now?

[JamieA0321]

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)

[TristanT]

I recently moved to CO for a new grad job in a hospital. (And I am not making $25/hour...) But coming from the West coast, where there are ZERO hospital opportunities, I am eternally grateful for my job. Seriously, Denver is a veritable Boom Town in comparison.

I am a second career nurse, and I graduated from an accelerated program. Nursing school is not academically difficult. C'mon now, if you got through the prereqs with grades good enough to get into a nursing program: You're smart enough. But nursing school--at least for someone who used to be a rock star at a desk job--is humbling and physically exhausting (esp. for anyone over age 25 or with children). I absolutely do not think nurses are any meaner than people in any other profession. Hello, try any position in a corporate Creative Department for a while if you want to experience "eating their young"! Anyway, the accelerated nursing program I attended was very expensive, and I graduated with no experience. So I was a new grad who was dead broke on top of being bitter/discouraged to find that the nursing shortage was/is an urban myth. (I'd probably do it differently if I could do it over, i.e., ADN-RN bridge through a community college while working/gaining experience the entire time). Very, very, very few places will hire a nurse with no experience, and many nurse recruiters snub graduates of accelerated programs. Trust.

In the end, just out of school I landed a number of kind of oddball temp RN jobs (through networking=love thy classmates and clinical instructors). I've learned something new and fascinating every single day that I've worked as a nurse. I can't say that about my previous desk jobs. Honestly I never thought that I had the passion for nursing that everyone talks about. Turns out, I do. Took me a while to figure that out and my ego is still in recovery... The thing about being a nurse is that there are many directions you can take it. This is not usually an option for other careers. Just my 2 cents.

[ashaffer]

TristanT I see you used to work in the corporate Creative Department. I am in the same boat! I am a graphic designer in the corporate environment trying to get into nursing school. I keep it hush hush around the workplace and am living a double life, part corporate creative part nursing pre-req student.

Just thought I would make a quick reply because I haven't met anyone until now in that same situation.

Best of luck to you! Glad you found a job.

[Maghunter]

TristanT, so when you say you're not making $25hr, are you making more or less? Just curious as to what I can expect in a year.

[TristanT]

Less. It can be a little more, counting in shift differentials=more for working nights, weekends, holidays. My classmates and I have made between $17.50-26.00/hour as new grads, but the high end was always accompanied by no benefits nor any guarantee of hours per week. I'm not saying the $25/hour jobs aren't out there... just uh, expect a little less and you can be pleasantly surprised if you land one.

I also forgot to mention that I did have to show my transcripts to get a job as a new grad. Big surprise for me as a second-career person... We'd always heard "Cs get degrees"... I'm just not sure Cs get jobs in this economy.

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

Is it just me, or does anyone else predict that there are 'lots' of CO student RN's in the pipeline and, upon graduation, things may be worse for them in the next couple years than they even are now??

[JenniferSews]

Is it just me, or does anyone else predict that there are 'lots' of CO student RN's in the pipeline and, upon graduation, things may be worse for them in the next couple years than they even are now??

You're not alone. I was looking at the sats for grads on the BON website. It was 850 or so in 2007 and 1300 in 2008, I imagine 2009 is much higher, given all the new schools. If the news would catch up with the reality and stop talking about a shortage maybe it would even out. It's hard to say.

[Maghunter]

There is no doubt going to be a reality shock for many new grad RN's here in Denver area. Mostly for those who do not have any experience other than school clinicals. However, there ARE jobs out there. I just started as CNA at one of the hospitals in Aurora, and in my group there were 6-7 new grads and about that many traveling nurses starting there as well. I pretty sure all of the new grads got their jobs by knowing someone or by having prior experience.

Getting a job as CNA while in nursing school will quadruple your success once you graduate. For example I already have an offer once I pass NCLEX, which is over a year away.

[JenniferSews]

Knowing someone and having experience will make a big difference. The few people from my Dec 09 class who have jobs had been working in that hospital for at least a year. One person I knew from last May who got a job just recently was fortunate enough to know someone. There are jobs, but there was also 40+ applicants the last time I applied to the only new grad program position in the city. They will likely take an internal, BSN candidate. I hate to sound like a downer but there's been enough sunshine and rainbows fed to us during nursing school.