What was your 1st RN job?

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I start school for my ADN in a couple weeks. I am very excited to say the least...:yeah: I thought nurses were in high demand, but after reading these posts I am seeing that new grads are having a hard time getting hired. So I would like to know from everyone what was your first RN job? Did you have a ADN or BSN? Shift worked? And what type of facility was it? Also if you don't mind disclosing what was your initial pay? :confused:

Thanks for the info.....:heartbeat

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Just thought of another question, how long did it take you to find a job?

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ADN, Family Practice, $17/hr, and I got the job immediately after graduating.

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I studied and finished nursing abroad, my first job here was a caregiver in a nursing facility. I grabbed it because I'm still working on my NCLEX exam. The initial pay would e a grand to 1500.

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Specializes in GI.

ADN, GI lab, got the job within one month of passing NCLEX.

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Ok this was in the stone age, but I started out at 20.00 at a hospital and roughly 17 at a SNF that I did temp work at. The hospital was days and the SNF was days or eve depending on when they needed me.

ADN and it took me 2 weeks to find a job, because I took 2 weeks off, lol.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

Don't laugh, geriatric psyc. It was the only job I could get back in a tough market back in 1995 in NY. I think the pay was $13/hr, but that bears no bearing on todays market.

from there, long term vent ward, 4 patients each then moved south to get the best ICU job available to me at $19 hr, back in 1997 or so.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

BSN, Medical/Oncology, Nights, Had it 1.5 months before I graduated. Versant program residency.

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Specializes in Home Health, Case Management, OR.

ADN, hired into Home Health around 3 months after passing my NCLEX. I had my son a week or so after I passed NCLEX so I didn't start applying right away. I work day shift, 8-4 Mon-Fri and make a good wage (a few more an hr than what hospitals are starting at around here).

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ADN, GI lab, got the job within one month of passing NCLEX.

Really how do you like it? GI is the direction I think I would like to head. My little brother has suffered from GI issues his whole life so it hits close to home for me.

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I got lucky- I'd been an agency CNA, and got my first job as a GN with a LTC facility (also Medicare) where I'd been sent as a CNA- since it was a different job category, it wasn't against the agency 'poaching' rules.

I was the only RN educated person in the building (140 beds- somewhere around that), and worked nights primarily, but also did 3-11 3-4 times a week (they made a rule that I had to take 24 consecutive hours off/week). I had 30 Medicare patients on nights, and add 30 Alzheimers patients to that for 11-7. No accuchek machines (did urine dipsticks), mixed specialized tube feeding formulas, trachs and respiratory treatments (no RT at a nh in 1985), etc. All for 7 bucks/hour. (CNAs made 3.35/hr). Because there was an RN on call, I could legally work like this. When I got my license, I got another 25 cents per hour.

This was back when nursing was about the patients, not the payor source. It was a good first job- and jobs were hard to get back then, so I felt very fortunate :)

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I got my BSN, and went to work in the ER at a large trauma center. I was hired two months before I graduated to start the internship program in June. Pay was 23.50/hr and I was hired for 11am-11pm.

I had a bit of an advantage over the hundreds of other applicants for the ER internship because I worked there as a nurse extern while I was in nursing school. I earned my position for sure, but it helped that all of the nurse managers and director knew me well.

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