Why is it so hard to find part-time work?

[mclennan]

8 years experience, including HH, LTC, PHN and CM

BSN

Great references

Willing to take low wages

Flexible on schedule

Mobile (have car)

No restrictions on license

Board certified (2 ANCCs)

No need for benefits

And yet, I cannot get any contacts back from the FEW part-time/PRN positions I find. EVERYONE wants full time only. You'd think with how much these companies are tightening their belts & trying to spend as little as possible on staffing, they'd be advertising more part time jobs!

Whatever happened to job-sharing positions, which was touted in the 80s & 90s as the savior to working women everywhere?

I've tweaked and tweaked my resume, "dumbing it down," smarting it up, trimming and adding and fiddling with it in all manner of ways. I don't really want to work for an agency, either. I prefer to develop a relationship with a single setting over time.....but I'll go agency if I have to. HH is almost always an option but it's a tough gig in L.A. with all the traffic. Again I'm not ruling anything out. Just lamenting at the strangeness of the job market for someone like me.

I hear constant horror stories of understaffing and cost cutting from full time employed nurses. It makes me wonder why don't these hospitals explore hiring more part time nurses or PRN staff?

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

It always seems like the job we need or want isn't available. Once you manage to find a job similar to what you originally wanted.. you get FLOODED with calls from those you originally had applied to.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

Per Diem or supplemental is generally easier to find now. It is all about money! Why pay full benefits to two employees when its cheaper to pay for one. The other thing I see happening is even worse...drop all positions to just under what is needed to get benefits. Sutter did this in the Bay Area and then re-posted the positions, so you either take it in desperation or walk or take it and start looking for other employment. The other thing to consider is that there is an overabundance of nurses so employers have no reason to create part time posistions since they do not need to..employers are control of the row boat!

[MatrixRn]

The nurses I know who work part-time started off as full-time and cut back their hours while staying at the same place. They were known quantities, not outsiders seeking part-time work as a new hire.

Yes that has been my experience as well. Many facilities do not want to do all of the training for PT, unless it is to fill a certain niche position.

[Nanceenurse123]

Where I live it's only per diem hospital and LTC, which I don't do any longer. There's some per diem HH agency jobs/Medicare, but lots of extensive traveling involved. There's a few others, but undesirable places or extremely low pay. It seems to be locale related as I've lived in many different places--some better than others. Regions of the country that people are migrating out of seem the best, obviously!

[verene, MSN]

Maybe it is a regional thing? Where I work there are lots of part-time and per-diem positions available in the greater area. At my particular organization part-time hours seem to be preferred by both many staff and the organization. That being said the hiring process can take a long time. I put in an application in May and didn't even interview until July, but they offered me the job nearly on the spot and moved very fast to on-board me once we got through the interview/HR screening.