Will a job hunt be hard? SOS

[newbienursie, BSN]

Hello. I love coming on here and asking questions to all of you nurses/ healthcare workers because I feel that none of my close friends/ family truly understand what it is like right now working as a nurse. I currently work on a telemetry/ oncology unit. In February I will have worked here for 1 year. I graduated in 2020 so I am still kind of new. Telemetry is definitely not for me. I have 7-8 patients, I am training other nurses and going to be charge now. Before this position I worked at a nursing home for 3 months. I am on the hunt for a new job. Maybe step-down, Labor and delivery, PACU (if I can get in)... Will my previous job at the nursing home and me being at this current job for roughly a year now hinder my ability to get a new position? I feel stuck. I am so unhappy and over-worked and underpaid. Will nursing recruiters look at my resume and say I am unreliable? I was a PCT for over a year and also a home care health aid for over a year as well (both are on my resume). I also graduated the top of my nursing class and was in every honors program you can think of. I am just worried that because I did not stay at a nursing job for 2 years +, I will not get another position ? 

[Dani_Mila, BSN, RN]

Have you tried LinkedIn? I signed up for it and recruiters from different hospitals and agencies have been trying to recruit me. I'm just too picky to choose.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Honestly your work history shouldn't be a hindrance to finding a new position at all. You've stayed with your current position for almost a year, your previous job while only 3 months is easily explained by your leaving for a so called better opportunity.   This holds especially true as you are a fairly new nurse and it is typical to not land in the right place for you for the first job, or even the first few jobs.  As long as you don't show a significant gap in employment your job history doesn't raise any red flags.  Job hopping used to seen as a negative, now not so much.  

If you have any interest in staying with your employer unless you signed a contract that requires you to stay in your current position a certain amount of time you might be able to pursue a transfer to a different floor if there are any openings that interest you enough to apply. Typically internal candidates are given preference when hiring. 

If you choose to job search externally just make sure when/if you leave your current employer to give proper notice and be polite on your way out. No point in burning bridges on the off chance you decide to reapply for a position there someday.