Will volunteering help with finding a job as new grad?

[Neywel120]

Just as the title says, I'm trying to decide whether I should volunteer for at least 3 months at my local hospital to get my foot in the door as a future nurse?

[llg, PhD, RN]

At my hospital (a children's hospital), being a volunteer is definitely a plus on your resume. Volunteering shows you have an interest in our specific patient population and you are not simply applying to our hospital as one among many options. We look for people who actually want to work with children and not people who are just look for a "job -- any job they can get."

Also, if you do a good job as a volunteer, you can develop a good reputation for being a good worker, being good with kids, being responsible, etc. We would rather hire someone with a known good track record than some stranger who might turn out to have terrible work habits and attitudes.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

It depends on your location, I would think. In a saturated market, I doubt it will help. Volunteering looks good on any resume, but its actual benefit in landing a new nurse a job might not be as effective if you're in a saturated market where probably everyone else is listing volunteer experiences and working experience and competitive GPA's and a litany of other marketable skills. I went out and paid for ACLS and IV therapy certifications on my own dime to make my resume more competitive and it netted me a whopping 3 interviews out of the 70+ applications I submitted.

It's a reason why units hire the aides that graduated from nursing school - they know their work ethic, the graduate gets along with the staff, the manager knows them more than just on a passing basis. My advice to OP would be to get a job in the hospital maybe one year prior to graduation to get the proverbial foot in the door. looking back, that's what I would've done to make the job hunt process much easier/quicker.