Worried

[joeyww12000]

I am 31 almost 32 and switching career paths from electrician to nurse. I registered this past weekend for classes and learned from my advisor I would not be eligable for the actual nursing rotation until the fall of 2011 due to certain prerequisites. Im now nervous since that puts my first possible graduation the spring of 2013, thats four years away and I have a family and bills to pay. I have to do this for my family because the amount of money Im making now is not going to sustain us anyway so I have nothing to lose, but Ive been wondering how hard is it to get into the field once one has graduated nursing school. Ive noticed some threads of people not getting any job offers due to lack of experience.

[rachelgeorgina]

I'm not in the US (which is where I'm guessing you are) so I can't say from experience what job offers for new grads are... from what I've seen here on allnurses it's great in some areas and poor in others. I'm in Australia and all new grads seem to land a job, if not the job of their dreams.

[pharmgirl]

As racheal said, I think it depends on the area you are in. Where I am, there doesn't seem to be too much difficulty finding jobs, even if it is a prn position to get your foot in the door until something perm. comes along. The best thing to do would be to get your foot in the door somewhere early. Maybe as a CNA or transport assistant or something. Good Luck!!

[Nicole2010]

I think it also depends on where your, but also WHO you are. Unfortunately, all you read about are people who complain about not being able to find a job, but no one mentions anything about how many times or how long it took them to pass NCLEX or their drive in finding a position some where. Would you hire a new grad if it took them 4 times to pass the NCLEX or they waited 2 years to take it? Probably not. I notice that some of the students in the class Im in spend more time partying or going out with friends than reading the nursing books and it reflects on their grades. All of those bad habits also roll over into finding a job post school.

[JBGC4]

I may be off here- are switching careers for the money? If so, I think electrician's make about the same amount of money if not more, than a RN. I just wouldn't want to see you struggle for four years just to be "surprised" at the end.

[gillytook]

Instead of taking the direct to RN route, why not get your CNA then LPN then RN, that way you can find a job at each level. It may take slightly longer, but it will give you an increasing income.