2 years med/surg means nothing in job hunt

[stren003]

I am hoping to get some words of wisdom or stories of other's experiences.

I'm a second career nurse (46 years old), who has been at my hospital organization in non-nursing positions for 24 years and now 2 years of Med/Surg/ Oncology/ Hospice experience as a RN-BSN. Due to wanting to move to a more specialized area of nursing such as OB, NICU or outpatient Oncology care, I have been trying to apply to some different jobs within my organization. Unfortunately, all job postings for specialty areas now require a minimum of 1 year nursing experience in that area. This is a large organization, several large hospitals/ clinics/ specialty care, ect. I am not even being selected for interviews, just not selected by HR. My resume is very good, I have had several awards throughout my time at this organization, I did nursing clinicals there, completed the new grad program there, I'm an internal applicant, ect. I am feeling so discouraged that I won't be able to stay in my organization and move away from med/surg nursing. We can't even contact unit managers anymore to introduce ourselves or express interest/ make connections. Our HR operations is off site somewhere and involves third party recruiters.

Does anyone have any advice on how to break into a specialty, when med/surg experience is apparently no longer the gateway to the future?

Thanks so much for reading any all responses welcomed!

stren003

[stren003, BSN, RN]

So, I just received email notifications that I "have not been selected for consideration" for two out of three OB positions that I applied for at other hospital systems in my area. I am literally heartbroken. I still have a few outpatient oncology applications out there that I am waiting to hear on. I have sifted through probably close to 100 jobs in women's health, outpatient specialty clinics and regular PCP clinics. So many of the positions want prior experience in that area. Case management wants experience, UR wants experience, clinics want experience, ect..... Again, how does one get experience when they work on a med/surg unit? Feeling lost and sad ?

stren003

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

When you are searching for looking outside your area of specialty see if hospitals have a residency program. Sometimes some hospitals will have a specific residency program for specialties such as the NICU which are for experienced nurses who have experience in different fields such as med/surg, etc. THey have a specifically tailored orientation program to orient you to the speciality but do not need to orient you into nursing.

Unfortunately, I think you have a difficult uphill battle. You are an experienced med/surg nurse which is great for med/surg, but does not necisarily equate to experience in other specialites. The same is true for anyone transfering outside of their speciality. med surg prepares you for general medical and surgical type patients and while can give you a great training experience and nursing experience, often it is difficult to transfer to other specialities.

Good Luck in your job search. Try looking for residency programs that are asking for experienced nurses just ouside the area of speciality.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

2 hours ago, RNNPICU said:

When you are searching for looking outside your area of specialty see if hospitals have a residency program. Sometimes some hospitals will have a specific residency program for specialties such as the NICU which are for experienced nurses who have experience in different fields such as med/surg, etc. THey have a specifically tailored orientation program to orient you to the speciality but do not need to orient you into nursing.

They sometimes go under different names, such as transition program, specialty training, etc. So if you don't find them under residency, try a few different search terms. Also, you may not necessarily find one directly in your desired specialty, but perhaps one that might take you a step in that direction. Contact HR or the nurse recruiter and they can tell you if they offer them.

Some hospitals have them for internal candidates only...if that's the case, get a per-diem job there if you can to start making yourself an internal candidate.