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New Grad Needs Help
I recently passed the NCLEX and I cannot find a job. Everyone says the same thing, "we only hire new grads twice a year." What is going on? I was told there was a nursing shortage everywhere! Please help me if anyone has any information!
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April 20th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Hi! I’m writing from the NSNA Annual convention in Nashville, TN…well, the convention is over but I’m still here.
You sound like you live in the Northeast. I feel your pain. It took me six months to get a job as an RN after I graduated. The faculty at my old school beat it in to all of us that what we really need to excel in nursing is a med/surg or hospital specialty unit orientation right out of school.
Because of the way the economy is, nurses are coming out of retirement to protect (supplement) their retirement income. Senior nurses take positions junior nurses occupied, then junior nurses take positions new grads would take.
There are a couple of solutions to this problem:
*Move to a poorer, undeserved part of the US. As an added bonus, Nurses who work in hospitals that serve under served populations get school loan forgiveness via the US government.
*Work somewhere other than a hospital. After six months of searching for a job I was told would be searching for me, I finally caved in and applied at nursing homes. It ended up being a great job! The clinical education is predictably a little light, but there’s always time to expand my training later. Working in rehab and long-term care is giving me valuable experience in dealing with families, customer service, case management, UNIT management (the facilities around me only hire RNs as charge nurses so you’ll be on the fast track to getting management experience), Ortho patients, Cancer patients, Hospice patients, complex long-term patients, you name it. If you can find an Acute Rehab place, you’re going to learn a LOT.
My former classmates who got drafted into the big hospitals in our area mostly quit within a year, after being burnt out by high stress levels, huge egos and catty office politics. Sure, those things exist in skilled nursing facilities too, but it’s easier to deal with because it’s a more relaxed environment.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Thank you for the reply! I’m still very hopeful. I signed on to a Nurse Registry, however I feel a little reluctant because I lack the experience. Please tell me, would you take the assignment?
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Here in St. Louis there is also a hiring freeze due to the economy. There is still a shortage – however, there isn’t any money to hire and train a new grad. To hire and train a new grad is about ~$40k, with all the new grads in my hospital that usually works out to ~2 million a year. With lack of confidence in our current economic condition, I’m speculating, my employer would rather pay out overtime than spend 2million hiring and training new grads and instead hire RNs with more experience who are cheaper to orient to a unit.
What this means for the new grad is that you may not be able to go into your top or even desired choice of nursing (ie if you wanted to do L&D there may not be any positions available) so you may have to look outside the box. Just go into it with an open mind, get that experience, and then decide what you want to do with your career. I’ve been an RN for two years and believe me, it’s flown by.
What does this mean for the future? I talked with several senior nurses on my unit and they were discussing how when they were hired my employer was on a hiring freeze then the next year they were having hiring fairs. It comes in waves and right now we’re at the rock bottom of our financial crisis so all we can do is have patience and wait for it to come back up again.
I realize how scary this is with student loans approaching and lack of jobs anywhere but there are always resources out there and other types of nursing jobs that may or may not involve direct patient care. Then also, there is always going for your masters/bachelors degrees to stave off those student loans.
Good luck to you, it will all figure out in the end if you are persistent, I have faith.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Hang in there, the shortage is still there, it is just being masked by the economy.
http://www.travelnursingblogs.com/life-on-the-road/the-state-of-travel-nursing-in-2009/
April 26th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
It is true. Same here. Hiring freezes galore. The truth is there never really was a lack of nurses. It was a shortage of nurses actually working in nursing. Many went into real estate, opened up little shops or did whatever businesses. Some stayed at home when their husband had good jobs. Now with the economy many have had to return to nursing due to husband losing their jobs or real estate going bust. So I think it was unfair to have painted the picture to so many students that there would be jobs in abundance. Just keep looking and like prior poster stated look outside the box. Good luck.