Monday, April 12, 2010

resounding bleakness

Last year around this time I was obsessively looking at the area hospitals' job search pages. At the time you could be sure to find new grad postings.

Now?

Not so much.

In fact, the only thing comparable is the RNA (RN applicant) position open at a local university hospital. It's for a renal/respiratory unit. It's not really my cup of pee, I mean tea, but at this point, I'll take anything! That reminds me I need to check out another university's job postings. It's further then most of the others, but it's better than nothing.



A huge medical center, that is set to open in a couple of months, is hiring for various RN positions and I did come across one on their women's and children's pre/post-partum unit. I applied for it. The chances of me getting that job are so bleak it's funny, but what the hey. It's good practice filling out the applications.

It's so bad in this area that even the people I know who work in our local community hospital as externs or clinical techs (that are also graduating next month) - the one where we're doing our preceptorships - aren't even guaranteed positions. In fact this very hospital just laid off 35+ people in various departments, to include department heads, this past week. All I ask is that they leave the nurses alone! I mean there's enough competition out there with the hordes of all the other new grads that are also currently searching for jobs, without throwing in nurses who have experience.

I will work anywhere...hospital, doctors office, school...I am not picky!

10 comments:

Robert said...

Scary times indeed. My classmates are just now discovering the only way to get hired as a new grad down here is through the internship programs, which of course you have to do the externship also. Most of us with more life experience figured that out awhile back and snapped up the externships. Mass panic within my class...

Order & Chaos said...

I tried to extern last summer, which around here, was my only opportunity. I had to take 8 credits thouh, so even had I been offered an externship, I wouldn't have been able to keep it. The current externs were hired on as prn clin techs after their externship was over. There is no scrambling around now for anything but a job. It's a real bummer!

L&D said...

Wow. You'd never know there was a nursing shortage......
Well, there is one here. Come on over to Canada and you'll get hired within the week. We are SCREAMING for nurses. Hence I had a job before I graduated......and was PAID my full-time wages plus tuition/books to complete my ER specialty. Yup, paid to go to school. And that was all fresh from undergrad nursing school. Seriously.

Good luck finding a position! Here's me cheersing you with my cup of pee!

L&D said...

We don't have intership or externships here. What exactly are those?

Robert said...

Internship--transitional program after you graduate. Employers are using it as an extended interview. May or may not be guaranteed a position at the completion of the program. Can be 2-6 months long. Much like a residency. Can be specialized on one particular unit, or throughout the hospital. May or may not be at full pay scale of an RN.

Externship--program before graduation. Pay and duties are often similar to a tech or CNA, but the emphasis is on education. Usually doesn't guarantee a position at graduation, but many hospitals use it as an extended interview as well.

Both programs make sense from the hospital's point of view. The investment is minimal when compared to the cost of training someone as a GN only to discover they aren't going to work out.

I currently have an externship in an ICU at hospital I wouldn't mind working in at graduation. They have a good picture of my work ethic, abilities, attitude, willingness/ability to learn, personality fit, etc. They'd prefer to hire me over an unknown if I seem to be working out ok.

I am currently in the interview process for a pediatric externship at the hospital I REALLY want to work at, but is difficult to get a job at as a GN. Covering my bases, if I don't get the pediatric one, I'm covered with my ICU externship. :)

Crazed Nitwit said...

I still cannot find a nursing job 6 months after passing my NCLEX. It's brutal out there right now.

I sincerely hope you have a better outcome!!

Anonymous said...

Hang in there!! Since I work at "that" hospital that just laid off 35+ I am very nervous too. I think they will go after the nurses/aides next. I have been a nurse for 13 yrs and have never seen it like this and I keep telling myself that it has to turn around soon but then I know we could get a job if we just commute a little but I really don't want to which is why I haven't looked at that option yet. Hey... we could carpool together if it comes to that!!!! You are almost at the end so just focus on that NCLEX and passing it and by then who knows how things will be!! Your almost there!!! (and hey if we carpool I do have dvd/tv in the van so we could be entertained during that commute lol...

L&D said...

Thanks Drofen for the clarification.
In BC we have a similar program to your externship but we call it "Employed Student Nurse" or ESN. They get paid well, not quite as much as an RN, and have a lovely amount of responsibilty: not too much, not too little. If I could have stayed an ESN forever I would have.

In BC in order to work in specialty areas, RNs are required to go back for more specialty training. Most courses run anywhere from 3 months to a year of additional school. And that is POST graduation. So areas such as Maternity, ICU, ER, Cardiac, Oncology, Pediatrics, Palliative etc, all require more school before you can even work in those areas. So in the States, do you guys simply begin to work in specialty areas and are trained in house or do you actually have to attend school again? Just curious how specialty areas are regulated.

I find it incredilous that Rn's do not have employment after 6 months post graduation. WOW. So what's the draw then? Why would people go into nursing if there is no certainty of employment? So so hard. I cannot imagine.

Best of luck to all you guys.

Robert said...

Here in the US we are beginning to see internships that are post-graduation. Usually these internships are within the hospitals and consist of classroom and clinical time both. They are anywhere from 3 months to year also.
It is technically possible to get hired as a graduate nurse into a specialty area maybe, but extremely difficult. For example, the two children's hospitals I would love to work for, the only way they hire new grads is through their internship program. Well, the best way to get into the internship program is through the externship program while still in school...

Contrast that to my wife who graduated nursing school 8 years ago, and started work directly in a pediatric ICU. She did get 16 weeks of orientation as a new grad, but after that they just tossed her in, sink or swim. Lucky for us she swam like a fish! :)

Cartoon Characters said...

When I started nursing it was the "sink or swim" and I had never heard of the "internship" prior to my 5 year stint working in California. I have since moved back to BC ....the government will take RNs and pay your tuition if you commit to working up north in Canada. The Free Trade Agreement allows you to come up here to work (preferential admittance) without the complicated paperwork. That is how I got to work in California 20 yrs ago. You could always come up here....we are unionized province wide...the pay is pretty good (top wage is 10 yrs and you get approx $38 per hr not including diff)plus medical is paid for plus dental and meds etc etc, no copay, and it would also include your spouse and kids.... we really need RNs up here... :)