Jobless and Frustrated

I have worked as a LPN for the past 14 years.I worked long term care for 3.5 years and the remainder of my experience is hospital, acute care, and clinical experience. My kids finally got to the right age where it was possible for me to return to school, so I took time off work and completed R.N. school. I graduated December of 2009 and passed boards in January.I love hospital/acute care/ and clinical work and miss it deeply. I live in Minnesota and there is nothing open right now anywhere! People I know that graduated before me are still jobless. I am currently only working on call at a long term care facility as thats all that is available. I don't mind long term care - I am happy I least have a job, but it's not what I went back to school for. Not to mention I really need something full time instead of on call. I am starting to regret going back to school as I feel like I educated myself right out of a job and I miss my old job deeply. I am now considering moving. Any Advise out there?
where in minnesota do you live? have you considered anything besides hospital work (like home health, Assisted living, agency nursing(esp with you ltc experience)
I live in Duluth Minnesota - Both major hospitals laid off and the nursing homes right now are only hiring on call. I work on call in long term care right now, but I feel like I am just treading water because the experience does not count for much. I applied for a few positions in North Dakota, Saint Cloud, Eau Claire - so we'll see.
I also am searching for RN positions in MN, but nothing seems to be open. I worked internationally for 2 years and now am back in MN and not able to find a job here. It seems there are a few positions along the Iowa-Minnesota border, but that's all I've seen for acute care...but that's quite a ways from Duluth.All the HR people I've talked to at various hospitals say to wait a few weeks and some positions may open up. Good luck on your search!
anyone know of hospitals that are hiring in NYC?
Oh they're all "hiring." But that just means putting fake job listings on their boards so it it looks like they're addressing that lie known as the "nursing shortage."Sadly, we were all duped by the nursing schools when we got sucked in to putting our time and money into a new career. Hopefully there's a special place in hell for the perpetrators of this scam.
I would suggest moving if you are not able to find gainful employment as an RN. I find this so hard to believe, but I guess there are places not feeling the nursing shortage. Have you thought about Texas. I live 36 miles outside of Houston, TX and they are begging for RNs. Good luck in your search!
Yes, I am considering getting licensed in Texas. My concern is that after I move down there, it will be more of "we don't hire graduate nurses because we are short-sighted and don't feel it's worth training the next generation."Also, it will cause me to be separated from my 9-year-old son and I don't know if I can bear that.Anyway, sorry for the pessimism but I am just so fed up with an industry that is supposed to be about healing and the people involved in it act like Wall Street sharks.
mezcaleroWhy do you believe the nursing shortage is a lie or a scam?
Well, you may want to consider bringing your son with you. Surely, there is something you can work out.
Well the way I see it, it works like this:1. New hospitals are built without the proper demographic/economic studies being conducted, and the hospitals find too many beds unoccupied to generate a profit.2. The CEO's and CFO's responsible for these types of fiascoes are scared to death that this dearth of revenue-generating customers (aka "patients") will eat into their $3,000,000 salaries.3. Instead of taking a pay cut and accepting a salary more in line with their actual worth, they up the patient to nurse ratio from 5:1 to 10:1.4. To justify this dangerous ratio, they invent a "nursing shortage" which is leaked to the media and pandered to Washington via well-placed lobbyists. Nursing schools are only too happy to jump on this bandwagon because the myth generates enormous profits for them. How many "get your worthless BSN degree" ads do you see on this site alone? Dozens? Hundreds? To train people for nonexistent jobs, it seems!5. To complete the ruse, they post "jobs" on websites and with agencies that they never intend to fill. If more patients do eventually show up at their institution, they just up the patient:nurse ratio to 12:1 or whatever.If there was really a "nursing shortage," graduate nurses would get hired, plain and simple. It doesn't cost much at all to orient/train graduates. At Mount Sinai in NYC, preceptors are literally paid a dollar or two extra per hour for a graduate to shadow them for six months to show the grads the ropes. And don't believe for an instant the new hires aren't working their tails off during that six months either.I don't see the hospitals' problems as being that much different from General Motors; with the exception that at GM, the assembly-line union "schmuck" is making $50/hour to screw on a bolt all day while the mismanagers higher up make millions.
That's just about sums it up. I have never seen it from that perspective. 10:1 or 12:1 is definitely not safe, and almost guarantees someone losing their license. You are right about the CEOs making 3 million plus. I know at my hospital our CEO brings in around 7 million so needless to say, why are we paying them the big bucks. Truthfully that doesn't even register. If anything, their salaries should be around $300,000 and that's pushing it.