Cannot find a job in Washington state!

1 Here is my issue. I have 23 years of very strong and diversified ICU/CCU/Intermediate Care experience. I left the field for 6 years. I came back and finished a RN refresher course at the end of June. I did exceptionally well in the course. My preceptor told me following my clinical section that I was very much ready to go back to nursing and into ICU. He stated you are ready! It made me realize that I had really not forgotten anything. My wife and I live in Washington state. There is a very large number of nurses job hunting and few jobs. It is a hospital employer's market for sure. The hiring atmosphere is cold and indifferent for the most part. No one wants to hire here unless you have current experience. There are nurse residency programs here but very far and few have openings. I even saw a job posting for ICU that said you had to have at least a year of ICU experience for the residency! Crazy. With my experience I know I am v=better qualified than a large number of nurses working in ICU's here.I have considered traveling but you have to have at least 6 months current clinical experience before travel agencies will talk to you. .....I am stuck!!!!
You can try home health in the meantime while you wait for a hospital to come through. And any potential employer is definitely going to want to know about the long gap in employment. Good luck.

Yes, have you tried other areas of nursing outside of ICU? Last year there were several positions for ICU posted for Vancouver in the Oregonian (oregon live.com); however, I do note that these positions no longer exist.

My hospital In Port Angeles, is hiring for ICU...its nights 28 hours a week...but theres always open shifts. I work med/surg there and float to ICU and I love it there. So there are jobs...you just have to know the right people!

I just graduated and was hired on by the Franciscans in the Tacoma area. The trick to applying for them, is to apply for all the jobs, as they do not post for residency's like the Multicare system. Good luck in your search.

wow, just to think i considered moving there. i hope the job situation all around is not too bad there. the problem is if you are out of work too long, you might forget what you learned in school. we know that you have to practice in order to retain knowlege. it's too bad, but the healthcare field is something you would have to consider relocating for. schools spit out nurses and allied health all the time and they take up all the jobs when they graduate leaving you with nothing, and when the economy gets bad, people tend to stay longer in their positions.