Why is it so hard to find part-time work?

3 8 years experience, including HH, LTC, PHN and CM
BSN
Great references
Willing to take low wages
Flexible on schedule
Mobile (have car)
No restrictions on license
Board certified (2 ANCCs)
No need for benefits

And yet, I cannot get any contacts back from the FEW part-time/PRN positions I find. EVERYONE wants full time only. You'd think with how much these companies are tightening their belts & trying to spend as little as possible on staffing, they'd be advertising more part time jobs!

Whatever happened to job-sharing positions, which was touted in the 80s & 90s as the savior to working women everywhere?

I've tweaked and tweaked my resume, "dumbing it down," smarting it up, trimming and adding and fiddling with it in all manner of ways. I don't really want to work for an agency, either. I prefer to develop a relationship with a single setting over time.....but I'll go agency if I have to. HH is almost always an option but it's a tough gig in L.A. with all the traffic. Again I'm not ruling anything out. Just lamenting at the strangeness of the job market for someone like me.

I hear constant horror stories of understaffing and cost cutting from full time employed nurses. It makes me wonder why don't these hospitals explore hiring more part time nurses or PRN staff?
I have seen job ads for both part time and full time positions but when one goes in to apply, they act as if they never posted the ad at all. Nothing comes of the encounter. Then two or three weeks later you see the ad again and you wonder.

I am currently looking for per diem to supplement my school nurse position. I have years of GOOD nursing, currently enrolled in school, bla bla bla. I have the same experience. I see the ads then *POOF*...what per diem position?Maybe I should have gone to Duke or Johns Hopkins.

Well, you could be like the nurse that worked for one agency that I ran across every so often. If you interacted with her for long, you saw that she was way out there. Fired from every case and she would admit it. The client told me some of the awful things she did that I had not been aware of, yet the agency never got rid of her and would give her fill in work before they would even think about providing work to me. They would send her back to cases where she had been fired. The dud always with work. There's something to be said for the thought pattern there.Why advertise for part time positions if you don't have them? Why advertise for anything if you don't have it? Counter-intuitive.

Yes. Duke or Johns Hopkins.

Quote from FarawynMaybe I should have gone to Duke or Johns Hopkins.

Quote from caliotter3Well, you could be like the nurse that worked for one agency that I ran across every so often. If you interacted with her for long, you saw that she was way out there. Fired from every case and she would admit it. The client told me some of the awful things she did that I had not been aware of, yet the agency never got rid of her and would give her fill in work before they would even think about providing work to me. They would send her back to cases where she had been fired. The dud always with work. There's something to be said for the thought pattern there.Why advertise for part time positions if you don't have them? Why advertise for anything if you don't have it? Counter-intuitive.

Managers are very slow to fill open positions, and never advertise for part time ICU or per diem nurses anymore. I suspect this is so they can avoid the expense of orientation.There is a pattern to it. They are forcing the most capable nurses to make do with fewer staff, even barebones staffing and the resulting greater workloads.I believe this strategy helps keep them under budget. They have no qualms about working their staff to their limits with no breaks in a twelve hour shift. Home Health agencies are no exception.

I apologize with the badly worded example of the nurse who always had work in spite of being a dud. In no way was I referring to you. If you had the acquaintance of this person, you too, would be wondering how a disaster with a nursing license always had work while good nurses had to seek unemployment benefits. I guess I was trying to say to be happy that you are not like her. A lousy nurse but always with work.This example does contribute to the conversation though. You are qualified and can not find the work that you seek. This person was clearly not qualified, but never went without work. Where is the justice or level headed management thinking in that?

Quote from icuRNmaggieManagers are very slow to fill open positions, and never advertise for part time ICU or per diem nurses anymore. I suspect this is so they can avoid the expense of orientation.There is a pattern to it. They are forcing the most capable nurses to make do with fewer staff, even barebones staffing and the resulting greater workloads.I believe this strategy helps keep them under budget. They have no qualms about working their staff to their limits with no breaks in a twelve hour shift. Home Health agencies are no exception.

Quote from caliotter3Yes. Duke or Johns Hopkins.

Quote from calivianyaI didn't go to a fancy school and I have not had a problem finding PRN work. Just went through the process with an agency, didn't like it, and am now going through the process with a second hospital. Now, finding people to fill out all these awful-words-I-can't-say-here reference forms... that's a little different. When did REFERENCES start taking people 30 minutes to fill out? I feel like I need to give sexual favors to my coworkers for even asking them to do all of that work for me. I just asked my latest preceptor and I'm going to have to ask her again...

Quote from calivianyaNow, finding people to fill out all these awful-words-I-can't-say-here reference forms... that's a little different. When did REFERENCES start taking people 30 minutes to fill out? I feel like I need to give sexual favors to my coworkers for even asking them to do all of that work for me. I just asked my latest preceptor and I'm going to have to ask her again...