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If you’re like many nurses, especially new ones, you may instinctively be focusing on hospitals as potential employers.
However, with the stiff competition out there for these coveted openings, you may want to consider thinking outside the box. Here are five job-hunting targets that may just get you hired right away (or faster than you think!).
Air National Guard
If you’re attracted to the rush and fast pace of the OR and critical care — you may want to consider being an Air National Guard nurse. You may find yourself in the middle of the action during a natural disaster, civil emergency, or homeland crisis – situations where your skills are critical and your character can make all the difference. If you thrive on getting an adrenaline rush, here’s your chance to care for patients being airlifted out of disaster-stricken areas or saving lives in a field hospital in the aftermath of a hurricane. The Air National Guard has a variety of opportunities that allow nurses to stay close to home and serve their community, assessing the health needs of individuals as well as the population as a whole. You’ll even have the option of part-time service allowing you to gain new skills and experiences while keeping your civilian job.
Nursing Homes
Even if nursing homes weren’t your favorite in nursing school, you shouldn’t be quick to rule out this option. Nursing homes also hire utilization review registered nurses and case managers—positions that require an RN degree but don’t involve the drudgery of nursing home work. It’s true that some of these jobs require experience, but others don’t. Some nursing homes, especially smaller ones, are happy to train you on the job to fill these roles. Apply for MSDS, utilization or case management nursing home positions if you’re in need of a job right away.
Clinics
In the rush to get a hospital job or possibly a job in a doctor’s office, you might have forgotten that there are a ton of clinics out there. With the wait times at hospitals, and with some insurance companies refusing to cover emergency room visits, patients are increasingly turning to clinics for medical attention.
A clinic is a great place for a new nursing grad to get a foot in the door. Also look into clinics for pain management, stroke survivors, heart attack victims, etc., that might be in your area and looking for help. Sometimes places don’t advertise an opening, so call and see if you can talk to an HR person. The worst they can say is that they have no openings.
Drug Rehabilitation Centers
Many drug rehab centers have to detox subjects, and guess what? They need an RN on duty to make sure the patient doesn’t seize or go into DTs, and to give meds. You might have overlooked places like this—who would think a drug and alcohol rehab center would need a nurse? Some places may require experience, but others won’t require anything more than your nursing license. It pays to be proactive: Bust out the yellow pages, look up all the drug rehab centers in your area and call them to see what their nursing status is. You just might get an interview.
Dialysis Centers
Many large companies perform dialysis treatments on patients seven days a week. These companies, such as DaVita, need registered nurses to man the dialysis machines and make sure the patients don’t go bad. You would need to monitor vital signs, the dialysis machine and the port to ensure it doesn’t clot off. If you have some experience in nursing, you’ll stand a better chance, but some dialysis companies take new grads and train them to run the machines. If your city is large enough, you may find many dialysis centers around to target for your search.
Rehabilitation Centers
After some patients are done at the hospital, they are quickly sent out to rehabilitation centers to recover. (In fact, you’ll sometimes find that insurance companies facilitate shipping patients out a little too soon.) People in rehabilitation centers can have trachs, vents, external fixators and a host of other interesting diagnoses for you to experience. Of course, they all need their meds and their therapy, and you would have an assignment, just as you would have on a medical-surgical floor. Although their status will be a little less acute, the patients will still be significantly ill. Most rehab centers prefer that you have experience, but don’t actually require it. Interview well, and you just might have a job.
This article is brought to you in partnership with the Air National Guard.
