Guess it's feast or famine, due to the economy: Maryland: Nursing graduates frustrated with job market

Despite talk of a national nursing shortage that prompted Hagerstown Community College to roughly double the size of its nursing program two years ago, some new nursing graduates say jobs aren’t as plentiful as they had hoped.

“I thought I was going to be able to find one right off the bat, but it didn’t work out that way,” said Tamara Medina, one of 24 students who graduated from HCC’s nursing program Jan. 8 as part of a new, January-admission program that was started with grant funding in 2008.

Medina said she applied to hospitals all over the area, then, when she didn’t hear back, expanded her search to include nursing homes. About seven weeks into her job search, she got a part-time job at an assisted-living facility and later, a second part-time job, also in assisted living, she said Monday.

“Which is fine. You’ve got to start somewhere,” she said. “I’m just glad to be working.”

Kelly Corbi, vice president of human resources at Washington County Hospital, said in January that the hospital did not have any entry-level nursing openings. The hospital hired six nursing graduates in December to fill entry-level positions and had another six on a waiting list for the next available positions, she said.

Washington County Hospital’s RN vacancy rate was 2.32 percent in 2009, down 70 percent from the previous year, when it was 7.74 percent, Corbi said.

Karen Hammond, director of nursing for HCC, said she thought the reduced number of nursing jobs was temporary and related to the economy. She said that while demand for nurses continues to grow, that need is being met in part by retired nurses who are returning to the work force.

“A lot of nurses who weren’t working had taken off because they have families or whatever, then their husbands get laid off and all of a sudden they have to get back in the work force,” Hammond said.

A refresher course at HCC for nurses seeking to reactivate expired licenses has been “jampacked” in recent sessions, she said.

Hospitals prefer to hire experienced nurses over new graduates, who generally must complete three months or more of on-the-job training, Hammond said.

Cheryl Peterson, nursing practice and policy director for the American Nurses Association, said the trend of retired nurses returning to work is reducing the number of nursing jobs in many areas throughout the country, but, like Hammond, she believes the effect will be temporary.

“I know it’s tough, but we believe this is gonna turn around quickly, and that hospitals are going to start hiring more here in the near future,” Peterson said.

For now, new nursing graduates are having to wait longer for jobs, but most do find nursing jobs eventually, Hammond said.

Most of the 33 students in the HCC nursing class that graduated last May now have jobs, but it took some of them several months to get them, Hammond said.

“Those students were real discouraged,” she said.

Among the January graduates, by two weeks after graduation, 14 of the 24 were committed to jobs, Hammond said. By last week, that number hadn’t changed much, she said.

One January graduate who had not found a job said she was frustrated there wasn’t more structure in place to ensure nursing students can get the experience they need to qualify for jobs where they are needed.

The student, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to endanger her chances for employment, said she sent her résumé to hospitals throughout the region, but most openings required three to five years of experience.

“How can I get the experience that’s required without starting from the bottom?” she said.

Hammond said students sometimes have better luck finding jobs if they expand their search to include Washington-area hospitals such as Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and Washington Hospital Center.

Students willing to relocate might find more jobs in the Midwest or in Pennsylvania, where Gov. Edward G. Rendell has focused on supporting the nursing field, Peterson said.

Those first in line for jobs at local hospitals are those who already worked there while in nursing school, particularly if they receive tuition assistance from the hospital, Hammond said.

That was the case for Claire Yonker, who has worked as a nursing assistant at Washington County Hospital for five years and participated in its tuition-reimbursement program while studying nursing at HCC. Yonker, who graduated in January, said she soon will start working as a registered nurse in a joint surgery rehabilitation program on the same floor where she worked as an assistant.

“I think if you got help through (the hospital), I think they’re trying to find jobs for you,” Yonker said. “They wouldn’t let me leave with all their money.”

Graduates also have better luck getting jobs after they pass the NCLEX, the national exam to become a licensed registered nurse, Hammond said.

She said many of the January HCC nursing graduates waited until February to take that exam.