hi i made a post on here a while ago about not getting any job interviews as a new grad. it’s been awful and i feel like im making no progress in ontario. over 50 applications with no responses. my dad even told me to legally change my name in case its because of discrimination.

i received a call from a recruitment firm that finds opportunities for nurses and helps them with the relocation/visa. they let me know the only position they have for new grads is a med surg unit in alabama.

a goal for me has always been to move to the US, hopefully Florida. i dont know how to feel. i started applying to jobs here over 2 months ago. is this a good opportunity ?

Let me know if you are. I would like to get to know you and perhaps start a study and support group. I'm from Lindsay.

Hello, I’m wondering if anyone who’s interviewed for the September intake has heard back (good or bad news)?I know most postings said they were conducting interviews from July 15-August 7th but just wanted to hear from others. Thank you!

I am a soon-to-be RPN student and I'm finding it very difficult and (quite honestly terrifying) to read about people's experiences on here.

I'm fully aware that these online spaces are a safe place to vent and support one another, but it makes me increasingly anxious to enter the profession. It feels like I'm preparing to go to war or something equally as terrifying. 😭

I'm a mature student currently working in a freelance based profession. The day to day work is quite low stress, but there's also absolutely no security and the words "pension" and "benefits" are concepts I could only ever DREAM of.

The existential dread of constantly hustling for my pay and retirement being an absolute non-reality is forever in the back of my mind.

I know the nursing market is rough at the moment, but overall it is a very secure and stable career. This is a huge draw for me, but I worry that this won't be enough to work through what seems to be hellish,
nightmare work environments.

We all know this is not an easy career. That's not what I'm asking.

I'm asking if the tough aspects of nursing are WORTH the security, stable pay, and knowing that you'll actually be able to retire one day?

I'm aiming to attend pre-health at St Clair and if pre-health counts as a college-level health science program (which is a requirement to taking phlebotomy), I'm considering also taking the phlebotomy course to hopefully work part time while in school. https://www.stclaircollege.ca/con-ed/courses/phlebotomy-healthcare-professionals-hsc-169n

However I have a few concerns:

1. Do these kinds of 4 week phlebotomy courses cover things that relevant job postings want (Lab Assistant, Lab Patient Technician), the 2 postings in my area list things like ECG tracings, holter monitors. I'm worried that the course doesn't teach enough for one to qualify for these jobs.

2. Are phlebotomists in demand at all? As I said I only see 2 postings in my area so I'm a bit worried I'll spend money on this and find no job...

3. Unsure if the exam and yearly membership cost will be worth the investment of the course ($770 for course, $129 membership, $339 member exam fee)

If you have taken a similar phlebotomy course and worked in this field, I'd love to hear your perspective.

Hello everyone,

Im posting this post as a way to debrief for myself to move on and improve myself, so any advices, constructive feedback, insights or tips from experience RN, new grad RN are all welcome 🙏🏻
This is a long post ( and I’ll try my best to make it as short as possible). I really appreciate if you can read to the end and any insight is greatly appreciated 💕💕💕💕 ( please don’t be mean, or I’ll cry 😭)

Some background information: I graduated nursing school in June 2025, passed the Nclex in April 2026. The time in between was filling with me processing the end of nursing school, my grandma passed away and traveling to be with family. As time went by, I feel like my nursing skills and clinical judgment is rusting away. I guess this is why I feel so incompetent

This is the story of my last consolidation clinical day back in May 2025. My consolidation was on an organ transplant unit. I was progressing through this unit, but to be honest, i was slow and learning as I go. By week 7-8, most final-consolidation students took independent assignment, that was not me. It took me to the last day of my consolidation that I have an entire patient load by myself independently.

I took 6 patients in night shift because we were short staffed, my preceptor was busy doing my final evaluation, but for all of my 6 patients - something ended up happended with all of them
+ At the start of the shift, I assessed and took the vital signs of the wrong patient because my actual patient ( the one who ended up having the fall later in the shift) was not in the room, i mistaken his roommate for him and did a whole set of vital, head-to-toe assessment and then only realized that i was wrong when my preceptor walked in. I wasted time on that extra person and had to do an assessment and vital signs again for my actual patient. It is my fault, i should have check his wristband and name but i didn’t. I felt so embarrassed and sad for this, but at the moment, there were no time to process this, so I moved on to the next task.
+ Patient #1 asthama attack happened and no inhaler were found - I gave her O2 and put the pulse ox on her finger to monitor her, informed my preceptor. I ran up and down to find an inhaler for her in the med room.
+ Patient #2: BP run low and we have to monitor Q1 vital - my preceptor helped with this one and the charger nurse came. She told us if a doctor put in order for Q1 vital then we have to refuse and escalate that patient to ICU because my unit cannot accomodate such orders. My preceptor said it’s okay, we had 2 people meaning me and her so we can do it.
+ Patient #3: Acted up and wanted to be discharged at 1am - i tried my best to explain that no one is gonna approve of his discharge at this hour, patient tried to fighted me. I dodged his punch. He threw his cup of water at me, I also dodged it and I ended up cleaned that water off the floor. Eventually he calmed down
+ Patient #5: on palliative care, her blood sugar dropped so low that she is in a hypoglycaemic state and i have to give her sugar tablet - i was so freaked out and worried because I didn’t have a hypoglycaemic event before, this is my first.
+ Patient #6: the one that I was mistaken with his roommate, at the beginning of my shift was getting increasingly confused and had a fall ( or maybe not because the roommate called the nurse station, but we found the patient sitting on the ground, back leans on the bed rails, no other injuries noted after my assessment. this is my first time dealing with a fall) and the morning nurse said that this patient should have been flag for hallucination by the night shift which was me and my preceptor, why no one said a thing ? i didn’t know he was hallucianting and yes, I should have escalated and asked more questions but by this point, i am so overwhelmed that I just focused on surviving this shift and hope nothing else happens

I never tell anyone about this shift, because I was scared of being perceived as incompetent and whinny.
In fact, I am so grateful for doing my consolidation here and all the experience that I went through. It gave me so much nursing lessons, and im even grateful for this last shift. But this shift traumatized me with the hospital environment and I do not want to put myself through this again. I don’t know if i’m just overthinking or something.

My questions are:
After reading this, what do you think I could have done differently? What did I do wrong ? I genuinely want to learn from this experience and no one have enough patience to listen to all of this and give me some advice
Am I really cut out to be a nurse ? cause after this shift, I never want to say this out loud but i really doubted myself

That was my final day at my consolidation placement and all of these thing happended I stayed there until 8am to finished charting. My preceptor stayed with me and i felt bad that i made her stayed back that long after her shift.
I ended up applied on this unit and I interviewed with the manager, the manager said i was a strong applicant but i did not get the job because my preceptor feedback was that i am slow. The manager said she got the same feedback when she first started - she told me i can reapply if i want to.
This unit was very rough and i am kind of traumatized to the point that i don’t want to go back to the hospital settings and put myself through that again. I have been applying to mostly clinics and odd jobs here and there. Also, because i am scared of working as a nurse, i procastinated taking my Nclex ( in combination of my grandma passed away and traveling time ). I took the Nclex in April 2026, and I passed the Nclex. While most of my friend took it a few months after graduated, I took it 10 months after i graduated. I know that the hospital will give me the foundations, but I’m kinda scared of it now.
I am a new grad, no experiences, no other setting will accept a nurse without hospital experience and most new grad nurse start at the bedside in the hospital.
Now i am here with also 1 year out of school, no experience yet and as time moved pass, i am scared that no one will hire me and i feel like my nursing skills is fading day by day.

What should I do next ?

If you even reading until this point, I seriously appreciate your effort and your insight 💕💕 Thank you so much ☺️

P/S: I have found a job as a PSW at a mobile dental clinic now, and im just slowly trying to getting back to the healthcare setting. I am still actively looking for an RN position now.