Most newly registered nurses in La. are finding work, survey says

Though reports at the regional and national levels indicate it’s getting increasingly more difficult for new registered nurse graduates to find employment, a new survey by the Louisiana Center for Nursing shows 94% of 1,137 recently licensed RNs in the state say they were able to find work—albeit some more quickly than others. “The majority of new RNs found employment within the first six months after graduation, whereas it took others up to nine months, and still others greater than 12 months to find initial employment as an RN,” reads a summary of the survey findings from LCN, which is a division of the Louisiana State Board of Nursing. Nonetheless, the “New Graduate Survey: Finding Employment in Louisiana as a Newly Licensed RN” report also points out challenges facing new RNs, many of which can be attributed to “employers filling positions with experienced nurses, older nurses that were not retiring, hiring freezes,” says LCN Director Cynthia Bienemy. Also, “in some cases, hospitals were closing departments, all resulting in a decreased number of positions available for new graduates,” Bienemy says. You can check out the complete survey results here.