How to be an unemployed registered nurse

by Raujane Pangue

Scream at the top of your lungs the moment you wake-up and realize you’re not going anywhere but home. After finishing four long years of studying Nursing- granted you graduated regular with no failing grades and no Clinical Instructor ruined your career. You are all but restless submitting your CV and application letter to hospitals, God knows, if they are hiring. Felt you wasted so much money going on trainings just to get hold of certificates only to find out your not so intelligent classmate, who even failed thrice in the board, landed a spot as staff nurse. Even your Magna Cum Laude and topnotcher is still on haunt for a decent Nursing job in the last six months. Often times, we think that, it’s doesn’t matter what you know but who you know.

Get out of bed, wash your face, brush your teeth and open the fridge. Luckily there are cereals today, your mom left some scrambled eggs and bacon on the table for you, yesterday you had ham for breakfast, tomorrow is predictable, either sausage or corned beef. Turn on the television and noticed it’s already one in the afternoon, your boring and unproductive day is just about to begin. You hated afternoon shows, so you opened your access to the tempting World Wide Web, checked your Facebook and noticed most of your friends are not online, wake up, they are all working except you.

Someone texted you, assuming its a friend, inviting you for a dinner and perhaps coffee or alcohol after. You’re hesitant to respond, you don’t know what to counter, either you say “I’m busy, probably next time” or “I don’t have spare money, might as well treat me” The last dinner you had with them, it cost you eight hundred bucks and the last time you checked your ATM, you only have three hundred pesos left. You forgot to ask those people who borrowed money from you and pay their debts, they already lost their sense of initiative. Your savings account is your last resort, yet you’re waiting for your Credit Cards bill, the last time you used it was when you purchased a cute pair of Zara shoes that was half the price of an Iphone 4. You’re father will obviously get mad and perhaps cut you as his card extension. Just when you already composed your thoughts, your phone replied “Sending Message Failed”, goodness, you don’t have enough load, you’re getting poor.

You have already exhausted all your means to get a decent job in your chosen field. Not only you feel bad about not working on hospitals, but your relatives unsolicited and hurtful reaction is not helping you at all. Thinking you’ve wasted money and time, they just don’t know how hard it is to compete in this crowded industry. Their measurement of success is money, how erratic. Being an unemployed Nurse is the laziest thing ever, this world could give you. You then thought of taking up your Masters degree but ended up disappointed since it wouldn’t get you far at all, your not working as a Registered Nurse and adding up to your parents daily expenses with your tuition fee can be laborious. So then the idea of working in Call Centers entered to ease boredom.

You worked on night shifts, answered phone calls and needed to pass certain metrics, it was like going back to school, but this time you’re paid. You already consumed twenty-four months working in the Corporate field, which means you already waited two long years for your application on hospitals to be processed, but none, not even a single sheet of “hi” from them answered your plea. You are left hanging on a cliff with only a matter of dead air to push you towards death. Realized, the waiting was way too much, you reapplied, this time with smaller amount of chance to land an item, reality check- two batch of Nurses finished their oath and are now ready to compete against you. You started pondering if age really matters and perhaps it does.

Revolve your schedule around the Internet, start blogging and accomplish what you do best. Remember, whenever you love something, you will surely excel on it. Book a ticket going to Cebu, Bohol, Manila or Tacloban and visit your relatives. Engage into your family’s business, be part of its cargo logistics. If it’s costly for you, go to bed, as usual, but don’t sleep, build a story inside your head, daydream. Clean the house again, even if you have helpers, watch what they’re doing. Learn daily errands from them; techniques how to mop the floor, wash clothes or water your moms orchids. Make yourself busy although you’re unemployed, thinking can make you busy, it helps your brain cells function properly.

If you think Nursing isn’t really for you, think again, you might have just overdosed yourself with alcohol. I know being unemployed is way beyond anemic, it can perhaps be cynical.

Remember the way your parents cheered you on, when they saw you walking down with cap and gown the day you graduated, remember how high your hopes and aspirations that day, you even wore your gala dress with so much pride. Remember how they sacrificed everything just for you to get the best education there is, you never worked to pay your fees in school, they did all the work for you so that you could achieve your biggest dreams with comfort. That is why you tried your very best to graduate on time and tried to get at least a fine job, you did this for them, remember?

Look back, turn around, catch a glimpse, give an insanely big smile of the road you passed by. Look around at all of the newly nursing graduates, board passers and topnotchers, this is the world you choose, be brave. Shout inside, I am (will be) an unemployed Registered Nurse, like getting rid over a painful heartbreak, this too shall come to pass.

Source: http://rhaujdailycatalog.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/how-to-be-an-unemployed-registered-nurse/

Photo via novinite.com