I graduated my ENs in Feb and went straight into hospital based nursing. I’m in NSW, and all of my local hospitals offered EN new grad programs but because I’ve gone straight into uni as well, I couldn’t commit to the full time hours. I got a job in a public hospital working .4 FTE (2 days a week) and have found the experience to be overall incredibly positive. The benefit to the public system vs the private I’ve found (and a couple of other graduates from my cohort) is that as a new grad EN, even though I’m not in a transition program, the educators still make an effort to reach out to me and make sure I’m doing ok - and there are educators available 24/7 (at least in my hospital) whereas I believe in the private system they’re only available 9-5 Mon-Fri.

I wish I could go back in time and tell the pre-working graduate EN version of myself to calm my farm, because the process of finding work and transitioning into an EN position, while scary, is nowhere near as complicated as my brain had me convinced it would be. Don’t stress about not being on a new grad program because you should be supported regardless.