Jobs wanted: HSC grads overcome job market challenges

The art of job hunting

How this year's health science graduates are displaying flexibility in a tightening job market

When Dani McVety entered veterinary school, professors told her incoming class that demand was high for new veterinarians.

But as McVety and her classmates prepared for graduation, they met a different reality.

"One place I e-mailed literally wrote ... ‘We are getting by with relief veterinarians until the economy turns around,'" McVety says. "I mean, that's amazing. When we got into vet school they told us that there were more positions than veterinary students could fill."

This year, new graduates in health-related fields are finding that positions are available, but perhaps not in the abundance or variety they had expected. The changing market has tested their perseverance and creativity.

With an infant at home and her husband graduating from law school and also looking for a job, searching for a position also requires finding the right situation for her family. Originally, McVety sought something in the north Tampa area. But when an offer came in March, she declined because it wasn't a good fit.

McVety decided instead to work in emergency veterinary medicine because the typical schedule of three weekly night shifts would mean more time to spend with family.

"I'm looking in Port Charlotte, Fort Pierce and south Miami," McVety writes in an e-mail. "You never know. I'm the main breadwinner for the first few years out of school so we'll go wherever I get the best offer for emergency medicine."

With limited options, McVety is considering ways to set herself apart from colleagues.

"I have actually seriously considered going to law school, even if it's part time," McVety says, "and in five years doing animal law, doing patent law for pharmaceutical companies, you know, different things to make myself more marketable."

Mike Chaddock, D.V.M., deputy director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, says that with some imagination, new veterinarians should get jobs.

"The job market is much tighter, absolutely. But (it depends) on where a person wants to find work and being a little bit creative — are they looking at industry, are they looking at government, are they looking at the nonprofit sector?"

The Waiting Game

Many of this year's UF health science graduates face similar challenges. People looking for health jobs are still faring better than those in other types of fields. Seven of the 20 fastest-growing jobs are related to health care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the contracting economy and growing unemployment mean more competition for jobs even in the most in-demand health-care occupations.

"Providers, which include the physicians, physicians' assistants, nurses,lab techs and others, will stay pretty strong," says Russell Armistead, M.B.A.,C.P.A., UF's associate vice president of finance and planning for health affairs. "The business office and overhead personnel will be the first area that will experience a reduction in employment. But employment has held up reasonably well so far."

Like McVety, Meredith Parns' personal life has been intertwined with her search for a position after graduation. A graduate of UF's master's in health administration program in the College of Public Health and Health Professions, Parns learned she landed a fellowship spot with Poudre Valley Health System in Fort Collins, Colo., in late February. Students are normally awarded fellowship positions in November, she says.

Parns says the extended wait made her very nervous and affected her personal life. She and her fiancé, a UF police officer, informally planned to marry this fall and stay in Gainesville. The sudden news of her new position changed that. Parns' fiancé is looking for jobs in Colorado. Now, they're not sure when they'll get married.

But Parns is just glad to have a fellowship.

"It's been frustrating. I'm very relieved now that I have a job. But it took me six months to find one."

Parns says fewer students in her 18-person graduating class found fellowshippositions than in past classes. This year seven students got fellowship positions and six accepted jobs. The remaining graduates are either still looking for jobs or have other postgraduation plans.

"Clearly this year's placement process has been tighter than historically has been the case," says R. Paul Duncan, Ph.D., a professor and chair of health services, research, management and policy in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. "On the other hand ... 15 of the 18 are in outcomes that are kind of normal for people finishing a master's degree program like this and three of them are still looking."

He says finding fellowships in health administration is not impossible right now, but it isn't surprising that it can bechallenging, either.

"Certainly it is the case that when hospitals are faced with budget constraints, administrative fellowships are one of the things that might get cut."

For students in the college's occupational therapy, physical therapy and audiology programs, Joanne Foss, Ph.D., O.T.R./L., says the number of open jobs is growing.

"Anybody who's going into elder care ... especially here in the state of Florida, or (working with) children that are at risk for disabilities, those are ever-increasing (professions)."

She says the college's career day in February saw a record turnout of organizations looking to hire students.

"We had a significant increase in the number of vendors, and they were all actively recruiting."

Veteran Workers Return

Sydney Vandeveer, who recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in nursing, doesn't have the same family-related concerns as McVety and Parns. She just wants to find a job.

Last fall, she began inquiring about training programs for new nurses at hospitals near her hometown, West Palm Beach. Rookie nurses usually work alongside experienced nurses before they can work independently.

They "gave me the impression that there weren't really a lot of spots available and they weren't really hiring new graduates," Vandeveer says.

Orienting new nursing graduates tends to be costly for hospitals, and in a tough economic climate employers may steer more toward hiring more experienced nurses. Vandeveer has applied at five hospitals in the area and expanded her search to include any hospital nursing positions. She originally applied only for emergency or critical care positions.

Vandeveer has had one job interview, in early May. She feels optimistic about it, though she's still waiting to see what will happen.

She will take the licensing exam for nurses this summer, though new graduates often find jobs before the exam. Vandeveer says she will expand her search to other areas of South Florida if necessary.

Karen Miles, Ed.D., R.N., associate dean for academic and student affairs in the College of Nursing, says former nurses going back to work and nurses postponing retirement make it challenging for new nurses. The American Hospital Association reports a decrease in patients at hospitals because of financial reasons, which also may explain why some hospitals are hiring fewer nurses.

But experts say a shortage of nurses will resurface after the economy recovers some, especially as the population continues to grow older. Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N., the Valere Potter professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University's School of Nursing, says that by 2025 there could be almost 500,000 fewer nurses than needed nationwide.

"The nursing profession is not immune to what is happening in our economy nationwide. What we are seeing is most likely a dip in a very promising career forecast," Miles said. "Nursing graduates, especially from UF, will still continually be sought out because people will always need quality health care. It just may be a bit more difficult than in years past for graduates to find their ideal positions. They may have to broaden their horizons with regard to specialty or location."

Similarly, new dentists are also seeing some crowding in their field from veteran dentists, says Mickey Leth, a recent UF College of Dentistry graduate. But their challenges are different.

"It's much tougher to get loans at the current time to open a dental office," Leth says. "Now, it wasn't even an option (to buy property and start a practice)."

Unable to start practices, Leth says, associates are continuing to work for other dentists. That means fewer associate jobs available for new dentists.

Still, he says he doesn't think the economy's negative effect on his profession is significant. With some flexibility, his classmates are getting jobs, though maybe not in their preferred geographic areas.

Boyd Robinson, D.M.D., associate dean for clinical affairs at the College of Dentistry, says it's unclear how the dental field overall is affected by the recession, but there is still plenty of opportunity.

"It's a mixed market now," he says. "I don't think it's a closed market in any specific sense."

Some types of practice offer more opportunity than others for dentists.

"The areas that are slowing down are the general practice, fee-for-service areas," Robinson says, emphasizing that community health organizations may be the most surefire places to find work as a dentist.

Leth is proof that finding a position in a private practice is possible.He'll begin work at a dental practice in his hometown of St. Augustine this summer.

"The practice ... (belongs to) a dentist who's got a five-year retirement plan, basically," Leth says.

Leth will take over the practice when the owner retires.

Pharmacy Supply And Demand

Julie Justo, a new pharmacy graduate, landed a one-year residency position at the University of Illinois at Chicago without much trouble. But she does see a change in the market for pharmacists right now. She always planned to pursue a residency but says a saturated market for pharmacists in her preferred location, South Florida, intensified her desire for a residency spot.

Justo applied to eight programs, instead of the typical four or five. The program at University of Illinois was one of her top choices.

Justo and William Riffee, Ph.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy, say pharmacy programs in South Florida such as those at Nova Southeastern University and Palm Beach Atlantic University exacerbate the job crunch for pharmacists there.

An experimental new business approach at Walgreens, one of the state's largest retail pharmacies, is having effects statewide. The retailer plans to establish a "central pharmacy" in Orlando to fill many prescriptions, such as those ordered in advance. Florida is the first state where the company is implementing this system.

Riffee says it may mean layoffs and fewer jobs available for new pharmacy grads, though it's too early to tell. He says there have been fewer pharmacists hired at Target and in hospitals, too.

"Something's going on in Florida that appears to be replicating itself across the country, from what I can understand from other deans."

Riffee says he thinks demand for pharmacists in Florida is still higher than the supply, but the balance is changing.

"It is my opinion from anecdotal evidence only that we are closing in on being ‘in balance,'" Riffee writes in an e-mail. "Only the next year will really show if this is a trend or an unusual blip."

Finding The Right Fit

Despite the challenges of getting a job in the struggling economy, some new health science graduates are finding exciting opportunities and hope for the future.

After months of uncertainty, Dani McVety, the veterinary medicine graduate, finally found a position in mid-April. She'll start work at Animal Emergency Clinic of Brandon as an associate veterinarian in early June.

Though it required some compromise, McVety says in many ways the job is just what she needs.

The salary is "a bit less than my previous offer, but learning the medicine is the most important part of being a new graduate and the hours will allow me more time to spend with family in addition to pursuing other entrepreneurial ventures with my husband," she writes in an e-mail.

"To me, it's the best of both worlds. Ideally, we'd like to open or purchase a practice in about five years."