How to Find Nursing Job Openings in Big Cities

On average, every hospital in the United States is short several nurses. Even this statistic undersells the reality: shortages are often deeper and more disruptive than they appear on paper. A large city hospital might be down one or two RNs on a shift; in a smaller or rural facility, the gap could stretch to 10.

Finding a job as a nurse isn’t hard. Finding a job you’ll actually like is a different story. The same reasons hospitals struggle to retain staff—grueling hours, tough patient outcomes, and regular exposure to human tragedy—are the same reasons many new nurses leave positions quickly.

If you’ve just passed the NCLEX and are hoping to land a role in a big city that feels like a good fit, the search can be overwhelming. In this article, we take a look at everything you need to know in order to find a nursing job you’ll actually love.

Define Your Wish List

The first step is figuring out what you want. How will you recognize the right job if you’ve never defined what matters most to you?

Most entry-level nursing roles will look similar on paper. You’ll likely start on a hospital floor, in the ER, or at a doctor’s office. But small differences can completely reshape your day-to-day life. Location matters: an inner-city hospital will deal with higher volumes, different emergencies, and often more intense patient needs than a suburban hospital. Neither environment is “better”—but they offer radically distinct experiences.

Take a bit of time to identify everything you’d like to have in a nursing job. Spoilers: You won’t get everything you want right away. Regardless, monitoring your likes and dislikes can pay off significantly down the line.

Consider the Leadership Structure

Once you've identified all of the details that matter the most to you, it's time to start looking at specific hospitals. Where best matches your wants and desires?

As you consider your options, look not just at what short-term options are available—good signing bonuses, starting salaries, etc.—but long-term prospects. Nursing has little in way of professional development opportunities unless you go looking for them.

If you want to become a nurse manager at some point, for example, you should look into hospitals now that have a well-defined leadership structure, a clear career trajectory that you can begin working on immediately.

Too many people eagerly accept the first job they get, despite its imperfections, only to wind up stuck there for 20, 30, 40 years. Or worse yet, to find that they don't like the work, get burned out, and leave the profession within five years, never stopping.

It's a wonder if maybe a better opportunity was located at a hospital or clinic on the other side of town.

Think About the Future

All of what we’ve said about understanding your preferences holds true, but you also need to be realistic. Student loan payments don’t wait forever, and when they come due, you’ll want steady work.

If your dream position hasn’t surfaced, it’s perfectly fine to accept one of the opportunities available now and start earning. Just do so with an eye toward the future.

That might mean pursuing continuing education, asking about leadership tracks within your hospital, or looking into tuition assistance for graduate programs—where many of the most rewarding nursing roles can be found.

It sounds type A, and maybe it is, but often it’s just an extra 5% of consistent effort that keeps your career moving forward.

A smart way to stay proactive is to regularly check job listings in your city, not because you’re unhappy, but to stay aware of what’s out there. People often feel trapped in roles long before they’ve truly explored their options.

Nursing is one of the most diverse professions in the world, with dozens of career paths available to those with an RN license. You don’t need to close your eyes to them just because you started out in an entry-level position.

Specialize

As your career advances, you'll discover not just what you like in terms of benefits and work structure, but also responsibilities. It's in this capacity that your life can change enormously for the better.

Nurses have a unique ability to specialize in areas of medicine that interest them the most. You can become a hospice nurse. You can work only with babies. You can work in psychiatric hospitals.

You can work with people who have been newly diagnosed with diabetes. You can work in a grade school, if that's what sounds exciting to you.

These opportunities generally become available to those who are willing to pursue advanced certification, but even this requirement is not particularly strenuous, at least not to someone able to get a BSN in the first place. You will need to continue your education, but generally while working in your role as a specialized nurse.

This is a truly special career path, so don't limit yourself based only on your initial experiences.