I can't seem to land a CNA hospital gig. HELP!

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Specializes in Geriatric and Mental Heath.

I have been working in LTC for almost a year. I think its time for a change of pace. Home care would be nice, but the jobs in my area do not pay enough for me to pay the bills. I want to work as a CNA in a hospital while I get my BSN, but I can't seem to get any responses to my submissions. I'm not sure what i am lacking. These positions ask for a year of CNA exp, a CPR card, and HS diploma. Well, i have CNA exp, CPR cert, and i am a college graduate. I know many people apply and my chance of getting a job is slim, but im just wondering if i need to personally know someone or need more certs in order to get a call from HR.

Any and advice is welcome.

If you work as a CNA in a Hospital, what exp, certs, etc did you have when you applied?

Thanks in advance!

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I am going to take a guess that you live in an area with little industry except for the health care sector. Most likely you will have to know somebody to land a hospital position. My advice is the following:either get at least the 1st semester of nursing school or put in your application and harass the HR department at the hospital. Once you have at least one semester of any nursing school they usually allow you to work there as a Nurse Tech. At least its like this in my area.

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Specializes in Geriatric and Mental Heath.

I'm originally from NYC. It was so easy to find a job there. Now, I'm at a standstill. I live in Florida now, and its totally different. CNA jobs are a hot commodity and supply and demand works in the employers favor. I think I'm going to focus on school for a semester or two and see if my job search has more positive results.Thank you! Hopefully ill see you at bethune one day!

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I am facing the same prospect as you. I have a CNA certification but no workexperience,nor do I have the 120 hr CNA class that employers require. Competition is stiff because of the tight economy in my small city in Florida.

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Try to get in touch with hospital recruiters. Not sure if it is same there but recruiter is one to decide which apps get consideration and do phone interview before it goes any further. Also include resume and cover letter with applications and keep applying, your name will become familiar.

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Evening, Darkstar:

Couple of things that jump out at me - first, other than the cert/experience/education requirements, what else do you have that an employer might find desirable? Share the same religious beliefs as that hospital (a fair number are affiliated with religious denominations - not all)? Ever had a relative that was a patient there? Did you do clinicals there? Ever volunteer there? And, the old standby - who do you know that works there? My point being - anything you can put on an application that will make you stand out from the other 40-50 CNA's with a year's experience/certificate/college degree is going to help, especially if it makes you look like you're likely to stay there for an extended period of time. Doesn't have to be any of the above - prior work experience in another field (surprisingly, waiter/waitress positions oftentimes help - primarily because if you did that for any length of time, multitasking & prioritizing are going to be second nature to you) could help, favorite hobbies, other outside interests; be creative & make yourself look like someone they really just can't live without.

Second - there's a certain amount of seasonality in any line of work; summertime is tough because students are out beating the bushes looking for seasonal work; CNA cert, experience and a willingness to work per diem means employers are going to be picky due to the saturated job market. Doesn't mean you can't find available positions, just that you're going to have to jump on them faster & be more aggressive in presenting yourself.

One other possibility, and I only bring it up because it can help - but it has to be done with some degree of discretion, is to figure out a way to bypass HR & the usual hiring mechanisms and talk directly to a hiring manager. There are a number of threads here on AN that describe this; here's one : https://allnurses.com/success-stories-nursing/i-got-job-532817.html .

In any case, hospital gigs are just going to be tough to get; they're perceived as being more desirable, and the competition for them is going to be pretty fierce - anything you can do to make yourself stand out will help.

How do I know all of this? I spent a few years hiring people for one, and I come from an IT background where job-hunting is a continuous process (average length of stay in a given position for an IT pro is about 2 1/2 years). Spent 23 years in IT before I decided to change careers & move into nursing.

Best of luck to you!

----- Dave

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Specializes in Geriatric and Mental Heath.
Evening, Darkstar:

Couple of things that jump out at me - first, other than the cert/experience/education requirements, what else do you have that an employer might find desirable? Share the same religious beliefs as that hospital (a fair number are affiliated with religious denominations - not all)? Ever had a relative that was a patient there? Did you do clinicals there? Ever volunteer there? And, the old standby - who do you know that works there? My point being - anything you can put on an application that will make you stand out from the other 40-50 CNA's with a year's experience/certificate/college degree is going to help, especially if it makes you look like you're likely to stay there for an extended period of time. Doesn't have to be any of the above - prior work experience in another field (surprisingly, waiter/waitress positions oftentimes help - primarily because if you did that for any length of time, multitasking & prioritizing are going to be second nature to you) could help, favorite hobbies, other outside interests; be creative & make yourself look like someone they really just can't live without.

Second - there's a certain amount of seasonality in any line of work; summertime is tough because students are out beating the bushes looking for seasonal work; CNA cert, experience and a willingness to work per diem means employers are going to be picky due to the saturated job market. Doesn't mean you can't find available positions, just that you're going to have to jump on them faster & be more aggressive in presenting yourself.

One other possibility, and I only bring it up because it can help - but it has to be done with some degree of discretion, is to figure out a way to bypass HR & the usual hiring mechanisms and talk directly to a hiring manager. There are a number of threads here on AN that describe this; here's one : https://allnurses.com/success-stories-nursing/i-got-job-532817.html .

In any case, hospital gigs are just going to be tough to get; they're perceived as being more desirable, and the competition for them is going to be pretty fierce - anything you can do to make yourself stand out will help.

How do I know all of this? I spent a few years hiring people for one, and I come from an IT background where job-hunting is a continuous process (average length of stay in a given position for an IT pro is about 2 1/2 years). Spent 23 years in IT before I decided to change careers & move into nursing.

Best of luck to you!

----- Dave

I worked In the music industry for a few years before i decided to get into health care. So, i have mostly office exp.

I worked for a group home for 4 months and then a resident attacked me which resulted in a wrist injury.

They laid me off and i was out of work for over a year.

Now I'm back in the game!

Thanks for the great advice!

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