Now receiving deceptinve resumes from ADN students: What gives?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

In the past couple of weeks, I have received 2 applications for my extern program from ADN students who are being deceptive on their resumes. They are saying that they are currently working towards their BSN -- when in actuality, they are ADN students who plan on getting a BSN later. Their resumes make no mention of the fact that they are ADN students -- but knowing the schools they are attending, I know the truth.

When I asked them about it, one was quite straightforward about being an ADN student and planning to apply for a BSN right after graduation. (But she had not listed the ADN anywhere on her resume.) The other was evasive and didn't seem to fully understand her own situation as she planned on getting her BSN at the same school as her ADN. She even listed her "planned graduation date" as her BSN graduation date and asked about being a student extern NEXT summer! I had to tell her that as she would be an RN that summer, she would have to apply for an RN job then.

What gives? I understand that they want to make a good impression by saying that they plan on continuing their education (even if they don't.) But I have never encountered this failure to acknowledge their ADN's on their resume. That failure bothers me. We regularly accept ADN students into our program -- but I doubt these 2 people will be accepted. I don't think I can trust them or their judgmentfully. I'm not sure it they are being "sneaky and deceptive" on purpose ... or whether they truly didn't understand the program they are enrolled in ... or what.

Any opinions? I'd appreciate any comments/insights the rest of you might want to offer me.

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I agree. That is disconcerting. And there's a big difference between stating they want to continue in their education in the future and that they are currently working toward their BSN. Even the first one you describe was being evasive by omission.

It certainly would give me pause to wonder just how trustworthy they really are and how honest they'd be in their practice, or whether they'd attempt to cover up or otherwise downplay any mistakes, etc.

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Hmmm......I guess I don't fully understand how the students are being deceptive. If I have this right, they are applying for student internships, but they didn't mention that they are students in their resumes. Isn't that implied already if they are applying for a specialized position? If they are young and just entering the world of work, chances are they really have little idea how to do a resume well in the first place. The one who implied she was graduating from a BSN program and was not in a current program is being more 'deceptive' than the other, I think. But, I personally wouldn't immediately think that they are being 'deceptive' and have bad judgement and therefore can't be trusted to work with. That's a pretty big assumption to make off of little information. I don't doubt that there are some out there who would be deceptive and lie on purpose. But I don't believe that most of them would. Maybe that's why I am NOT, nor have any desire to be, in an administrative position....

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Specializes in DOU.

The second one who "didn't understand her own situation" sounded like she wasn't sneaky enough to attempt to fool you. She probably really DIDN'T understand her own situation.

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I don't know why there should be any shame in being an ADN. I'm an ADN and it never occurred to me to try to insinuate otherwise. I wouldn't trust these people, either.

Brutal honesty is my policy. It has lost me opportunities with some employers and has gained me respect and endearment with others. For example, I went to one hospital to apply for a job and as soon as I mentioned I had never inserted an IV and my blood drawing skills stunk I was shown the door. I went to another hospital and told them the same thing and had a job offer on my answering machine before I got home from the interview.

Being deceptive is only setting yourself up for failure and trouble. The peace of mind from being honest is so nice. I can't understand why a person would lie about something like that.

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

I think I do understand what you're saying, and it would bother me, too.

I'm not sure why they would not say "I'm a student at XYZ Community College and will get my ADN in May of 2008. I plan to continue on in ABC University's BSN bridge program by taking core courses for the next year with a tentative start date in the BSN program of Fall 2009." Or, state that "I will graduate with my ADN in May of 2008 and I am also currently enrolled in Prerequisite 101 with the goal of beginning ABC University's BSN completion program in August of 2008."

Did you get the impression that this was what either of them actually meant?

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

I agree with Tencat. I read your post, OP and my first impression is that these are "kids". The first student might be like me... working on her/his BSN right now by taking classes she/he needs to obtain a BSN (pre-reqs, co-reqs, or actual nurisng courses). And so he/she might have thought that it was appropriate to mention that degree rather then the one he/she will obtain first.

I of course put my ADN degree and graduation date on my resume and excluded the BSN grad date even though I have many classes under my belt including some nursing courses needed. On the other hand, I knew to mention my efforts to obtain my BSN, my career aspirations, and past and present accomplishments during my externship interview because I knew it would help me to stand out among other candidates. However, I have worked in two careers prior to this one, so I know what to do and say to be impressive. :smokin:

As for the second student, I am thinking that he/she has no CLUE how to obtain a BSN or that he/she will be a RN after passing the NCLEX. This is not surprising to me because I am in a program with a few students (kids) who have no idea how to receive a BSN. These are the same students that had no idea that finishing the ADN program will not make him/her a nurse without taking the NCLEX and have never had a job prior to entering the nursing program.

Please note, I am not writing that you should hire these two. They seem confused about their selected career field and ignorant of how to obtain a job. Therefore, they are not the best candidates!

However, I would not make the assumption that they were being deceptive because that implies that they knew what they were doing. I think that similar to lemmings they were just following the crowd. In this case rather then falling off of a cliff, they tried to fall into a good job all the other lemmings want. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
The second one who "didn't understand her own situation" sounded like she wasn't sneaky enough to attempt to fool you. She probably really DIDN'T understand her own situation.

I think you may be right about that. I even called one of her faculty members and asked her to clarify the situation.

How sad.

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When I was applying for an externship while I was still in school I made it quite clear I was currently in an ADN program, but somewhere else on the resume I had something like, "planning to attend an RN to BSN step up program after graduation"

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Sounds like the desire for a BSN might be better placed in the cover letter for these students.

It may speak to the need for nursing schools to provide more career-related/job-seeking assistance to students.

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It may speak to the need for nursing schools to provide more career-related/job-seeking assistance to students.

I agree. For those without much life experience and/or health care experience, schools sometimes assume too much about what students should be aware of. Why would a student automatically know that graduating from nursing school isn't enough to become an RN? They may be aware of there being some type of licensing exam, but may assume it's incorporated into the program. If the school doesn't clearly spell it out somewhere, why assume the students know it?

In regard to the two ADN students who omitted their student status in an ADN program yet emphasized "working towards a BSN"... yep, that's odd. They sound pretty clueless. Maybe they have no idea that externships are exclusively limited to RN students formally enrolled in a nursing program and that they would need to specify which program they are currently enrolled in. They might have misunderstood that externships were for anyone working towards a nursing degree. Thinking a BSN sounded better, opted to say that, since that may be their eventual goal. That could also explain the misunderstanding that someone in an RN-BSN program wouldn't qualify.

And maybe there's a rumor that your program strongly favors BSN students, and they thought they had a better chance of getting an interview if they made it seem they were BSN students. Easy to rationalize to themselves that they weren't really lying and there are those out there who promote a "all's fair in love and war" attitude in regard to trying to get ahead in this world.

It'll be interesting to see if this is a continued trend or if it was just a weird coincidence.

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That's the thing. Were they really THAT clueless or were they trying to impress? I don't know which is worse...

Weird.

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