Job offer and unsolicited advice for future and current nursing students..

Published Jun 18, 2011

1,398 Posts

Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.

Hello everyone,

I can still barely believe it, but yesterday I accepted an offer for a New Grad Residency program. I start on a Med Surg floor in a couple weeks.

I've been lurking and participating on allnurses since I decided to go to nursing school in 2007. Among the recurring discussions are "Are there any jobs out there?" While the hospital job market is brutal, there are ways to help yourself. Here is what I did:

1. GET EXPERIENCE IN DIRECT PATIENT CARE YEARS BEFORE GRADUATION

This was probably the single most important factor in my getting my preferred job. I started as a CNA in a LTC, which was brutal, then moved on to Home Health Aide for a hospital, then transferred within that company to a CNA position on a Med Surg floor. I got a lot of comments about how good those jobs looked on my resume. The experience I had before my first nursing school clinicals also helped me a ton in my performance.

By getting this experience, I could rely less "It's not what you know, it's who you know" to find a position.

2. Do your very best in school.

Nursing school is tough, but if you are going to do it - do your absolute best at it in all areas. Theory, Lab, Clinical, papers, whatever. Yes, some of it is total BS, but do it anyway and do it well. I attacked school like it said something bad about my mother. People notice. If a C is the very best you can do - that is wonderful. If not, you could be cheating yourself of later opportunities. Maintaining a high GPA probably helped me get a Summer Intern position last year at the hospital where I received the RN offer.

3. Take the NCLEX ASAP.

During my first phone screen, the recruiter asked, "Have you scheduled the NCLEX yet?" I replied, "I passed it two days ago." She said, "Great. That will move you near the top of the list."

4. Build relationships.

When you are at a clinical site, don't worry about if your RN is a witch or your instructor is an idiot. Focus on being useful and doing a great job. Ask your nurse, "Is there anything I can help you with?" This gets noticed. Collect names and business cards so you can drop those names later! (I wish I would have done better at this.)

5. Be lucky.

I was fortunate to have two clinicals and a preceptorship at a great local hospital system that was also one of the very few offering Summer Internship positions and a New Graduate Residency Program AND accepting applications from Associate Degree students. I was also incredibly fortunate that one of my in-person interviewers was a graduate of my community college.

Pure, dumb luck, but I had worked hard to be able to take advantage of it.

Good luck everyone!