Nurses eat their young - now I understand why. - page 3

I started working for a sub-acute LTC as the DSD last week. The DON and I hit it off because we have the same vision on what we need to do in order to solve the problems we current have. Early... Read More

Mar 25, '12

While I do love to get more experienced nurses, in this tough economy I dare anyone who has been in the job market for a year or so and would not want work. Say what you want with a LTC, but when you have been applying for everything for a year and no luck. A job is better than no job.

I ask you this, can you honestly say that you are a nurse when you have never functioned as one? When you have never performed any duties of a nurse? When you never had the opportunity to pick up the phone and call a doctor? When you have to tell a family that their father has passed away? When you've never given medications outside of the clinical setting?

Also, I never said that the orientation is three days. It's a 2-month program. Plus, I don't interview graduate nurses that has just received their licenses. I want them to get the best experience they could have and I agree that is with the acute setting. That said, I selected candidates who had been in the job market for a year or so. People who do not qualify anymore to the new grad RN programs.

So when you have been in the market for a year, you now have a chance for a job and that's what you say to the one interviewing you? I should have made myself clearer.

I inserted an excerpt from the resume I was talking about.
Mar 25, '12

That resume excerpt is absurd. I try to laugh but only tears come out. I take it that one is from the vet tech?

I wonder if she developed that on her own, or if her school's folks who help with resume writing came up with that. If it's the latter, I feel sorry for her, as I bet dollars to doughnuts that her arrogant (or clueless) resume is certainly part of why she's having a hard time finding a job. If she did a better job of tailoring her resume to the positions she's applying for, and emphasized how she can translate her vet tech experience into human nursing rather than implying they're equivalent, she'd probably (on paper) be a very competitive candidate.
Mar 25, '12

Yep, that probably has to be the vet nurse. The word necropsy and the addition of dental procedures pretty much gives that away. It's too bad because she could easily translate her clinical veterinary skills into skills that would be very much desirable as a "human" nurse.
Mar 25, '12

Again, I think something that is being overlooked is that the role/job description for a charge nurse in LTC/SNF is often very different from the hospital role/job description.
Mar 25, '12

Gallatea,
You may not realize it but you managed to insult LTC RNs and believe it or not some RNs do specialize in geriatric care. The reason LTC is not liked both in nursing school or in the nursing world is it is hard back breaking work and you better have good assessment skills and or learn them because you have no lab, xray or ward secretary you are the whole show and the resident load is intense.
I started out in hospitals in tele and I took my first LTC job because I moved to a smaller town after my significant other's death and thats all that was available. I learned great time managment skills and have excellent assessment skills from being an LTC nurse. I do more management work now in my current position but my years as an LTC honed my clinical skills as well. You have a broad range of disease processes and tasks as well.
Also saying that medical office assistants catch on faster and want less pay and RNs have big egos. To be a nurse you do go to college and have at a minimum two years of clinical time with an ADN degree and you do pass an NCLEX exam. RNs used to be in all physician offices and still are in some specialist offices even today.
Medical assistants do a fair job for what they know but physicians hire them on the basis of that they are cheaper. (Physicians I know personally have told me this.) Nurses know much more even out of the gate being a graduate nurse in pathophysiology, medications, dosage, etc.
After working LTC as an RN hospital work is a cake walk and working in a physician office would be boring for an RN.
Just my 2 cents.

Last edit by Psychtrish39 on Mar 25, '12 : Reason: spelling
Mar 25, '12

Quote from OCNRN63

I disagree with this. I had odd jobs as a teenager, but I was a "baby" when I graduated; I hadn't had another career previously, and I didn't have a previous job as an RN. Someone had to take a chance on me. Fortunately, I got the job in the specialty I wanted.

I knew what work was. I'd been a nurse's aide, ad I'd gone to a diploma program that taught us what work as an RN was.

That comment really irks me. It takes out a lot of people who want to be nurses and probably be great ones. And as far as the second-career statement, that could be looked at from another perspective. If you weren't satisfied with your previous career, how long will it take before you're unhappy with this one.

I do agree with this situation that the OP is asking for an awful lot. Three days of orientation isn't enough for seaside nurse, let alone a new one.

OCRN63, that was a different time and place that brought you up, if you get my drift. That time and place is gone forever.

Took me 22 years before I got out of my previous career. I've got a kicker resume from it and references that go to bat for me too. Do not fear the accomplished, we easily see who has achieved in nursing, what we've achieved in our previous field. We respect that, the babies don't - they can't.
Mar 25, '12

Quote from Altra

The first time I read this it somehow escaped me that the interview was to fill a charge position.

After re-reading more carefully, I urge the OP and management s/he works with to reconsider hiring a new nurse with no experience for this position. New nurses need to hone their skills, emotional boundaries, and instincts. They have no business directing the activities of others, or serving in a resource role, when their own abilities have not yet been proven.

Yes, please.

Our RN charge nurse is FRESH out of college, and while she's very sweet, she's a bit of a dingus, and not much help.
Mar 25, '12

Quote from OCNRN63

I do agree with this situation that the OP is asking for an awful lot. Three days of orientation isn't enough for seaside nurse, let alone a new one.

Cut from the original post:

Quote from RN_Marie

I was tasked to interview for the position as I will be the one training them for the first 36-hours.

She later mentions it's a 2 month training program.

Like I said, wish it was in my area, this experienced but always eager to learn nurse would be all over it.
Mar 25, '12

Ha ha. I worked as a vet tech many years ago (highschool). Necropsy for vets? means mostly, toss 'em in the deep freeze until crematory picks 'em up.
Mar 25, '12

Your ad ASKED for no experience and by golly, you certainly did get what you asked for!!! There certainly seems to be a touch of entitlement with a couple, but personally I think not being able to start due to a planned/paid for vacation is not that out of the water.
Mar 25, '12

I'd still cut the vet tech some slack. Many of the same IV medications used in people are used in animals. Some of the same principles would apply (e.g., dosing per weight, incompatibilities, pump management). I think the vet tech had some good marketing skills --and some good IV skills. I would give him/her a second look.

Most new grads will not know core measures. I think the OP should lighten up a bit.

As someone coming to nursing after much experience in other fields, I was shocked at the substandard working conditions and low pay scale that many nursing positions entail. (And I took such a position --where I was working as an RN in a SNF and soon as a charge at wages I found out were the same as for the LPNs--because I needed a job and had no other options.) I think once people become entrenched in the field, they begin to think that it's acceptable and normal. Most people (not in healthcare) work in jobs with better staffing, breaks plus lunches, adequate equipment, pay commensurate for the work and education. (And --I think the LPNs deserved the wages and then some -per their experience --but those wages were pretty darned low...grrr...the company could do it per the economy...)

Part of me thinks the one new grad was a bit cocky for stating a high pay threshold... However, maybe some of us need a wake-up call. Don't you think nurses' pay should be higher (in many instances)? On the other hand, if the OP and her facility are unable to deliver the better pay amount, it will be better to find someone of a different (complacent) mindset.

I have heard that the younger generations wish to have more of a life/work balance. It sounds like you are seeing it in some of these applicants (e.g., cruise).

Last edit by RNfaster on Mar 25, '12
Mar 25, '12

Hmmmm, as someone with a 26 year previous career in dentistry, I'm dying to know what their "basic dentistry" knowledge is....
Mar 25, '12

Funny interviews

I don't think it really matters in the end how well someone interviews......because I know some really shoddy nurses that have mastered the interview process. Also, I know some very good nurses that don't always choose the right words and have even shown up for an interview wearing jeans. I would just look at them as a whole, and try to have general relaxed conversation with them to see if they are someone who would fit in with the scheme of things and conform to your needs.

Nurses eat their young - now I understand why. - page 3

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