A question for all managers and recruiters for New Grad porgrams!!!!

[JonathanRN]

I am currently finishing up my ADN program and will officially be an RN by the end of this year. I live in california and know that I won't have too much trouble finding a new grad job right now due to the severe nursing shortage. However, recently I have decided that this would be the last opportunity in my life to realize my dream of joining the Peace Corps. My concern is that upon return getting a job will be much harder than right out of school. While the Peace Corps will probably provide me with a lot of different, wonderful experiences, I fear that hospital management and recruiters might be sceptical of hiring someone with a degree which was not used for 2 years in the traditional sense of the word.

If you are someone who has hired RN's into a hospital before, I would love to hear what you have to say about this. What concerns would you have if you were to view my application 2 years down the road? Would volunteering in the Peace Corps be seen as a positive or negative quality in an applicant? Is there any advice you have on the matter?

Thanks so much for your time. I look forward to reading your comments.

Jonathan

[RNPATL, DNP, RN]

I am currently finishing up my ADN program and will officially be an RN by the end of this year. I live in california and know that I won't have too much trouble finding a new grad job right now due to the severe nursing shortage. However, recently I have decided that this would be the last opportunity in my life to realize my dream of joining the Peace Corps. My concern is that upon return getting a job will be much harder than right out of school. While the Peace Corps will probably provide me with a lot of different, wonderful experiences, I fear that hospital management and recruiters might be sceptical of hiring someone with a degree which was not used for 2 years in the traditional sense of the word.

If you are someone who has hired RN's into a hospital before, I would love to hear what you have to say about this. What concerns would you have if you were to view my application 2 years down the road? Would volunteering in the Peace Corps be seen as a positive or negative quality in an applicant? Is there any advice you have on the matter?

Thanks so much for your time. I look forward to reading your comments.

Jonathan

Jonathon - I realize this thread is from April ... but thought I would share a little information with you.

While it is admireable that want to join the Peace Corp .... I would question why you would go through the expense and time of nursing school to not use the skill right after you graduated?

For me, if I was looking at your application to work as an RN on my unit, the first thought that would come to mind is the fact that you had not worked professionallly as a Registered Nurse for 2 years after school ... I would probably require that you take a refresher course prior to even thinking about a job offer.

In addition, most hospitals do not offer open ended new graduate transition programs. These programs are most often offered in direct relationship to graduation dates. Perhaps larger hospitals offer them on a more frequent basis, but many small hosptials offer them once a year. This might impact your ability to get into a program straight away from coming back from the Peace Corp and further delay your ability to get a job in the hospital.

Again, I congratulate you on your need and desire to work with the Peace Corp, but can this wait until after you get some realistic job experience and develop your newly acquired skills? Perhaps then you will have other experiences to add to your Peace Corp experience.

Whatever the case, good luck to you.