Advice for a stuttering nurse

[zz00zz]

I recently moved to another state due to my significant others career. I have a year of medical-surgical experience and prior to nursing worked in the automotive and retail industries. I'm in my 30's. I left my last unit on good terms. My unit manager and clinical care leader both provided me with stellar letters of recommendations. My co workers enjoyed working with me- I am a funny team player. I also have decent nursing skills, I don't know it all, but if I don't know rest assured I will find out.

So here's my issue: I am having a hell of a time securing new employment. I am a nurse who stutters. I am open and honest about my speech impediment, because really, there's no hiding it.

I've been on four interviews since moving. Two were ended the minute I said, "excuse me, I stutter and am blocking on this word.." The other two, the people interviewing me were much kinder and gave me a chance. I know I nailed the knowledge questions, however, did not receive employment offers.

I feel embarrassed and ashamed of myself. I'm noticing I am depressed (I don't sleep and tend to eat my feelings- they taste like butter and sugar), but am doing my absolute best to stay upbeat. It's been three months since our move. Does anyone have any recommendations or tactics on how I can make myself more desirable to prospective employers?

Thanks for the advice.

[trepeace]

(Hugs) I stutter also. I would recommend practicing common phrases. Anxiety worsens the problem no doubt. Admit you are nervous. Try applying at some "less desirable" places. In all honesty, I pray. Moses had a stuttering problem too. Best of luck!

[zz00zz]

While everyone has been incredibly kind and helpful here, I feel like you 'get it.'

I've applied everywhere. I've interviewed for a hospital unit, case management position with the state, home health, and hospice. LTC in this area isn't hiring (I've applied to every skilled nursing facility). Aside from my speech, the market here is over saturated. I live in Hawaii and with only a year of med-surg experience I'm not as marketable as some other applicants.

[zz00zz]

I've had coaches and speech therapists. I've tried drugs. They aren't a cure- it reduces stuttering temporarily, we still stutter. They make audio devices that compensate whatever it is neurologically that causes our lack of fluency- we tend to return to baseline (and I did). An employer has to accept me for what I am.

Thank you for the kind words. They do help. And I will find out why they didn't choose me. I hope your career recovers, moving around definitely makes it difficult. My husband is in the military so we do this every few years.

[AJJKRN]

While everyone has been incredibly kind and helpful here, I feel like you 'get it.'

I've applied everywhere. I've interviewed for a hospital unit, case management position with the state, home health, and hospice. LTC in this area isn't hiring (I've applied to every skilled nursing facility). Aside from my speech, the market here is over saturated. I live in Hawaii and with only a year of med-surg experience I'm not as marketable as some other applicants.

I think just trying to find a job in Hawaii would be your biggest problem! I think the job market is even worse there than in California! Give yourself more credit

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

You are an excellent and engaging writer, and boy-oh-boy, don't ask me how much (and why) I appreciate that. Think about expanding your nursing practice to nontraditional ways to use your nursing expertise that would involve writing. I know from first-hand experience how weird that sounds-- after all, we all went to nursing school to be nurses, right? Well, nursing does a lot of different things. I'm thinking legal nurse consulting and reviewing medical records for attorneys, nursing articles in journals, editing, preparing patient teaching materials, a periodic column in the paper, reviewing health-related topics for volunteer organizations' printed work...It is all sooooo out there for you.

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

I would return contact to the places you'd REALLY like to work, out of all the places you interviewed and were turned down. Why not re-contact, and re-assert yourself on behalf of your good value as a nurse, and maybe even share 'how it went' at your previous job with your stuttering.

I'm thinking this might break down some 'walls'. If you opened the whole subject with them of the problems of having a nurse that stutters, how you managed and how patients and staff managed successfully with you in the past -- it might help them with their mental follow through.

When I was a manager I had a job candidate who had sinus cancer some years back, and very disfiguring reconstructive surgery . She explained she lost half of her jaw, her entire maxilla and R eye orbit (and the eye) right off the bat.

I'll be completely honest about how this all went down with me. I was hiring for a chemical dependency hospital, a psych nursing environment. It was a very small staff, and like psych environments can get, the interpersonal 'intimacy' was high. I needed to carefully determine the psychological 'fit' of an applicant as much as their skill set.

I invited her to 'shadow' the day shift nurse. I hadn't done that with other applicants, the idea just came to me for her.

It turned out she didn't choose to work for us, after seeing 'how it went' for that one day, she told me she preferred inpatient psych with a larger staff or whatever. I had very mixed feelings. Her face was terribly disfigured, sadly and tragically disfigured AFTER reconstructive surgery. She WAS stared at by both staff and patients, it was impossible not to, at first. Her lack of enthusiasm for the job was the decisive factor, but I'll never forget being confronted with my OWN reactions, however wonderfully accepting I think I am, and the thoughts that ran through my head until she decided to look elsewhere.

There are things in life that get in the way and can't be changed, you are a paragon of experience there. There will be extra steps for you that aren't there for people who don't have 'appearance' issues. No doubt you've accepted and dealt with this for years. So I'd just encourage you to reconnect to 'prove' yourself, endear yourself, display your worth. I hate that these are even issues but that's the world we live in -- and you are OUR teacher, about that :)

[zz00zz]

Thank you so much. I want to do research! I have a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a focus in research. I went back to school for nursing due to the economy/naval officer husband. I would LOVE to do research. Hard to get into without 5+ years on the floor.