My experience getting a job in the hospital

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.

This is sort of an update, I never know whether to resurrect old thread or start new ones. Since most only read the 1st post, that's why I opted for this way.

If anyone out there remembers my pesky questions, I wondered how long it takes from application to even getting a call for an interview let alone hired.

I've been trying to get out of LTC nearly since I started as I realized pretty fast it wasn't for me.

For me, from start to finish it was about 3 weeks. I submitted an application on a Monday mid June, got a call to schedule an interview that Friday. Set up the interview for the next Wednesday. Set up a shadow day for the following Friday, got a call after that shadowing experience the same afternoon for an offer for the job!

I will be starting in the IMCU of a smaller teaching hospital in August. It's 3:1 ratio, I will need to be trained for the ICU as well b/c after 6mos you can be floated there as the director is the same for both IMCU and ICU, and also telemetry but no where else. I'm very excited but unlike the job that I'm leaving, I'm refraining from calling it, or any future job a "dream job". Not sure there will be such a thing. But I am excited to dive into stuyding arrythymias and all the other critical care stuff.

I think my experience was a little atypical b/c I was never asked the usual questions of what are your strengths, weaknesses. Instead I was asked how I handle difficult patients and another was how to handle demanding families. I guess she liked my answers well enough b/c I have a strong customer service background from my prev. travel industry job.

I told her upfront before leaving that I had concerns about the start date, b/c we are going away on vacation mid July. She told me that she had no problems with that, as she is a big believer in making family time a priority (yay!) and expects people to take vacations in the summer! So although I was warned telling them this upfront would possibly lead them to hire someone else available sooner, it wasn't a problem for me.

When I got the call from the recruiter yesterday, she mentioned there was an earlier start date since you have to go through all the hospital orientations first as that would have been July 19th, and we were away then. So it's cool it still worked out that they're willing to wait for me.

I was told you have to go thorugh this mega hospital's system online application process no matter. That part apparantly is true, as I cannot find one person who got a job there without doing that. Then everything is routed through HR. HR is the one that calls you back. (the director of the unit told me that's who may be getting back to me)

Even though the interview seemed positive I got the response "we have a couple more interviews to do and then she'll be making a decision" when asked what are the next steps. I was always told that is a dreaded answer as in if they are really interested in you they won't say anything about other candidates. Apparantly that wasn't true in my case.

Overall, I'm still a little stunned (though super excited). I sent in 8 applications that Monday. 5 to one of the hospitals in the system with one of the positions being one that I tracked down the manager's name to forward a cover letter directly to her as it was for an entry position for the burn unit. Never heard a peep from them or the other 2 I sent out to a different hospital. This one was a 3rd choice hospital if you will. Turns out though that they have a reputatioin for employee satisfaction. Everyone I talked to there said they loved working there and it's a really supportive place. I did not send a cover letter, however I took one into my interview. I did follow up with a thank you card mailed that night.

So once again in my life it seems to follow the "if it's meant to be" I tried hard to not stress over any of it, and put it in God's hands and I feel very blessed. Especially since my area although has many hospitals, we are undergoing a major restructuring of the other major system here, and it's going to put a lot of nurses back into searching come the new year.

I like to think that sharing experiences helps others.

For all the complaining I do about management, I have never had one single manager who gave me any grief over the vacation I had already scheduled when they hired me. All of them were willing to bend on that point. Everyone knows that vacation plans are made between Jan. and March every year and it would be totally unreasonable to expect a spring or summer hire to cancel. Not that I am saying it would never happen but just that it is rare. By the way, congratulations and best wishes on your new job.

sometimes they ask those questions on interview because they have encountered those problems before on the unit, and wanted to see if you personally have had any experience dealing with it. it may or may not happen frequently but they most likely wanted your perspecitive and wanted to see how you would have handled the situation differently from someone who it happened to. well anyways look at it positvely...and enjoy your vaca, and get ready for some challenging but enjoyable work !

Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.

Congrats! I work as a tech in the IMCU and it's a great experience. I bet it will be even better as a RN! Good luck!

Specializes in ICU hopeful!.

congratulations :)

Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Wow thanks for sharing your experience! :) And congratulations on the new position!

Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.
sometimes they ask those questions on interview because they have encountered those problems before on the unit, and wanted to see if you personally have had any experience dealing with it. it may or may not happen frequently but they most likely wanted your perspecitive and wanted to see how you would have handled the situation differently from someone who it happened to. well anyways look at it positvely...and enjoy your vaca, and get ready for some challenging but enjoyable work !

Oh, I get why the q's she asked were asked. I just meant I was surprised that she didn't ask the strengths/weaknesses. That is usually a gimme at every single interview I've ever had. Plus the why should we hire you question. She didn't ask. She did ask why I want the IMCU.

I guess my point to my long winded story was there is no set pattern to these things. Someone else I know that worked for the system but a different hospital, was told on her interview she had the job. Didn't happen for me but they did get back to me in the time frame they said they would. I just thought it was interesting to share experiences.

Thank you. I've decided to take a week off prior to my start so I can study on my own arrythmias etc... Not in depth, but I don't want to walk in cold, I like to be prepared as best as I can.

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

Congratulations and enjoy your new job

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