No Experience!!

Nurses General Nursing

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hi everyone. I have 3 years to go before I get my BSN but I worry that I still won't have enough experience. Im panicking!! It seems like everyone here was in the med. field before nursing, and the only jobs I have had are bartending, waitressing, and a brief stint as a bagger at a grocery store. How will this look when I am finally a nurse and I apply for a job? Does it even matter at all? Do interviewers look that much at previous jobs of a new grad and make a decision greatly based on that aspect? Surely I am not the only one w/o med. experience, right? Thanks for your posts :)

You have three years to go - go get some experience. A lot of hospitals hire nursing students as aides or techs and are usually willing to work around your school schedule. So stop panicking and take a deep breath!!!!

"Medical field" experience can be helpful in getting acclimated to nursing, but it is not nursing. (That's the big shock for most new nursing grads who have worked in a hospital setting before). As a nurse, you will practice in a different manner than any previous experience you might have had.

So, don't sweat it ... ;-)

And always remind yourself: there has been a shortage of RNs since about 1930. Though it sometimes gets worse, and sometimes gets better, it has NEVER gone away. Likely it will not go away in the next three years. You, too, will get a job. In the meantime, enjoy school, and don't worry!

Jim Huffman, RN

http://www.NetworkforNurses.com

I think that it HELPS with how comfortable you are in your clinicals. If you go and work as an aide or a tech now then you will be good on how to approach a pt and kind of help you know how to react to certain situations. Of course in bartending etc..you do kind of the same thing. BUt it will help you get comfortable with things and how to deal with family and others nurses and students and managers. I think that if you got two jobs PRN in two different areas that would help also. I work in LTC and am looking for a place in the hospital while in school for my RN.

I had no medical background when I went back to school. You are not alone. Nursing a baby right now so can't be more succinct typing with one hand. :D

You will be fine.:kiss

steph

But you do have experience working with people...bartending and waitressing. Being able to work with a variety of people is important, too.

I wouldn't sweat it...concentrate on your studies right now. Your major clinical experience is going to happen after you graduate, anyway.

Relax.

I never worked as a CNA or in any type of health field before or during school and had no problem getting a job. You won't either. I agre that the experience might help with clinicals, though. I was sometimes envious of my peers who did have hospital or LTC experience because I thought they were more comfortable during clinicals...on the other hand, I was the one people came to when they had questions or needed help.

good luck with your next 3 years!

luci

Please don't worry! I never set foot in a hospital before my clinical rotations and did fine as a nurse. All of your job experience helps in some way and no type of education experience is ever wasted. It all goes to making you the person you are today. I think that having the jobs you did would make you more well rounded than having a straight hosital type series of jobs. Age and maturity help too, and you will learn lots from being a mother,or a wife, or a caregiver-whatever else you do besides nursing. good luck

I think you have the potential for being a great nurse because you are concerned about being a good one. Our facility looks at GN's grades and ATTITUDE more than anything else. We assume if you made decent grades you passed clinicals in school and that is a start. We can work with people who have some intelligence and lots of desire to be a nurse, but can't do much with bad attitudes. So just worry about what you have to do today. Tomorrow will take care of itself.

I don't think that not having any medical experience will prevent you from getting a job, but I do think that working as a nurse aide or tech would really help you out & get you ready for your nursing career, It helped me!

GOOD LUCK!

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

You can gain experience in school or by working as a CNA. I did not have experience, either, before school, but I have done fine. Don't sweat it......jump in at clinical rotations and LEARN! Good luck and welcome to the boards.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I feel your pain. I was the only one in my clinical group when we started that had no experience. Everyone else was either a CNA or an LPN. I worked at Pizza Hut. There was nothing I could do about it, just had to bumble and fumble my way through. My first clinical I was so nervous. By the last six months of school I was able to function in a hospital as a nurse tech. Working as a nurse tech really helped me when it was time to work as a nurse. If you need to work, then I recommend when the time comes to try to work as a CNA/Tech. But if you don't have time, or don't need to work, you will get all the experience you need on the job.

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