Healthcare position while in nursing school helps secure RN position after grad?

[jennikim1102]

Hi!

My name is Jenni, and I currently have 9 months left in my nursing school.

I'm still looking for a job in the healthcare field, but it's been brutal and it seems like no one's hiring. I'm currently a supervisor at a hotel now, but I have no healthcare background.

Should I keep looking for a job in the healthcare field or would I still have a chance in landing a newly graduate RN position if I stick with the job I have now?

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

A healthcare job such as being a CNA or tech would probably help more than being a hotel manager would. It's healthcare (though not RN) experience, it makes you an internal applicant for positions that open up, and it lets you make your name and face known to managers.

However, it's no guarantee that you'll land a RN job in that facility, as several grads at the organization I work for will tell you: they applied for the new grad program, and were told "Sorry, but No." There's too much competition out there, and being an internal applicant is no longer the lock on the job that it used to be.

IMO, give it a shot. Dust off your resume and try to get in somewhere as a CNA, care partner or aide and gain some experience. But don't think it means you can slack on the new grad RN job search.

[Birry]

It might help, but probably not much. I've got 12 years of continuous hospital work, in the units, and haven't gotten squat for interest in any of the dozens and dozens of applications I've filed. Even the place I've worked the last 8 years rejected me twice as a new grad without so much as a phone call or pity interview.

You would probably have been better off majoring in hospitality, as far as getting a career going upon graduation.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

It worked for me. I was hired by my hospital before I graduated. Internal applicants do get first shot in many places and those who treat their CNA job like a working job interview for when they graduate fare better than those who view it as a stepping stone. I would advise you to keep trying for a CNA slot, unit secretary or whatever else you can find and if/when you get it, treat every minute as a representation of the work ethic and personality you will bring to the job as a nurse. If they can't imagine you not being there, believe me, they find a way to hire you. Be on time, cheerful, work your hiney off, get along with others, be curious and interested and have a high degree of integrity. Best of luck!