Help! Am I employable? failed 6 interviews

[udsk]

Hi everyone, any advice would be appreciated.

It happened two months ago.

After 6 months working in a rehab center, I found a job in Med/Surg unit in a hospital Apr, 2008. To make the story short, I had to resigned after 6 months.

In September My boss called me to her office and threatened to terminate me if I "don't make progress" because there was a pt complained that I forced him to take medicine (I didn't remember forced him to take medicine, I told him "it's up to you". But, there were only I and the patient, no witness)

then my boss mentioned two more mistakes I had in Jun/July

My blood draw was contaminated; (that was my first blood draw and I never had any problem after then on)

I didn't give 4am's antibiotics because I though I should get the trough result; (again, my first mistake and never had some mistake again from then on)

I had bad luck one month later. It became extremely busy after 8pm--I suddenly had one discharge, 1 new admission from ER (and just after I took report the pt was send to me already, which was too fast), plus another 3. And among these three pts, one complain migraine headache ask for pain med, unluckily I found there was none in pixel, it was every 2 hours PRN meds but there was no stock! so I faxed order to pharmacy; and another pt, a very young girl also ask for pain meds at this time, but she had her q 3 hours demerol at 7pm, so I explained to her. she didn't listen; thus couple of times, later even my charge nurse said "I'm not going to her room".

The next day, My boss let me go (offered me to resign) because I had two patient complaints, and "It cannot always happen"

Since my boss warn me to leave I had started to look for job. I applied whatever job listed online, from hospitals to agencies, with no luck, got 6 interviews and failed 6.

It seems those managers don't trust me because I left my job too soon--with only six months hospital experience. Reason to resign I came up with were from "schedule conflict" to "not fit". I cannot convince them to hire me. And where is my next application??

Now I lost my confidence and became so depressed!

Am employable??????? What's wrong with me?

[udsk]

Is it possible to return to the initial job that you had, the rehab one?? It may be worth giving them a call and seeing if they have any openings. Keep your chin up. ~Ivanna

I've got an offer in a kind of LTC/rehab facility yesterday. I know it is always easy to find a job in LTC but the question is how to go back to hospital in the future if I cannot find one now--they don't count LTL experience in hospital and they would question why I left hospital and went to LTC instead?

And I wonder how long would the HR keeps resumes and relevant information in their database? Since I have applied all nearby hospitals and I am thinking about reapply in the future.

[Katie82, RN]

Most hiring interviews today use the "Evidence-based" model of interviewing. These present you with questions that are designed to make you think and apply your own experiences - for example:" tell me about a difficult patient you have had, and how you handled it". Most hospitals work from a standard list of questions. I suggest you google "job interviews" and find a website that offers tips on evidence-based interviews. They will give you sample questions,then offer some key points to make. Good luck. Don't be discouraged.

[medsurgrnco, BSN, RN]

I've got an offer in a kind of LTC/rehab facility yesterday. I know it is always easy to find a job in LTC but the question is how to go back to hospital in the future if I cannot find one now--they don't count LTL experience in hospital and they would question why I left hospital and went to LTC instead?

And I wonder how long would the HR keeps resumes and relevant information in their database? Since I have applied all nearby hospitals and I am thinking about reapply in the future.

Since you left your 6-mth rehab job for the med-surg hospital job that didn't work out, this is what I would say in interviews when questioned about your 2 short-term positions. I'd say that I was interested in both rehab and med/surg, but thought at the time that the rehab position was the best fit. After a few months, I felt I wasn't being challenged enough and realized that I was more interested in med/surg and was fortunate to obtain a hospital position. But that the med/surg unit where I worked was not a good fit, due to some factor like lack of support or something else that is not too revealing and doesn't reflect poorly on either yourself or the previous employer. Whatever reasons you come up with need to fit the job you are applying for. This wouldn't work if you were interviewing for another rehab job or tried to return to your previous rehab job, unless you decided to say that med/surg was too fast-paced, etc. for you and so you realized rehab was your current niche.

I know fairly new nurses who obtained hospital med/surg jobs and psych facility jobs after having only LTC experience, but they had at least a year's experience in one position.

If you are applying on-line to positions, you usually can update/change your resume. If you are applying to a different unit with a different manager, your previous applications/interviews at that hospital probably won't hurt you. I imagine since you were not hired, they would throw out any paper resumes/applications/notes, at least after 3 months. If you take a LTC job now and later apply to a hospital, you can explain that you had difficulty getting a hospital job previously due to your lack of experience. Whatever you do, try to stay in the next job for at least a year.

To all new grads reading this - I think this nurse's experience could be a wakeup call to try if at all possible to stay in your first position for at least a year, even if it is not your first choice and you get an offer for what appears to be a better position. You never know how a new job will turn out, and if it doesn't work out and you get a history of short-term jobs without any long-term nursing jobs, you may very much regret having jumped ship due to great difficulties getting interviews/offers. Job opportunites expand greatly once you have a solid 1-2 years of experience in one job.

[udsk]

This morning a recruiter followed up my job searching. She told me that I did have experience; the major problem was those hospitals don't like my short stay in last employment. If I told them because of "not good fit" they would question me "how to prove that you will stay with us long?". Getting a reference letter from my former manager sounds a good idea, but I don't think my former manager will help me.

Now I will do a part time in a small LTC/Rehab which should be stable. I will also try one shift a week on med/surg floor for a staffing company, see if I can work it out in this way.