How to be hirable as a New Nurse?

sleepwalker, MSN, NP · Jan 6, 2021

If it's a true ABSN program the recommendation is NOT to work as you are going to be extremely busy with classes, labs, clinicals, homework, concept maps or care plans, exam preparation, etc. The work experience of a PCT or NA is not going to make you more "hirable" as an RN. There are ER and ICU internship/fellowship programs for new grads wanting to work in the ER or ICU after graduating...these are usually highly competitive so you'll want to do well in school (another reason not to work during the program)

Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN · Feb 19, 2021

Many ICUs will not hire a new grad because of the extra time it takes to supervise and teach them basics. Some will, but it's uncommon and as noted above it's very competitive. When you have a year or two of good work under your belt in a lower level of care, like med/surg or possibly telemetry, you'll be in a better position to seek ICU work.

Employers may give you minimal "credit" for CNA or MA work, but these are not the RN skills and thought processes they look for in an RN hire.

Pednurse21, BSN · Jun 18, 2021

I disagree with PP. In Dallas at least, working in a unit specifically the ER or ICU as a Tech definitely gives you a leg up to land a new grad position in that unit. However I do agree with both of them that in a ABSN program I have heard that it is very strongly discouraged to work. I found it hard enough to work in a regular BSN program and cannot imagine if it was accelerated. And I will say that some of ICU residencies here do have minimum GPA requirements which is another reason to be careful of working. If you decide not to work, I would make sure to get good grades, try to network as much as possible in your clinicals in those units and if you land an interview then prepare your behavioral questions. I found 10-15 of the most common nursing interview questions by googling and prepared a specific example of something I did that answers the question. I wasn’t always asked the exact question I prepared but the specific examples I prepared worked for so many questions so just having prepared those for one question allowed me to use the same example for many other questions if that makes sense. For example, one common questions is how do you work under pressure. I prepared an example about how I handled a patient in SVT (a dangerous cardiac rhythm) who needed a doctor when I was working in the ER but there wasn’t one available so I had to approach the off going doctor even though he was trying to go home. The interviewer asked me about a time I had to make a difficult decision and I was able to use this example even though I didn’t prepare it for this exact question. So my point is if you don’t work then keep a record of things that you do in clinical if you have a bad memory so you can use specific examples to answer interview questions. I did this and was offered both ER and ICU and was later told how much my interview stood out.

Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN · Jun 18, 2021

These are good suggestions for interview skills. Be aware that HR departments also regularly review such sites and attend professional development seminars, and will recognize their techniques, so be sure you have some actual meat for those bare bones. Remember a few years back when the advice was to “turn your weakness into a strength” by saying, “My weakness is that I’m a perfectionist”? Yeah, they caught on to that real fast, LOL.

I stand by my opinion that PCT, CNA, and MA “skills” are not necessarily what somebody hiring for a critical care (ICU, ER) staff position are looking for and will not help much unless you are already in a system that demonstrably has a willingness to give some credit for previous employment at the non-RN level. Everybody learns those “skills” pretty fast; learning to be an effective autonomous critical care RN takes time.

Pednurse21, BSN · Jun 18, 2021

1 hour ago, Hannahbanana said:

These are good suggestions for interview skills. Be aware that HR departments also regularly review such sites and attend professional development seminars, and will recognize their techniques, so be sure you have some actual meat for those bare bones. Remember a few years back when the advice was to “turn your weakness into a strength” by saying, “My weakness is that I’m a perfectionist”? Yeah, they caught on to that real fast, LOL.

I stand by my opinion that PCT, CNA, and MA “skills” are not necessarily what somebody hiring for a critical care (ICU, ER) staff position are looking for and will not help much unless you are already in a system that demonstrably has a willingness to give some credit for previous employment at the non-RN level. Everybody learns those “skills” pretty fast; learning to be an effective autonomous critical care RN takes time.

I agree it is not the PCT skills you get from working as a PCT that matter. It is the experience you get on that unit. You learn if you like that kinda of nursing. You learn time management. You learn how to put patients first when you have a million tasks to complete. You learn how to work as a team. You learn what your weaknesses are. You learn how to work on those weaknesses. You learn how to recognize abnormalities. You learn how to talk to patients. You learn and practice so much as a tech. I stood out in nursing school because of all of these skills I had already worked on. I then stood out in my resume not because I knew how to take vitals but because I had experience that prepares me in all of these ways. Yes you will learn of all of this as a nurse too but you are just trying to get your bearings at first trying to learn the meds common to your unit and the diseases common to the unit and the flow of the unit and where everything is. Having the foundation from being a tech is very useful. Every nurse that precepted me said you can always tell which students have medical experience and which don't.

Plus you network working as a PCT. I am not saying you have to be one to get the new grad jobs in these areas but it helps because your work as a PCT is noticed and often you are hired on your own unit.

And perhaps I did not explain the interview tip well if it sounds like a trick. I was given this interview tip by interviewers in my first nursing interview. It is way to format responses to behavior interview questions that all interviewers are asking for now. It is called the STAR method. You give a specific situation, the task you need to complete, the action you did and the response that happened. Interviewers recommend you do this. They tell you to prepare specific examples of what you did to really answer their behavioral questions so they can get to know you. Definitely do not make something up. When she gave me this tip, at first I was like “how can I prepare examples for questions that I don’t even know they will ask”. What I explained in my first post is what I realized. I prepared for some common questions and realized that by preparing 10 or so real scenarios of what I did then I was able to use them for all questions that I was asked. And having tech experience allows one to have more specific examples for those questions.

amujynya · Sep 20, 2021

Wow! Totally haven't check this thread in a minute, thank you all for the helpful advice!!

Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN · Sep 20, 2021

I agree that the STAR plan is a good one, but it presupposes that you have enough meaningful applicable experience to use it. I also agree that PCT experience will expose you to a unit culture and workflow, but even with the best observational skill you're not going to be able to grok the RN experience until you're an RN. So keep that in mind.