How do I apply for a position with no med experience?

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I will be receiving me CNA soon. I have always worked in office admin. How do I apply for a job when I have no medical experience at all. Do I include my resume which consists of secretarial duties mainly? Should my cover letter explain that I have no medical experience but am venturing in to this field? Thanks in advance.

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Specializes in pandemic, public health, disasters.

Do you have any volunteer work? Check out your local Red Cross or United Way to see if there are any volunteer opportunities at a local hospital or nursing home. Maybe your CNA instructor can write you a letter of recommendation?

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honestly, if you're a cna with no experience at all (no job ever), you will find a job if you want one. there seems to always be spots in ltc (lots of turnover, hard work, crap pay).

the main thing is to go to the employer in person to apply, if you look the part (hygiene, appearance, physical ability) you're gonna find an employer.

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Thanks I was trying to hold out for hospital work, LTC is so depressing I can't see myself there at all.

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depending on how big the hospital is/departments it has, it may have "undesireable" departments that don't require experience, like psych, etc. some hospitals have ltc too, u get the ltc job, then you're already in the hospitals system for future job opportunities.

reality is with the economy and no experience you take what you can get, not what you want.

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After 8 month working in the nursing home, finally I got a job in the hospital. Yes, the experience that I gained in nursing home helped me tremendously. However, I know people who got their job in the hospital without any nursing home experience.

If I were you I would find the job in the nursing home first and then I would start looking for a job in the hospital. It looks better and you have something to put on resume. During interview you can always say that you want to move forward with your nursing career :)

Remember, many hospital won't even look at your application without prior experience. Mostly, they require at least 6 months.

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Specializes in LTC, rehab medicine & therapies.

I second what MissPiggy said...mostly, hospitals want some experience before they'll hire you, which means you'll need to start out with LTC. Six months was the norm when I was applying.

I'm glad I worked in LTC. I was wary of it when I started, but I'm glad for the experience.

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Okay so if I need to apply in the nursing home what type would be a good fit, I want to stay away from dementia unit, it was way too depressing during clinical.

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Specializes in LTC, rehab medicine & therapies.

kimmy436 it's a matter of what would be a good fit for YOU. Most job postings give specifics about the type of residents you'll be interacting with. So really, it's knowing what you think would be a good fit and going from there. Most nursing homes have a dementia unit but that doesn't mean you'll wind up there. Mine gave me options about which unit I wanted to work in - I already had experience working in one unit from my clinical there, so I said I'd like to go elsewhere, to maximize what I learned.

So really, it's kind of your call.

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Specializes in LTC.

I don't know what it is with people who turn up their noses at LTC. If you work in a nursing home, most of them are going to have dementia. If you work in med-surg or telemetry at the hospital, you'll run into a lot of it there too. Not all people with dementia are "depressing."

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Not 'turning up my nose at all. You should be more considerate of other peoples preferences maybe someone has a family history of alzheimers and have lived thru an experience and doesnt want to live thru it again.

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I think most nursing homes have different kind of units. Nursing home that I was working in had Long term unit, Special Care Unit (for people with Alzheimer and dementia) and medicare unit. Medicare was the most busy one. I really liked this unit however after awhile I got bored with the constant running ;)

Long term is ok but lots of heavy lifting. On this unit people mostly stay "forever" in nursing home.

Special Care Unit ... I know you don't want to work on this unit but if you decide to go to work in the nursing home they might tell you to work there from time to time. SCU I was working at was great. We had a great team and ratio 8:1 at most.

Remember, if you cannot find a job in hospital because of the lack of experience in nursing home, you just have to work there for 6 months or so. Time flies fast ! :) And if you decide to go to work in nursing home, you might ask them about not to assigning you to Special Care Unit.

Good Luck!

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