How long did it take for you to hear back from Vanderbilt Nurse Residency Program ?

LeLeeFNP · Oct 10, 2009

chamberself,

thank you for your information. Is Saint Thomas still hiring for their nurse residency program? Where do you get more information about it? Why do you think you weren't selected for Vanderbilt? I'm a little nervous now that I may not get chosen as well. I want to start looking for a backup plan just in case. Do you know how often Saint Thomas offers their nurse residency program?

paintingskies · Oct 11, 2009

Those interviews are intense! Anyone else gone through them yet?

LeLeeFNP · Oct 11, 2009

Paintingskies,

mine was monday. I thought they asked a lot of questions. The committee members I had were very personable and made me feel very comfortable though. Did your panel members make you feel uncomfortable? I wish we didn't have to wait so long to hear back from them. I think the critical care track is the most competetive and they are only going to take about a 3rd or so of the people that applied for that track, but we'll see. I'm sure you won't have any trouble though. It seems like you have a lot of experience and background that would be attractive to them.

nurse901 · Oct 12, 2009

Hello S_Jones85 and Paintingskies!!! I have my interview in a few weeks and I am so nervous. Do either of you know if they will allow someone to go to another track if they are not selected for their first one?? I also applied for the Critical Care track but would be willing to do another track if the Critical Care one is filled up fast. They are interviewing 200 applicants which is so scary. Any advice???

paintingskies · Oct 12, 2009

I actually asked about the tracks. The Adult track, if selected for it, encompasses all adult floors - so if you're hired on the "adult track," you may end up on the critical care track. You do, I think it's 6 weeks, a rotation and at the end of it, they ask you what unit you like the most and then they also let the units decide who they would like and balance it out that way. You may or may not get your preference, but if you get hired for adult... you could get anything (from the way I understood it.)

SJones, the thing that kind of throws me for a loop is that the interview is on a point system. I really didn't feel like I was on top of my game for my interview... and I can't figure out how they would grade it. It's based on my answers. The concept is so new to me that I don't know how to process it, I guess. I'm used to managers and people picking people based on how much they like them, y'know? I'm not really confident about how it went.

I was kind of shocked with how many interviews they were doing. They had two interviews going at a time on an hour mark, from what I could tell. 200 interviews is so much! Plus, they said they won't know how many people they can take until mid-november.

LeLeeFNP · Oct 12, 2009

Paintingskies,

I was worried about the same thing. Because they ask so many questions and grade your answers it doesn't seem as if they are getting a feel for who you are as a person. They are too busy taking notes on what you are saying. But in a way, maybe that makes the selection more fair. They probably want to base the selection off of your experience and how you react to certain situations more than just how much they think they like you. Plus since there are multiple people grading you it appears to be a fair process. But then again the panel could just make some people nervous and they could not do so well in the interview but still be good nurse. It's almost like you have to be good at speaking in order to sell yourself. I feel like I did the best I could do on my interview but if they are adding the points from your interview with the points from you initial application I may have not had as much points from my application because my GPA is on the lower side. So I don't know.

paintingskies · Oct 12, 2009

That's what I don't really get. I don't know. It's hard, in my mind, to grade a qualitative thing like verbal answers to a question... because the grading system would likely be objective. Unless they have specific guidelines... "if this is covered, 4 pts..." etc. It's interesting. It's hard waiting so long. It'd only give me, maybe, 2 months to get everything ready for moving. That's such a crazy thought! Oh well. It's in God's hands at this point.

Good luck with it, SJones. I'm thinking if they can manage 100 people, with 200 interviews... they're taking half. That's not bad odds... 1 out of every 2 people.

LeLeeFNP · Oct 12, 2009

Paintingskies,

i just moved to nashville 3 weeks ago when my husband's job transferred. We only had two weeks to find a place because thats how much notice he got. So two months would have been heaven for me. Especially since you already know its a possibility. If I were you I would start looking for places now, saving up etc. But I'm sure you know this.

Are you or have you applied to any other nurse residency programs or jobs in any other state? Are you just going to wait for vanderbilt before you continue your search? I know you mentioned before that you had applied to a bunch of places but got nowhere.

paintingskies · Oct 12, 2009

SJones,

Wow! That's not much notice at all. You've been through a whirlwind recently, then! When did you graduate? Has it been hard to find a job or did the move put a damper in anything?

LeLeeFNP · Oct 12, 2009

I lived in wisconsin before I moved here. I just graduated in may with my RN but prior to that I was an LPN. I had no problems finding a job in wisconsin. I had 6 offers right off the bat and 2 of them were ICU positions. I worked in the ICU for four months then we found out we had to move at the end of september. So basically I had to leave my dream job for my husband. I've been here in Nashville for about 3 weeks now. So far I have had 4 interviews including vandy. 2 places offered me the job but neither of them were ICU positions. It's really really hard to get an ICU job down here without experience, and even though I have ICU experience as an RN, they want at least a year and I only have four months. I would hate to just take a med-surg job when I know my ultimate goal is critical care. I'm just going to loose everything I've learned and pretty much have to start from scratch once I am finally able to get back into it. I have all of my critical care certs too. So yea I'm happy I got offers here and I hate to be picky....I do need to start working. But at the same time I feel like I worked so hard in school, I deserve to get a job that I like ya know. My husband thinks I should just take anything at this point for an income..and if vanderbilt doesn't work out perhaps I will. I'm just not used to this market. It is not like this at ALL in wisconsin. Plus the pay is a lot higher there with roughly the same cost of living.

nurse901 · Oct 12, 2009

Thanks everyone for the information. I was a little confused about how the placement works. Just to clarify.... for those 6 weeks of rotation do we go through all of the adult areas?? Critical Care alone has about seven units so does that mean if you chose Critical Care as your first choice then you go through the seven areas or do you also go through the Med/surg areas as well. I just want to make sure I understand it. Thanks so much for your help.

LeLeeFNP · Oct 12, 2009

I think you only rotate through the track you are chosen for. There are 7 rotational areas for critical care. So I asume you would do about a week in each of them, then at the end select your top three and the preceptors will give their feedback on how you did in that area. That kind of scares me cause say you are really interested in the neuro ICU but the nurses in the burn unit really like you, but you have no interest in burn, does that mean you may end up in a department that you aren't that interested in? Don't get me wrong, I love all critical care and would be honored to be selected for the program no matter what, but I am just wondering. What if the preceptors don't think you would be good in any of their units? then what? I really wish we could get more feedback from nurses that completed the program already. Like where are the summer 2009 vanderbilt nurse residents? we cant be the first group on here that had questions about all this.