How will COVID-19 affect the hiring process?

[Reds5588, BSN]

So, for the past year my family has been prepping for big changes to our employment status. My husband and I are both RN,BSN. My husband is about to start his final year of FNP school. I have been a medical surgical nurse for 4 years, part-time for the past 2 years (since having my youngest of 3 children, 2 years ago). My husband has been full time ICU. More recently, we moved to a new state last Summer where he became a full time ER nurse at a new hospital (I stayed at old hospital, commuting an hour).

My husband will be starting his FNP clinicals in May. We made the decision over a year ago, that I would apply for full time medical surgical positions within the new hospital around this time, and he would go per diem. While I was a little anxious about the possibility of not getting a job offer, I was confident, that with my experience that it likely wouldn’t be an issue, and we would be starting our new positions just in time for his clinicals to start.

I should also add, it is very important to us that I get a full time position at the new hospital, because they are the only health system in our area that covers our daughter’s insulin pump at 100%. When my husband worked at the old hospital we were paying between 200-1200 a month for her various supplies.

So, I applied for a full time medical surgical position on Thursday, and it seems like that same day, everything in our area started shutting down. Yesterday the CDC recommended no large gatherings for 8 weeks (which makes me think they would not be holding new hire orientation classes???)

I know it’s only been 2 business days with no response from them, but now I’m in a panic that our plan will fail and my husband will forced to work full time and do clinicals until all of this, hopefully, blows over...

My husband thinks the opposite. He says they will want to be fully staffed and I need to calm down.

Any thoughts?

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

Of course we can't be sure of anything that will happen. But I am going to side with your husband on this one - hospitals want and need to be fully staffed at a time like this, and a pandemic isn't going to stop that from happening. There might be changes to the HR orientation process, but beyond that I would expect business as usual.

[Reds5588, BSN]

I should also add: some people may say “you should have done this months ago.” Which obviously crossed our minds, but my husband really wanted that full time ER position to help with his gaining more knowledge and experience for school, and he was able to find Local preceptors more easily this way. In addition to that, our oldest daughter is on a travel cheerleading team, my husband was not comfortable having to travel across the country for competitions and having to do her hair and makeup So he wanted me to stay part time until her season was over in April. Obviously had we known COVID 19 would happen, the cheerleading issue would not have been a deciding factor.... hindsight is 20/20!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Depending on what is happening with facilities not accepting student presence in light of Covid-19, your husband may not be starting clinical education in May. You might want a contingency plan for several possible scenarios.

[Reds5588, BSN]

45 minutes ago, Rose_Queen said:

Depending on what is happening with facilities not accepting student presence in light of Covid-19, your husband may not be starting clinical education in May. You might want a contingency plan for several possible scenarios.

Good point... that would be terrible. I guess The only positive in that situation would be that no Clinicals would mean no urgency to stress about switching jobs this month though.

[Guub]

Don't worry. HR said they would get back to me in 6-8 weeks for a job with the government, however I am on my 10th week of waiting and still no news. Asked for an update, but they say selection is still pending.