interview w advocate!!

Hey,

Many years ago, while in high school I started volunteering at Lutheran General on the pediatric unit. It was a great experience, it's actually one of the reasons I decided to go into nursing instead of medicine. I was a pre med student or thinking of studying to become a doctor in High School so I decided to volunteer in a hospital. When I applied to Loyola Chicago I switched over to be a Nursing major and it's been a great journey ever since.

Anyway- to make a long story short the pediatric unit at Lutheran General I would imagine is a great place to work. Hopefully things haven't changed in several years. I volunteered for about 3 years off and on there, and later worked as a PCT at Lutheran General in float pool through the summer program for Jr. Nursing students. My only disappointment actually is that when I finished nursing school and applied for a position at Lutheran General as an RN, I didn't end up getting a job offer. Oh well- I work at Northwestern now.

Best of luck at Lutheran and with Loyola for nursing school. Loyola is a fantastic school.

danchicagorn- thanks for your input =) so did you get your bsn from loyola? that was my original plan when i transferred in from community college... but the program is extremely difficult to get into esp if you're a transfer student, but i have heard wonderful things about the program.. and i love the school in itself =) how long have you been with northwestern? do you know if they offer any tuition assistance for employees? thanks so much for your response =)

I got my BSN from Loyola in 2007. I've worked at Northwestern for 2 years, and they do offer tuition assistance to employees- $5,200 a year, with no commitments to work for the hospital afterward so it's actually a pretty good deal.

Speaking of "profile assessments".....I recently graduated with my RN degree, and amazingly the position I have always wanted from the time I started school became available. I knew several of the veteran nurses who encouraged me to apply for that position but said I would have to complete a profile assessment ...and that it was "the devil" to pass. I wasn't worried at all because it seemed to be about honesty/integrity, socialization, etc...I was sure I would have no problem. I completed the profile assessment and later noticed the position was filled. I called to inquire and was told I had failed the profile assessment! I was devastated because I never dreamed I would not pass a profile assessment! I was told one could reapply a year later, but if I gain employment elsewhere, I would hope it to be permanent....however THAT was the position/shift and location I wanted. When I contacted the recruiter she said since the assessment is job specific, and that candidates can apply to other positions in which they meet the minimum qualifications of the position. She said they utilize the same job pattern for all staff RN positions. A friend told me that they heard if you are very religious or have high morals, that you don't do well on the assessment, and if one fails it then they have either been found to be very, very honest or very, very dishonest. Also, I was told that in order to pass the assessment, one has to be very "middle of the road", because they are looking for someone very open minded.(which I am, and also honest) I am not sure if "job specific" means only for that particular RN position, or for ANY RN position....Has anyone else had experience with this? Someone said this is something that will probably be done away with AFTER a facility realizes it is losing prospectively good employees. ANY would be APPRECIATED!!:thankya:

Re: profile assessment....my friend took one for a nursing home where I live, and they contacted her saying they declined to continue with the interview process. We were both completely dumbfounded. Can anyone give more information on this? (sorry if this is hijacking discussion, if not, please anyone give feedback on how this works.)

I took Advocates assessment recently. There were no questions that would indicate ones religious leanings, or morality. The only way that could work against somebody is if that translated into answers indicating extreme rigidity and/or inability to work with others different from oneself.

The format is structured so you can't get away with just telling the computer what you think "it" wants to hear. With some questions there is no "best" answer. Each answer is just a piece of the puzzle that is you.

Some tests may be flawed, but I think Advocates is probably a reliable one.

The advocate system is really hard to get into, unless you did a clinical there or are drop dead gorgeous. While Lutheran is a great hospital, I would stay away from Illinois Masonic. They totally screwed up on me while I was in an inpatient. I'm a little biased, I hope you get the interview and position, Lutheran is a totally awesome hospital but Advocate as a whole is a little full of themselves. Yes I do mean drop dead gorgeous, as it seems that they do tend to hire on looks. Go to the yelp pages and see how many comments are about how attractive the staff are.

As far as being drop dead gorgeous - that is a total lie. I do work with some attractive people but I would say the majority probably are not. I also don't work with anyone who is drop dead gorgeous. I myself am definitely not drop dead gorgeous. I'm happy they don't hire based on looks!