My Worse INTERVIEW EVER!

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I was excited being a new grad about this 'suppose' to be great position in a major magnet hospital that still does team nursing on a med/surg 44 bed floor..... until I got to the interview and the job matched nothing of the job description I applied for.

I'm in shock right now. I've spent 4 years in a level 1 trauma hospital that doesn't hire LPN's as a CNA in the trauma/neuro critical care and yet I have never seen something so badly managed as I have seen today.

So the job was 7p-7a and the job description said that the LPN would be under the supervision of an RN doing med passes and wound care and supervises CNA's. Well the unit manager tells me today that she will pay me 12.25 an hour (that's including shift diff) to work on nights with 4 other RN's and NO CNA's!!!!!!!!!!! As we are sitting through this interview I'm hearing call lights go off every 5 seconds and so on, staff running frantic up and down the halls and I'm thinking... you want me to do this, pass meds, and plus act as your CNA? cause I know those 4 RN's sitting behind that desk back there who are 'charting' their assessments are not getting up to help me wipe a single butt, and your gonna pay me a whole 2 bucks more than I'm making now doing a job in a less critical area? COME ON!

THEN for 20 minutes as I'm thinking I really do NOT want this job and little ticked that the job was nothing as of the job description I applied for, she tells me how she is new at this and how there will be no Unit Secretary at night either and how she has only been manager of the unit for 6 weeks so far... ::: puke :::

I told the lady I would get back to her, that she was my first interview since I had my license, which is a lie, but I do have 3 other interviews this week.

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OMG at least you had a chance to see what you were in for. I hoped you warned your classmate about what you saw!!!

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Specializes in L & D, Med-Surge, Dialysis.

I agreed! worst interview indeed when other LPN makes between 19-25$. Good luck in your job sear & interview!!

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Specializes in Mother-Baby, Rehab, Hospice, Memory Care.

That's despicable! I wouldn't get out of bed for that kind of pay!

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

The pay rate is soooo far beyond any reason that I'm thinking she may have looked up the wrong number. At any rate, as a new nurse you'll definitely want a strong unit manager. Just be glad you found out about this circus before accepting a position.

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Thanks! I'm glad I wasn't the only that felt insanely mad over that interview and I did warn my classmates, although a few of my classmates seemed like they wanted the job. (they have never been a cna before that's in a world ruled by RN's either.... not that it's a bad thing. LoL...) I just know for that type of work I should get paid more, especially if I have a license and education that backs me up.

I have taken a job through NHC skilled nursing home company. They seem wonderful so far. I'll start out on 3-11 shift at 16/hr (which is above average pay in my area for new grad LPNs by like a dollar). They will pay for 4 of my uniforms in full and every 6 months I get two new uniforms. Bonus's every March & Sept as well I'll get a raise in January based on performance. My D.O.N. is really nice. I am bummed that I can't use my nice uniforms I've had for awhile now with my previous job, but I am very glad that I don't have to worry about coming up with the money for the required scrubs for my job.

So far so good. :)

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Congratulations!

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doing the math:

44 beds

4 RN's

1 LPN

0 CNA

0 Unit secty

0 $$

This does not add up!

Why no CNA's on 3rd shift or unit secty?

good luck w/ your new job

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It's normal for that company to have 10-12 PTs per an RN . And it's own by a big business that owns 8 hospitals in the area and that's how they do things. The Lpn was going to be used as a CNA. Somehow they get away with it.

All the other hospitals who have rns with 10-12 pts usually have a Lpn and cna on their team. And other places that don't hire lpns have one cna to 15-30 pts with an rn to 6-8 patients.

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It's normal for that company to have 10-12 PTs per an RN . And it's own by a big business that owns 8 hospitals in the area and that's how they do things. The Lpn was going to be used as a CNA. Somehow they get away with it.

All the other hospitals who have rns with 10-12 pts usually have a Lpn and cna on their team. And other places that don't hire lpns have one cna to 15-30 pts with an rn to 6-8 patients.

thank you for answering..

:eek:This is eye opening. Yes $$ rule the world. But, pt care has to be :banghead:. Is it my understanding that they only wanted 1 (you) LPN to take care of 44 beds? They wanted to pay you $12.22 to do 2 jobs of 3 or 4 cnas. Does this hospital have a high turnover rate ?

Also, I wonder was DON wrong in what she told you?

Hmm, this is making me think:scrying:

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I never spoke to the DON, this was the 'new' nurse manager over the floor who was in the position for 6 weeks cause their last one quit. But she could have been wrong with her information, but was very clear there would be no CNA at night and maybe till 11 if I'm lucky and that the other 4 RN's will tell me what they want me to do for them. Doing meds on 44 patients tho is hard in a hospital cause not everybody is on the same schedule as they are in nursing homes, it would be nearly impossible to keep up with, plus arguing with pharmacy cause no matter what hospital you work at, something is always not up to the floor on time. So I knew good and well they wouldn't have me doing their meds.

And yes pt care is hard. And they do have a higher turn over rate along with the other hospitals trying to be magnet hospital that I was working at. Nursing around here overall sucks. It's east TN. Three big companies trying to go against each other and buy each other out not caring about their staff or their patients. Now most of them are blaming for the low economy as why they can't staff their hospitals. But somehow they can pay all of these big 'educator nurses' who I have never seen a single one of them educate a single thing and as well all these other nurse's in their suits supposdly suppose to be helping us. I kid you not, there is a nurse manager over one of the critical care units I use to float to and she would come into help in high heels and a dress and all she would do would answer call lights and maybe... maybe.. help me turn somebody. She had no sign in to pass meds much less knew how to work the electronic mars...

Sorry this turned into a rant haha but these things really get me fired up, I really am sick of the nursing politics in my area. And all I hear about at these hospitals is 'customer service, blah blah blah'. I don't see how a critical care nurse can give proper 'customer service when she has 3 critical patients all on vents, with ICP monitors, swans, multi pressor drips, insulin drips, ect and how a hospital can't even prepare and staff a unit when 6 patients go down hill real quick and all end up on CRRT within 48 hours and they can't come up with the nurses for that much less the equipment that they have to rent (mind you this is a level 1 trauma hospital and this is happening in a level 1 critical care unit and this happened two weeks ago..) Most days/nights in the trauma/neuro ICU our nurses are staffed 1:3 and if they are lucky I got to be a CNA when we had enough unit secretaries..

Which I'm glad I'm out of it. I'm sure I will find staffing/patient issues with my new job in LTC as a nurse. I'll miss critical care, but I don't miss all the horrible staffing/politics that were involved in a big hospital. Utterly makes me sick...

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Thanks for the insight..

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