New Grad advice?

jillyk*rn · Apr 19, 2006

hi there,

welcome aboard!!!

congratulations of finishing up school. as far as the nclex goes, try the nclex board here. there are lots of great suggestions and info. all you have to do is ask.

glad to have you here!!!

jpf1735 · Apr 19, 2006

The countdown to graduation is near. It's only 3 weeks away. I'm terrified about taking my boards. My only saving grace is that I've taken the National Athletic Training Board Certification, so I've experienced the "pressure". I'm planning on taking a two-week Kaplan review course right after graduation. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions about Kaplan or hints for studying for Boards?

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2006

i'll let the others give you advice about the nclex. my expertise is more in the way of interviewing and hiring new grads.

before you leave school make sure to have had a private talk with a couple of your instructors--ones who you will want to use for references when you go looking for your first rn job. you want to have at least 2 instructors for references. their input is going to be extremely important to any prospective employers because they have been observing you for the last couple of years and know what your abilities are. don't limit yourself to recent instructors. if there was someone from your very first clinical class who you feel would be a good reference, ask to use them. get their permission and get their full names and contact addresses you should use on applications.

i was part of a new grad committe at one hospital. the nurse recruiter felt that instructor input was one of the most important parts of the hiring process. i try to always advise students to look at their nursing school experience as being similar to a job since they are always under the microscope of being evaluated. these are the characteristics that most employers are looking for in professional employees:

initiative – autonomy
dynamism – energy
responsibility
orientation to the client and co-workers (ability to provide customer service)
learning capacity
productivity
high adaptability – flexibility
leadership
team work
tolerance to pressure
analytic ability
professional development

as a new grad employers will understand that you still need training, but they are going to be evaluating whether they think you are going to transition into a independent acting, problem solving rn. they are also going to most likely ask your school about things like your attendance record. the time to weed out potential problem employees is before hiring one. i'm not suggesting you may, in any way, be a problem employee but if anyone who is also reading this has been told by the leaders in their nursing programs that they are trouble makers, someone with a negative attitude, personality problems or attitude problems they need to be concerned that specific incidents may get communicated to potential employers that will jeopardize their chances of being hired by a place they really want to work. new grads looking for their first jobs cannot refuse to use their school instructors for references in an attempt to hide problems they may have had during their school career because it sets off red flags with employers. if a new grad wasn't using one of their instructors for a reference i would be very suspicious that the person was trying to hide something. sorry, i had to say that. i see so many students posting incidents that have happened to them at school and displaying such awfully negative opinions and attitudes that i have to get that off my chest. the long term consequences of exerting what they might feel are their "rights" extends way into their job future and i don't think they are ever considering that. in the case of the recruiter we worked with--she didn't wait for students to come in looking for jobs. she went to the instructors (she knew most of them at all the various nursing schools around the area) and asked them who were their best students and took names. when one of those students on her list walked into her office, she already knew a lot about you.

i'll get off my soap box now. i'm just trying to let you guys know what i have seen going on behind the scenes that you cannot have known about. here are links to questions that are commonly expected to be asked during interviews. it's a good idea to look them over and have some kind of answer prepared for them.

http://www.hospitalsoup.com/interview-questions.asp - questions you'll be asked

http://www.hospitalsoup.com/employerquestions.asp - questions for nurses to ask employers during interviews

http://www.hospitalsoup.com/inappropriate-interview-questions.asp - inappropriate or unaccepatable interview questions and what you should do if you are asked one of these

https://allnurses.com/forums/1596586-post2.html - this is a link to a recent post i made regarding links on writing cover letters to accompany resumes. unfortunately, i don't have any links as of yet for help with writing resumes, however, i believe there is a "sticky" thread on it. also, monster.com has a lot of free information because when i was looking for the information for the cover letter there was another whole section on resumes that i saw.

if you haven't already been working on a resume in your senior nursing class, think about starting to get information for one together. make sure you have an unofficial copy of your nursing school transcript. i would also get a copy of your immunization records from the college while you are still a student that you probably had to supply to them before starting the nursing program. when you get hired you will have to go through an employee physical and you may have to go through all that stuff again. have your cpr card on hand. your past employers won't be as important as your nursing school. the only reason a potential employer might want to know about old non-nursing employers would be to verify you are being truthful about dates of employment and to get information about the kind of employee you were (attendance, disciplinary problems). i have a folder that i keep a current copy of my unabridged resume in along with copies of transcripts and pages with people who i can use for references and their addresses. i keep other pages of special education programs i attended along with copies of the certificates showing i took those classes (for example, i have 8 hours of training at inserting p.i.c.c. lines). now would be a good time to start one of these folders for yourself. 20 years from now you won't remember the addresses of places you worked, the names of your immediate supervisors at those places, or what your hourly wage was at the time you left. these are the kinds of things you want to keep in this folder because all that information may be needed for future employment applications.

here is the "sticky" on resumes: https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/resume-help-ideas-126676.html

BDQ · Apr 20, 2006

Thanks so much for the info... it will be a GREAT help. I was wondering about the cover letter stuff, so that will be great source of help. I appreciate your information on what employers are looking for and the committee you served on. It is good to know what kinds of things they are looking for and what things to watch out for.

Thanks again... :wink2: