I am currently a CNA and I graduate in December. I work on an Intermediate Cardiac Unit as an intern and I was planning on working in this same unit as an RN. Some months ago, we had to sign up for meetings (on a schedule sheet) on the manager’s office door. I added my name and a time. When I showed up she looked surprised to see me and said “thank you for coming, you didn’t have to come. I hope you didn’t have to drive far”. I told her it wasn’t a problem at all and I lived close. I kind of was a little weirded out on why she said that. I wanted to talk to her about my upcoming graduation and how I was interested in staying on the unit. Well, my meeting with my manager was sort of a sweet slap in the face. She asked me about my previous clinicals and immediately told me she was full on the floor and she would help me find other units to work on. I didn’t even get a chance to express my interest. I was kind of thrown off about her rapid response because, at the time, that was around 10 months before I graduate. I was kind of discouraged that she didn’t even offer me a position.
I spoke with other nurses on the unit about the night shift’s ratios and they told me that they were needing nurses and were not full on the unit at night.
Just recently a classmate that also works on that floor was offered a position in the unit and she accepted it. I honestly was heartbroken about it because I really enjoyed this floor and I really wanted to work in the unit.
I’m not really mad because my manager was real nice about it and helped me to get hired at another unit (not any of my top choices but I’m happy I got a job now). I guess I just want to know, what are the main reasons for managers to politely turn you down? I felt like I got along with everyone and tried my best to do great work and patient satisfaction. I will add that this was my first EVER CNA job. At first learning all of the ropes was really challenging and my manager did call me back in office for constructive criticism (during my second week in the job). Also, when we have peer reviews I ALWAYS get top scores from my CNA peers and great comments about teamwork and patient satisfaction. I even got a daisy award nomination. I feel like it may be my lack of experience. Any other people gone through this before? How do you maximize your chances on being a good candidate to your manager?
