NSNA and CNSA... do hospitals care when hiring new grad?

pharmgirl · Oct 13, 2009

I joined during my first semester and have yet to really do much with it. No one has ever asked if I was involved with an organization. However, we do have a duty to our profession, so I'm hoping that I can become involved with some organization after school. Right now, just too much to do and No, no one asked during my interview at the hospital I work.

BluegrassRN · Oct 13, 2009

Most employers know what a joke it is, and do not care at all if you were involved or not. If I'm sitting in on an interview and someone is going on and on about their involvement in their student nurse association, I can't decide if I want to barf in their lap or laugh in their face. Actual, meaningful volunteering goes a lot farther with me, whether it is through a student nurse association or independently. I know that when most people say they were active in their student nurse association it means they paid to join and they sold cookies for a fundraiser. Hello, I was in nursing school once upon a time, too. I know that people who are busy bodies who were president did little to actually contribute to the greater good that is nursing, and while I don't hold it against them, neither am I impressed. I'm more interested in -- how did you actually do in school? What were your grades? Where did you do your clinicals? What other pressing life-issues did you have--how did you successfully managed the demands of your personal life and your schooling? What do you do outside of school--work, volunteering, hobbies?

By the way, I am not a director, nor am I personally responsible for hiring anyone. I am on an interviewing committee, and after our director sifts through applications, I and one or two other nurses conduct the interview with the unit director. I have no say whether someone gets hired, but I do get to interview, and we do give our feedback later and it has typically been respected--ie if we say "Oh hell no" that person doesn't get a job offer.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Oct 14, 2009

Interesting, our school's chapter of NSNA is newly up and running and they have been trying to do a lot of community volunteer work that goes above and beyond making cookies. They have been helping in Marathons, Blood drives, vaccination clinics etc. etc.