Nursing School Interview on Friday

[Fmartin]

I have an interview for nursing school on Friday. This is a place where they get about 120 applications but only accept 24 students per year, so it's competitive. When they ask me 'where do you see yourself in 5, 10 years?" I don't know if I should 'reveal' that my ultimate goal is to be a midwife. In a way I think it's good that I plan to further my education beyond what this school offers, which is just a 2yr associate program. But I also feel that they may look down upon this as "oh, she doesn't really want to be a nurse and help patients in various clinical settings." Do you understand what I mean by this statement? It's not meant to be derogatory, just maybe that they may think the school is not a fit for me or something. In my area there are not many nursing schools, only 2, and it's competitive.

Thanks for any imput. And... should I wear my hair up or down? I have long hair.

[kcochrane]

Tell them about wanting to be a midwife, but you can add...I want to get some good nursing experience before I get there. I told prospective employers that I wanted to teach someday, but wanted to get some acute experience first.

They may ask questions like how many times were you absent from your last job, do you have backup transportation, do you have backup childcare (if you have kids), your study habits, what kind of health experience you have and what you think a nurse does. Just throwing those out since I did get those in LPN school. There was no interview in RN school - it was point based system.

Good luck and keep us posted...oh hair up or down as long as it is neat.

[slacktime]

Dearest Fmartin,

Nursing is the third most respected profession in the U.S. for a whole bunch of reasons, among them are honesty and candor. Develop those habits, they will serve you well as a nurse and as a midwife. Nursing instructors can recognize deceit better than your mother and they have a deep appreciation for honesty.

Your aspirations to be a midwife are admirable. Midwives are RNs, RNs are competent entry level nurses in all aspects of nursing (mental health, pharmacology, geriatrics, cardiology, etc). If you are more focused on being a midwife and less focused on being a nurse, you likely will be less competitive. If you are enthusiastic to be an RN with the hopes of being a midwife sometime in the future, you will be fine.

Good Luck and keep us posted.