pre-employment exam from h*ll

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Specializes in Peds stepdown ICU.

Hi All!

Just wondering if anyone else has taken what is called a workstep functional assessment exam? I took it and was amazed by it!!! They tell you before they start that several people fail...up goes my anxiety and BP (and I have never had high BP). They then have you take your shirt off and the PT does several measurements. He was actually very rough and I felt like a herded cow getting measured and prodded for the sale or butcher shop. He gave me very brief one or two word commands, and barely waited for me to assume the position or do the thing asked.... At one point he grabbed me by my upper arms and pulled my shoulders back with such force that I was left bruised....I was thinking OMG if I say anything they will fail me. Next I am laying on a table while he is pushing all the way down my spine... he says get up and my shoe catches the paper from the table and my gown is falling off. Here I stand with my bra showing feeling so intimidated and humiliated.

Next, they take me into another room where they have you do a brief stair step thing that is timed and check your pulse--no problem. The next machine is this thing that you hook your back legs under and rest your thighs on while putting your hands behind your back you lift your torso up (nothing below) and hold this suspended position until a timer goes off several minutes later....if you are overweight it may be pretty difficult and akward. It looked so bizzare. The final part is taking a 150 pound dummy from an exam table to the floor by yourself, rolling it onto a draw sheet and dragging it down the hall. There is also some proper lifting using weighted boxes...that seems appropriate for the job BUT is it appropriate to make one feel so much like a common animal, induce such anxiety, and leave them sore and bruised????

Sorry so long...I don't know if I should laugh or cry....I do feel like crying when I think I went into this thing feeling good and came out with an aching bruised body!

Opinions or others take this screen? I did pass by the way, but, for those out of shape and overweight it may be difficult...and those really tiny people may have trouble with that dummy. You know health care is teamwork...we work together to get the job done (if a 90 pound co-worker needs help lifting and turning a big patient it is my duty to help).

I am distressed about this, because, is this a reflection of how I am looked at as an employee...like another cow in the herd? Our profession is already hard enough...along with the abuse we take from patients and employers..must I be shamed and humiliated too???

Karen

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Specializes in Emergency Dept.

RUN!!! This sounds completely brutal and way out of the norm. It sounds more like pre-army training vs. hospital nursing.

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Good Lord. You're not applying to be a firefighter, for pete's sake.

I don't care what "shape" I'm in, I'm not lifting and dragging a 150 lb patient anywhere.

This has nothing to do with whether you can do nursing and they don't give a whit about teamwork, it's aimed at reducing their liability, group healthcare and workers' comp premiums, IMO.

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.

This sounds like a nurse boot camp. Pray to God your coworkers are as brutal to your person as this examiner "on steroids" was. Geesh, anyone's back inflamed and in pain from readng this OP's post?

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Specializes in NICU.

What on earth? The only exam I got was a drug test and titers. This is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard, and I would most certainly not work there.

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Specializes in Peds stepdown ICU.
What on earth? The only exam I got was a drug test and titers. This is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard, and I would most certainly not work there.

It is called worksteps and evidently many companies are going to start doing this to weed out employees that me be a "risk". It is a two part exam...the first part is your ordinary physical with titers and drug screens....then they send you to the PT department for this worksteps. It lasted over an hour...

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Specializes in NICU.

I have a feeling the ADA might have an opinion on it. I can understand the lifting, and testing that mimics what you actually have to do in your job, but the rest wouldn't stand up to an ADA challenge, I don't think.

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Specializes in Pedatrics, Child Protection.

Where the h*ll do you work? I've NEVER heard of anything like that.....even when I worked in the US....drug test and was my work visa current. Unreal.

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:eek: I have never heard of such a thing! I think I would reconsider......
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Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.

Good Lord! I have NEVER heard of such a thing! Is this a military facility?

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Specializes in Peds stepdown ICU.
Good Lord! I have NEVER heard of such a thing! Is this a military facility?

quite the opposite...it is a large trauma faith based teaching hospital....

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This does not happen at military facilities. That said it shouldn't happen in the civilian world.

This is crazy and totally unacceptable.

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