tdavis36

Thank you for allowing me to 'peek' into your experience. It sounds very similar to when my mom when to nursing school in Baytown over 15 years ago. If only I knew what I wanted back then, I had some idea but life took a different turn. Just got off the phone with an RN friend (actually my friends daughter who used to babysit for me). She's a new RN working at Texas Children's and was trying to get a contact for me. Her hiring manager said there is a hiring freeze right now and only hiring people, including nurses, with experience. No more training provided. It makes me wonder if they'll continue with the huge sign on bonuses. Also, the Katy location due to open in 2010 and I want to be one the 600-800 staff members. I also wander if the project is still moving forward. If I may ask permission to seek 'counseling'. It should be too difficult to get a C.N.A. job in a hospital. The way things are done now with regards to the applications process, it is so unfriendly. In the old days, I would call the president/CEO of the company and make an appointment to meet. During the interview, I would convince them to give me a tour, meet my future co-workers and just fit in as I had the job. Nowadays, I can barely get past the gatekeeper. To make things worse, you are told to 'go on our website and fill out our online app., and a recruiter will contact you if your qualifications meet our requirements.' I just cringe... Does anyone have a story, suggestion to beat the crowd and bypass a lot of this? Appreciate you all.

I'm a C.N.A. and have recently applied for PCA postion at several hospitals in Houston. It has been mentioned that the recruiters will call and conduct a 1 stage phone interview to determine qualifications for an in-person interview. My experience has been in the Home Health and Assisted living facilities. What kinds of questions would a recruiter ask me over the phone? I assume such questions as, 'what is standard precautions, how to take blood pressure, pulse, respiration, etc... I just want to be prepared if I get a phone interview and in the process I forget something, get nervous, panic... don't want to do that! Any input would help. Tricia

thanks for the encouragement. it helps to know there are others who understand. in my previous post, - "graduated 74 out of 500 students with a 4.0 gpa." that was high school. and i wish that i would have gone directly to college but my life took a different route. as a c n a, at least 5 years, i've worked primarily in home-health and long-term care facilities. currently, they are cutting back on hourly home health aids so there is little work. i didn't anticipate it would be this challenging to get into a hospital at this point though. what happened to all the jobs? i've put in applications at every hospital in town this past week and realized there are little pca positions. they all say, 'must have experience in hospital setting.' i'd like to get in to get the experience. you know what i mean. any advice for getting in to talk to a hiring manager would be greatly appreciated. my mom is a pediatric lvn working in home health. unfortunately she lives and works in baytown, 50 miles from me and has never worked in a hospital in texas. my sister is a don in washington for over 30 years, but that doesn't help me here. are you an lvn? where did you go to school? how do you manage? how do you work full time and go to school with the kids? i don't have any help (grandma, aunt, sister). my husbands work is slowing down so we are barely making it. it's putting a strain on the little ones when they have to go with him on jobs. at this point, i wish i had a relative in the hospital. sorry, here i am spilling my guts. it's frustrating... what would help is if i can get some concrete advice for my situation. what do you think? tricia