niquilaRN

Yeah, some days I feel really good and hopeful about it, other days I get really nervous and doubtful.. but thank you for the well wishes :) and will do, regarding the listening and enthusiasm!

Looking for tips/pointers/advice for the following situation I'm currently in.. So I have been speaking with a nurse educator who runs a peri-operative nursing program at an excellent teaching hospital.. we have been speaking on the phone and through email over the course of a week. She said she's interested in meeting me, and would like me to fly down (I would have to.. it's several hundred miles away from where I'm living currently) to meet her and shadow some nurses in the program. However, there isn't an opening currently available for the program. She said that the next openings should become available in the spring and fall of this year. After much thought, I decided that I'll fly down and spend the day there, and determined which day I am going to visit. To make it more worth my while, though, I asked if she could possibly introduce me to the nurse manager and someone from HR. She agreed. I figure that if I meet additional people who have a say in the hiring process - when time comes around that they do have openings again, I'll hopefully be one of their top choices! So, am I crazy for flying down to do this for a position that isn't currently open? Should I make the most of it while I'm there? What else should I do or not do, in regards to this situation?? Any feedback would be really helpful!!

Thanks for the advice! As crazy as it sounds, I did buy a plane ticket and I will be going down there.. keeping my fingers crossed that this opportunity will work out, in the sense that when a position does open up, I'll hopefully be a runner-up for it. I figure that my coming down there shows initiative and hopefully, I'll make a good impression!

I have had my eye on an OR nursing position - entry level, as a new grad since I don't have experience - at a teaching hospital that is over 600 miles away (This hospital is ranked as being one of the best in the country, and I am definitely willing to relocate, no questions asked!) I know someone from my graduating nursing class who landed a job there, and she helped put in a good word for me with the nurse educator for the OR, which is great, it's always nice to have those connections that get your foot in the door! So I have been talking and emailing back and forth with the nurse educator for a few days now. I spoke with her on the phone for about 15 minutes a couple of days ago - she just had a few questions for me that she wanted me to answer (such as, "Tell me why you're interested in OR nursing" and so on). She said my resume looks great and that I seem like a good candidate, so she wanted to arrange a sort of conference call and have me talk to a couple of people who are currently training in their 1 year long orientation. I take it that this is a good thing..! And so that conference call just happened today. It lasted for almost an hour! - I think it went well but I am disappointed because at the end of it, the nurse educator told me she had spoken to HR and they may not hire any more people into their orientation program because they just hired 4 of them recently.. she said she'll try talking to them again to see if she can get them to change their minds, or something (Apparently she has a bit of pull/ power when it comes to this sort of thing, although I'm not sure how much though). Then she told me she'd like for me to fly down if I can, to visit for the day and to meet her in person, possibly do some shadowing, etc. I'm thinking that I will take advantage of this opportunity - I'll probably fly down there in a couple of weeks and stay for a day or two. But since there isn't technically a position available for me to be hired in to, I'm not sure if I'll accomplish anything, especially since at this point it's an HR issue. I'm not sure what to make of all of this, and where to go from here????? Any tips/advice??