catlovingRN

Thanks for your responses! For whatever reason the second interview never got scheduled, but this morning (almost 2 months later) I got offered the job!!!!! Looking forward to stepping away from medsurg and into the very different world of L&D! [emoji4]

Hi everyone! So after being an Ortho/Stroke nurse for a year I finally got an interview for a full-time L&D position! I interviewed with the nurse manager last Thursday and it went really well. She emailed me last night saying the next step would be an interview with the nurse educator and a staff nurse- do you think this is supposed to be like a peer interview? I've interviewed with staff nurses before, but not with an educator. Any advice for specific questions I should ask or how to go about preparing for this? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for all the responses!! I am still waiting to hear about the MB position and just emailed HR today to follow up! I'm still on my parents insurance for about the next 2 plus years so I will compare the two and take that into consideration. If i get the offer for Mother Baby I think I definitely will have to go for it. Like nyy2 said this is definitely a difficult specialty to work your way into and I would not want to pass up the opportunity since I don't know how long it might be before I get another chance. Another thing contributing to my decision is that my current position is part-time. It wasn't an issue originally, but a lot of new people have been hired part-time as well and it has become extremely difficult to pick up shifts. I got cancelled tonight since it wasn't my scheduled shift. I will update as soon as I hear anything about a job offer! Keeping my fingers crossed!

I really appreciate your response and I will definitely look into that! I also just learned that the L&D manager at the same hospital system I am currently employed at is not someone you want to work for, so that will probably sway my opinion if I get the job offer. Also, my current position is part-time so I'm only guarenteed 24 hours a week whereas the position at the other hospital is full-time.

Hi everyone, I interviewed two days ago for a maternity position that will include orientation in mother baby, newborn nursery, and eventually antepartum and L&D. I'm going on 8 months as an ortho/stroke nurse and it is not an easy job. The patient ratio is always 6:1 and because we are a stroke unit we get a ton of confused patients and 1:1's and are understaffed a lot, unfortunately. Maternity is what I've been interested in since school and I feel very lucky to have even gotten the interview. Basically, my dilemma is that the new job (if I get an offer) is 40 minutes away, and is going to be a drop in pay - about 2 dollars less an hour. I have the potential to transfer at my current hospital, but I've already spoken to HR and they said I need the full year of experience, which I understand, and would probably need 6 months in mother baby before going to L&D, which is what I'm really interested in. First of all there is the possibility I don't get this job and then I wouldn't have any decisions to worry about right now, but If I do get an offer I feel like how can I pass up an opportunity to work in a field I'm truly interested in just because it's a little farther with a little less pay (I don't have a family to support, just your standard 23 year old living expenses). On the other end, it's scary as hell to leave a job I'm already comfortable with that has coworkers I really enjoy as well- especially if I could eventually transfer within my hospital system. However, there is no guarantee I'll get a job in maternity at my one year mark at my current job. This interview basically fell into my lap (friend of a friend got my resume) so I feel like I would be silly to pass up such an opportunity. I guess I'll cross this bridge if I get an actual offer, but I just needed somewhere to vent with the hope that someone might have a bit of advice or has been in a similar situation. Thanks for reading!! :) (P.S. sorry for any errors or weird sounding sentences- I have to leave for work so no time to proof read!)

I guess I should update this. The internship ended up falling through and after many many more applications and about a 4 month interviewing process I got a job on an ortho/stroke floor in south Jersey. I start tomorrow! :)

So this has been quite a long process, but if anyone is interested in hearing how things went: I just got an email from the first hospital offering me the ortho/stroke position!!!!!!!!! I am super excited about this! The NR will be calling me tomorrow morning to discuss all the details! Thanks for all the support and advice in this thread!! Can't wait to start my first real nursing job!! :cat:

I'm going to disagree with the above posters because I graduated this past May with my BSN and a minor in Spanish. Of course it was not easy, but I managed to complete my major and minor, have a part-time job and a life, all while graduating on time. In order to do this I did have to take classes during the summer and I studied abroad in Spain for a summer to help with my minor (who can complain about that?!). I also was able to go to Bolivia for a Service Learning Trip over one of my winter breaks and I completed a Summer Study Hall program at a hospital that they offered in place of an externship since my schedule was so packed. It is definitely possible as long as you can commit! Of course it depends on the person and what obligations one has, but yes, it is possible.

Well first, I would probably take your GPA off your resume. I've heard directly from someone in HR that they really don't need to see it unless you have something very impressive (aka 3.5 or preferably higher). Second, I would practice your interviewing skills with other people or video tape yourself practicing questions. Go through the forums on here (if you haven't already) and read through all the most common interview questions. A lot of times there are multiple people interviewing for one position and they could already have had someone in mind before interviewing you. You really never know what the case may be so don't blame yourself; new grad jobs are extremely competitive at the moment. You got this far for a reason and you've already finished school and passed your boards! Good luck in your future interviews!

Personally I feel like if you can't see it when it's flipped up no one should even know you have it so I can't really see any issue. I have 4 piercings in each ear and they're a pain to take out with jewelry like that so I understand where you're coming from. :)

I was in the same boat. I called my dad directly after and he's like how was it and I said I don't know and he's like aw come on you definitely passed and I said I don't know and started bawling hahaha. It definitely is the most mentally and emotionally draining test I've ever gone through and luckily I passed because I don't think I could ever do that again.

Oh yes!!! Very much so. I forgot that this thread had 0 background information about me, but L&D is what I'm most interested in. As a new grad, however, I knew it would be unlikely to get a position in this specialty right away so I put it on the back burner while applying for jobs. I've been applying to basically any and every opening (including in L&D) because I know how difficult it is to get a job. When speaking with HR I mentioned my interest in L&D, but explained that any position would be a great learning experience and foundation as a new nurse.

Updating you guys again in case you're interested! Still waiting for a call about the peer interview from the first hospital, but I also managed to snag an interview at another hospital!!! ...on a labor and delivery unit (whaaaaat?!!!!!!). I'm in shock and the interview for that position is this Monday so I'll keep you guys in the loop.

@mdmrn23 Sorry my mindset has been strictly new grad job searching lately so I just assumed! I'm sure your experience as a float nurse will be invaluable to this new position you're about to start. :) I'm interviewing for a position on a med/surg floor (ortho/stroke) and the next, and hopefully final, step is going to be a peer interview which I've never experienced before. It should be in about two weeks. I'm pretty nervous, but praying it goes well since I have yet to snag any other interviews.

Congrats!!!!! That is so exciting and, wow, what a unit to start on. I'm sure it will be a steep learning curve, but you seem to be already ahead of the game preparation wise (which is great). I'm still in the process of interviewing for my *hopefully* first job so I can't make any other suggestions in regards of what to review, but I'm sure you'll do great. Good luck!!!

And to add another personal note to that my mother is in her 50's and is on her second year as a teacher!! It's seriously never too late to pursue your dreams. :)

Good luck!!!! While I'm on the young spectrum of new nurses I can tell you there were many "older" (you guys are seriously not old but compared to the 20 year old population) people who were in the program as well so don't feel discouraged!! Just the other day my friend was telling me his 55 year old mother was always interested in nursing and I was sitting there saying, "it's never too late!!"

As far as the interviews I've had, the only person who asked a decent amount of situation questions was the nurse recruiter. She asked things like: tell me a time when you went above and beyond for a patient, give me an example of a time when a there was an issue with a patient's care and how you resolved it, a scenario when you acted as a patient advocate, etc. etc... She also asked about positive and negative feedback I've received from past clinical instructors. As far as my interviews with nurse managers the only situational question I was asked was what would I do if a physician prescribed a med I wasn't comfortable giving. Other than that I've been asked why I want to become a nurse, why I want to work at said hospital, the typical "tell me about yourself" question. There are a lot of great posts in here with other questions (especially by TheCommuter) so I would definitely check those out. Good luck on your upcoming interview!

Thanks, you guys!! So I had the interview this morning and it went really well! I already got a call from the nurse recruiter where she informed me that they were very impressed with me and she will call me within the next week or two to schedule a peer interview! P.s. any advice on peer interviews would be greatly appreciated

In case any of you are interested in my situation I'll update you! So after about a month of not hearing anything I called today and the recruiter thought she had called me and left a message (she didn't). Turns out the manager from that unit didn't want me after all.. My answers didn't have enough substance for her liking I'm not really sure. The nurse recruiter was nice enough to give me the opportunity to interview for another unit on Friday and just told me to go things over in my head and prepare myself. So let's hope this one works out better!!! Time to go back over all the interview question posts!

Hey! Considering it's now Monday I was wondering what happened with the interview! Did they ever get in contact with you or did you wing it and show up to the right place? I hope things went well for you!

I would apply to positions even if they're not directed towards new grads! Just start applying to any and every position. Then you read this lovely article: https://allnurses.com/nursing-job-search/i-got-a-532817.html and give that advice a try. That is exactly what I did and I ended up getting a call for an interview on a med/surg floor within the same week. Not only did I email nurse managers, but I emailed nurse recruiters and that's what got me in for the interview. You have to find a way to bypass all the HR computer nonsense so that an actual person sees your resume and you will have a much better chance once that happens.

Like the other posters said, it sounds like you were very well prepared and you got the interview after being told there were no job openings!! Unless something changes from hospitals hiring standpoint, it looks like you have a good chance of getting this in my opinion! Would love to hear how everything turns out. Good luck!!

Ah congrats!!!!!!!! That's so exciting!! Let me know how your orientation goes. Good luck I'm sure you'll do great!

RN.456 that's so exciting!!! Hope you get the *official* offer soon! And honestly I think it varies for every hospital depending what they have to do prior to hiring and how many other things they happen to be dealing with at the time. I'm still waiting for another call from the nurse recruiter.. I'm hoping she's busy/forgot to call and the position has been reposted so that the 10 days have started already.