stren003

Whoo Hoo!!!! SO glad to see you back! You were very missed!

So, I just received email notifications that I "have not been selected for consideration" for two out of three OB positions that I applied for at other hospital systems in my area. I am literally heartbroken. I still have a few outpatient oncology applications out there that I am waiting to hear on. I have sifted through probably close to 100 jobs in women's health, outpatient specialty clinics and regular PCP clinics. So many of the positions want prior experience in that area. Case management wants experience, UR wants experience, clinics want experience, ect..... Again, how does one get experience when they work on a med/surg unit? Feeling lost and sad ? stren003

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and insight! I did go ahead and put out some applications at other hospital systems in my area. I am not stuck on only going to OB. I also applied for some outpatient oncology positions, since that is what my med/surg unit specializes in. It's just very discouraging to think I would spend my career in my organization, but find that it may not be the case. One thing that I think is sad, is during the third party, online application process, you have to answer the question "do you have at least one year experience in _______" (OB, NICU, speciality, ect). As soon as you answer "no", your application will say "not selected". I feel like without the option to reach out to other unit managers, many good nurses who want to move to a specialty, are automatically rejected by the system. As stated above, I did email the OB manager this summer, expressing interest and asking to meet, or for advice, and never got a response. I know it was seen because I used our internal email system with read receipt. I guess, I will keep my fingers crossed that someone, somewhere gives me an interview in a specialty area. I know I interview very well, as I have always been offered every position I have interviewed for in the past, I just need that chance to shine and show how valuable of an asset I am to an organization!

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Maybe in a few years, travel nursing could be an option. Trying to finish getting kids through school and other family commitments, so moving isn't an option for now. I do browse Indeed, but have been afraid to post a profile, because I don't really know how it works. I imagine you get flooded with a mass of job offers that don't meet criteria. If you have any suggestions for how to use Indeed successfully, please let me know!

It's both. The official application, selection for interviews and hiring process goes through the third party recruiters that my organization works with. Additionally, it is heavily frowned upon to try and "network" or reach out to mangers to express interest. I've known other nurses that have tried and managers talk to managers and all of a sudden, everyone knows that someone is trying to leave our unit. Don't get me wrong, my unit is actually pretty good, it's just very busy, very high acuity patients and I am burnt out from traditional bedside nursing. This summer, I applied for a novice NICU position, actually got an interview with the manager and was told in the interview that they were rescinding the job posting because they decided they wanted at least a year of NICU experience. I expressed my desire to get my foot in the door to OB in any nursing capacity (L&D, post-partum) and asked if she would recommend me to the manger of those areas. She acted put out that I would ask and told me I could reach out through email to the other manager, but that she didn't feel that was necessarily appropriate because I had not been chosen to officially interview with that manager. I did email the manager of L & D and never even got a response. It's just frustrating because I have been with this organization for so long and used networking many years ago to move to increasingly technical jobs as my career grew. I assumed (I know, bad me....) that once I did my 1-2 years of med/surg, that the "sky would be the limit" and I could move into a specialty fairly easily being an internal employee. Now, it seems managers are very "closed door", probably due to the overwhelmingly crazy things that are piled on them constantly. I have searched through the other 3 major hospital systems in my area, and honestly, many of those specialty jobs want experience as well. I am not a job hopper. I really wanted to find a specialty and hopefully be there until I retire. I guess I am just bummed that things aren't turning out like I had hoped. I'm just not sure how bedside nurses are supposed to "gain experience" when it seems no one is wanting to train them into specialties!

I am hoping to get some words of wisdom or stories of other's experiences. I'm a second career nurse (46 years old), who has been at my hospital organization in non-nursing positions for 24 years and now 2 years of Med/Surg/ Oncology/ Hospice experience as a RN-BSN. Due to wanting to move to a more specialized area of nursing such as OB, NICU or outpatient Oncology care, I have been trying to apply to some different jobs within my organization. Unfortunately, all job postings for specialty areas now require a minimum of 1 year nursing experience in that area. This is a large organization, several large hospitals/ clinics/ specialty care, ect. I am not even being selected for interviews, just not selected by HR. My resume is very good, I have had several awards throughout my time at this organization, I did nursing clinicals there, completed the new grad program there, I'm an internal applicant, ect. I am feeling so discouraged that I won't be able to stay in my organization and move away from med/surg nursing. We can't even contact unit managers anymore to introduce ourselves or express interest/ make connections. Our HR operations is off site somewhere and involves third party recruiters. Does anyone have any advice on how to break into a specialty, when med/surg experience is apparently no longer the gateway to the future? Thanks so much for reading any all responses welcomed! stren003

You mention patient ratio's. Just to let you know, I worked med/surg neuro tele and we had 4 high acuity patients on days /eves and 6 at night. Most nurses on the night shift (myself included) almost never left on time. On the other hand, I did learn valuable skills and was glad for the experience, but quickly knew that specialty wasn't my niche. Good luck with your move and remember, you will need to give it a bit of time to know if it was the right decision. Neuro nurses have lots of skills to learn, which may initially seem overwhelming. But you already have great experience under your belt!

I have 4 crazy, wound up labs and work nights. For my house, I have a routine that works well. By the time I arrive home around 8:00 am, everyone else in the family is gone for the day. My son has fed the dogs breakfast around 7:00 am and let them outside for a bit. Then when I get home, everyone goes outside one more time. We all go to the bedroom which is very dark. I turn on my white noise machine, give everyone a little pet and crawl into bed. Some come up on the bed and some prefer the floor. They go to sleep very quickly. I make sure there are no distractions like phone, ect in the room. The white noise machine keeps outside noise like traffic, people noise, mail person, ect out, so the dogs do not get distracted. It may take a few days of practice for them to get into the routine, but like others have said, they should adapt well. Start doing it a week of so before your new night shift starts, even if it is just for a few hours to begin with. I have been doing this with my dogs for over 15 years. Good luck!!!

I passed NCLEX my first try, in 75 questions last week! I tested on Tuesday morning. Saturday I did my final U World assessment, Sunday, I went through the questions I had missed on U World, and Monday morning I reviewed lab values and lifespan vital sign norms one more time. Then, no study from noon on Monday into Tuesday. My scores on U World were 73% overall and 98th percentile for passing. My advice is to do some nice relaxing things on Monday after lunch, do some positive affirmations on how smart and prepared you are, eat a good dinner and get a really good sleep. You are gonna do GREAT!!! When you sit down at the test computer, take some deep breaths, tell yourself you "got this" and begin. Read each question twice BEFORE looking at the answers and think about what the question is asking. Then make your best choice from the answers available and move on. If you don't know, do your best and move on. I know you can do this!!! Good Luck!

GRue2016, I don't know if this info helps or not, but I am the student who had to file the appeal for the transcript issue and I got my acceptance letter last week on Thursday admitting me to the Century Fall 2016 cohort. On my acceptance letter it stated I had to reply with my answer by April 29th. I am thinking all the letters that went out last week were for the appeals, and they have to wait until after tomorrow the 29th to see how many of us accept our spots. Once they know that, then they can probably send out the next round of letters for the next students on the waitlist. I don't know this for sure, but from talking with other classmates who are waiting, they have not heard anything yet either and their scores are similar to yours. Hang in there....you have a good plan and I know you are going to succeed at some point, so don't give up!!! I also second the no Rassmussen, I know one of the instructors and things aren't always well there.....don't want to say more than that.

My acceptance letter for Century came today!!!!! I had to file an appeal for transcript issue and it was approved! My composite score was either 11.87 or 12.0 depending on how they took a transfer class. I will be accepting my position for Fall 2016. Fingers crossed for those of you still waiting! Good Luck!!! This means that I will be declining my spot at Metro State if anyone is keeping track for there. My composite score for Metro was 12.0

My acceptance letter for Century came today!!!!! I had to file an appeal for transcript issue and it was approved! My composite score was either 11.87 or 12.0 depending on how they took a transfer class. I will be accepting my position for Fall 2016. Fingers crossed for those of you still waiting! Good Luck!!!!

It's not my score that was the issue......I had an error on my transcript that we didn't catch, so they had to deny my entry to the program. I had to do the appeal thing, so I guess I am on the appeal waitlist. I figured there was only 1 waitlist, but maybe I am in a different grouping due to appeal.

I have not heard anything from Century yet either The admissions person told me mid April as well, so I am thinking sometime next week. My score is an 11.8 or 12.0, depending on how they take a transfer class, and I was wait listed due to a transcript error, so I had to appeal my original denial to the program. I am so stressed out waiting to know! I did get accepted to Metro for Fall program, but Century is my first choice.

I got my acceptance letter from Metro today. Composite score was 12.