"Were you ever discharged or forced to resign" question

[Nurse_Bella]

Hello fellow nurses!

I have a dilemma that I need some assistance with...I just passed my boards last week (yay!) and got an interview for my dream unit at 1 of the top hospitals in my area (Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia).

Prior to applying to nursing school, I was looking at Physician Assistant schools and trying to get patient care experience on my own without any certification. I worked in admin positions at doctors offices with success, before landing a medical assistant position at a clinic (this was back in 2011, about 3 years ago). Long story short, I was let go after 6 months because of performance issues. I took on more than I could chew with the job - I was not qualified, did not have the proper training, and no matter how much I tried, it just was not a good fit. Right after I was let go, I decided to improve myself by learning the skills and applied to nursing school. I was accepted and began my studies, where I really learned everything and got more experience through my rotations. I now know that there is so much more to the medical field that I had no clue about prior to nursing school and that the job would have gone a lot better if I had done nursing school before. I realized that I had gone about my career the wrong way before by trying to jump into things instead of really learning them.

My dilemma now is - I was just sent a supplemental application which I have to fill out before the interview (which is next week) and they are asking if I was ever discharged or asked to resign from a job. How do I go about answering this? If asked in the interview, I can explain it honestly, but I don't know if I'm going to hurt my chances by answering "yes" on the form prior to the interview.

Have any of you faced something similar or know how to handle this? I REALLY want this job and know I am much smarter than I was before. Any words of advice you can give me are much appreciated.

Thank you so much.