As I receive rejection after rejection for nursing jobs, I feel the need to apologize to nurse recruiters/managers who overlook my BSN because I lack patient care tech experience.
I am sorry I could not afford to take a job as a tech making 7 an hour. You see while attending school part-time, I needed to maintain a home, equipped with mortgage payments, children and all the other responsibilities of wife and mother.
I m sorry you cant see that I carried a gpa over 3.0 even with the all the responsibilities I have.
I'm sorry that you cant see that for past 2 ½ years of nursing school, I stayed up late each night studying or preparing care plans while working 40 hours a week.
I'm sorry that you can't see how I worked tirelessly in every aspect of my life to obtain a second degree.
I'm sorry that you can't see that despite a lack of patient care experience I am mature, driven, focused, ambitious and hard working.
I'm sorry that you can't see that I passed by NCLEX exam with 75 questions in under one hour. Not because of exceptional knowledge, because I studied tirelessly!
I'm sorry that you can't see how I was complimented time and time again by not only my clinical instructors but more importantly the patients who I cared for. I wish you could hear the amount of times a patient or the family said "you are going to be great nurse."
I'm really sorry you can't see past this lack of experience and have formed a judgment against me before knowing me.
I think it should go a step further and mandate that one must WORK as a CNA. A college in a neighboring county requires 2 years of full time CNA experience to be a radiology tech.
Totally disagree with the CNA experiance mandate. And what in the world does CNA experience have to do with rad technology!?
I worked as a CNA all the way through nursing school and for years before. If I am up against some of my classmates who have no experience, I absolutely think I should be hired first. QUOTE]
There are plenty of CNA's in my class and most of them are waaaay behind me, with no "human" care experiance. Most of them have bad attitudes, think they know way more than they actually do and most of what they know are bad habits they have picked up from working in bad LTC facilities.
Sorry you're having trouble. I was in a similar situation, and then one day I woke up and thought to myself, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity!" I knew I had to change something.
I've been working part time for a non-medical home health company since shortly after I graduated. I was barely scraping by. I wanted to get ACLS and PALS, etc. to spruce up my resume, but I could not afford it (cost about $250 ea in my area). So I took a good, hard look at my resume. I couldn't afford to have it redone professionally, so I started researching and using every free tip I could find on the Internet. I got some really good, free, and easy ideas to change it up. And I did it all myself, which boosted my confidence a lot. I thought my resume was good before, but now I see how it is so much better. There are lots of companies that want to sell you a "resume package" that costs hundreds of dollars, but I suggest ignoring those and just finding the free tips that work for you. I Googled 'sample nurse resumes' and found a "before and after" example that really helped me. And if you're a little older like me, think back in your memory and come up with some volunteer work you might have done in the past, and try to word it so it sounds relevant somehow. I have that as the last little section of my resume. Then I added a catchy opening personal statement summing myself up.
The other thing I did was change my approach a bit. Endlessly applying online was getting me nowhere. I got only ONE interview that way in EIGHT months! I still search for jobs online, but when I find one that looks interesting, I research to find the nurse manager's name and email (this can be tricky), and I send him/her a personal email. I call it my "Introduction Letter." I have heard others on this site used the same method with much success. In my email (which is 3 short paragraphs) I say who I am, my degree, and why I felt compelled to contact them (because I know my skill set, experience, and education would greatly benefit your company...etc.) The third paragraph starts with one sentence about the mission of the organization, and how honored I would be to to have a chance to show them how I could contribute to their mission/benefit them, etc.
In the 2nd paragraph I briefly discuss my preceptorship and list a few specific skills. I think we appear more focused as new grads if we kind of play up the area we precepted in - even if it is not the area you really want to work in. I precepted in med/surg, so I tailored my resume and introduction letter to make me appear really med/surg strong. And if the jobs I'm applying for are not in med/surg, then I explain how that experience gave me a good foundation on which to build my nursing career, and how the skills translate to any area of nursing... etc, etc. After I send my email to the manager, I usually go back and apply for the position.
Well, I had an interview yesterday and it went really well. And they really wanted to know more about my hotel experience! In the computer age, customer service is going to be more and more important to hospitals (that's a topic for another post). But just remember, like another poster mentioned, to highlight ANY customer service experience you have, and you can point out why that is important in nursing.
I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best. Keep your head up! After all, you're a and we are awesome, employed or not.
Well I'll just be blunt...some of the CNA's I saw while on the floors in nursing school were laziest most irresponsible people ever. I certainly hope that is not the top criteria for hiring new nurse graduates because one can obviously work as a CNA and continue to hold down the job and not be worth a plug nickel. So JUST the fact that one has "experience" is not the whole picture.
I could not even get an interview with a hospital when I graduated. 4.0 all through nursing school, passed NCLEX in 75 questions in less than an hour, glowing recommendations from everyone I worked with along the way. Experience in wiping butts, changing sheets and bringing ice water is nice and all, but a little more advanced knowledge is desirable (mandatory, actually) in an RN. A person does not achieve good grades without gaining the knowledge, so yes...of course doing well in school should count for something. The ability to manage a home life, marriage, children, finances, and earn an income, all while blowing nursing school out of the water, shows remarkable abilities, perseverance, responsibility, work ethic, organizational ability, multi-tasking ability, etc. HOW are those things possibly NOT seen as valuable in a nurse??? Seriously??
Once I said to hell with nurse recruiters and hospitals, I got a good job, the one I wanted actually, in home health. I have no intention of ever working in a hospital now. I've never had to work nights or weekends, and I'm making about $10,000/year more than my fellow new nurses. Don't let nurse recruiters stand in your way of getting a GOOD job that you have worked hard to qualify for!!!
I am in this same situation now, the feeling is similiar to trying to get that first credit card-you need credit to get a credit card:you need experience to get that job! It is so frustrating, I have applied to an endless amount of positions and made several follow-up phone calls....and nothing! What is a new nurse supposed to do?!?!
the way you get your first real credit card is by starting small-- you pick up the apps they have at all the gas stations and get gas cards. you use them, and you pay them off monthly, in full. after awhile, you develop good habits and a credit history, so when you apply for a monster card or a vavoom or an ambien experience they give it to you with a small limit and a high interest rate. you use it, and pay it off faithfully, in full, every month. after awhile, it's easy to get more credit, because you have proved yourself creditworthy.
All these things do not matter in the real nursing world. These things count in the nursing school and if you go on for your Master's. Sorry, you lack patient care experience. Go get some then reapply if you want to. I would just go somewhere else. All that matters to this job is patient experience. Maybe there will be other jobs, other places. You never know. If the job said experience nurse they mean patient experience, not what you did in school.
It is sad, it is tragic. But the honors and hard work you put into getting a nursing degree doesn't matter. Eventually, you will find a job. I wish you all of the luck in the world. I probably get blasted for this post, that I didn't say I'm sorry you didn't get the job and hugs. The one thing that I am sorry about is that your instructors didn't condition you for the rejection you will get when you go for a job. Nursing schools are making a mint off of people that think there is a great nursing shortage. There isn't. There is a shortage of experience nurses but not of graduate nurses.
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ASU-BSN. . . 2009 graduate
NCLEX. . . 125 questions, April 2010
First nursing job. . . SHMC. . August 2010
Applications from graduation to first hire. . . ~250
between entering nursing school (80 students leaving, 80 students starting) the nursing world was turned on it's head. Those leaving ASU in 2007 had between 2-4 job offers by the end of their clinicals (as reported by the students, not statistics). The housing crash, Wall Street theft, and governmental health care scare tactics have created a much tougher nursing market (shortage?) than ever. There are nursing schools (trade techs) still taking the federal government for hundreds of thousands of dollars each year pumping students into the market without a chance of getting a job because (announced today) reassignments and lay off of experienced nurses.
The nursing shortage isn't getting better, it is getting worse because of mis-management of money, decreased budgets, and people staying in positions because of fear rather than loyalty. I have been in the same position I was offered over 20 months ago despite being bullied because I had to, I made a commitment to stay a year (or longer if necessary) and will move on, not because of living up to my commitment, but out of need to retain some sanity if I am going to achieve my professional goals.
Things like hard work and willingness to put your patients before just about everything else (including family) that were required to graduate from school (with a BSN, ADN, or whatever) should be taken into account in job interviews. I know plenty of "experienced" nurses I wouldn't trust my life or my families lives with, but would put a student nurse with the 5 rights still fresh in their minds over their care.
I guess I am sorry that nurse managers are more concerned about the bottom line and pleasing the suits than patient care and fostering the next generation of nurses. The same generation of nurses that will be taking care of them. . . how do they expect to get experience, and GOOD experience
Got the first job I applied for. I do not care to discuss it here, but if any of you would like to PM I can detail my background and how I did this.......
I am in this same situation now, the feeling is similiar to trying to get that first credit card-you need credit to get a credit card:you need experience to get that job! It is so frustrating, I have applied to an endless amount of positions and made several follow-up phone calls....and nothing! What is a new nurse supposed to do?!?!
I got tired of applying and calling, applying and calling, applying. . . you get the picture. In the end, I went to the unit I wanted to work for, talked to the hiring manager (unit manager) and let them see me for who I am (6'7" able to move most patients with little to no help). Talk to the one that makes decisions, not the middle man (HR) that is educated to look at words on the page before the actual person.
Good Luck with your job search. It took me ~250 applications/rejections before I got a job, applying to places while I was on vacation.
I got tired of applying and calling, applying and calling, applying. . . you get the picture. In the end, I went to the unit I wanted to work for, talked to the hiring manager (unit manager) and let them see me for who I am (6'7" able to move most patients with little to no help). Talk to the one that makes decisions, not the middle man (HR) that is educated to look at words on the page before the actual person.
Good Luck with your job search. It took me ~250 applications/rejections before I got a job, applying to places while I was on vacation.
Yes yes sooo true. The people that hired me had come to my school for a job fair, so they laid actual eyeballs on me.....I think that is crucial.
and we are awesome, employed or not.
enoRN
114 Posts
I feel ya. Keep moving. Thats life and the poeple in it.