St Thomas New Grad Program

aoliver13 · May 29, 2015

I interview for this program next week. What was interview like? Pay? What shifts were they offering? Did you take the position?

NurseVerde · Jun 4, 2015

I was hired by the residency in 2014. Needless to say, it was awful. They tried to be organized. But the truth is they do not have enough preceptors WHO ARE TRAINED at this point. In fact, none of their preceptors receive formal training and none of mine were overly concerned with teaching me nearly enough. Often times, the preceptor would try to be the helpful floater nurse for the floor while you took care of her patients. Sure, the preceptors checked your charting - but that's not teaching. I think some didn't want to overly hover, but stillâ€¦new grads need as much help as they can get in the beginning.

The residency itself I believe began in 2008 so they're still working through the kinks to this day. A lot of their preceptors when I rotated through were on night shift, which seemed OK at the time - this meant training on nights in the residency, plus they said 99.9% of the jobs to be offered at the end of the 12 week training would be nights anyway. But then I was hired for days. And days was a whole new ballgame I knew nothing about. Even the floor manager, who hired me, did not do her due diligence regarding my residency training - she did not know my training was purely on night shift. The impression it left was that they literally only needed a warm body. I was hired onto a floor that had high turnover (poor floor culture and less desirable patient population for a med-surg specialty) and thus had a greater need for dayshift people. I will admit to making some mistakes on the job, but I wasn't alone in culpability - one of them was due to their EMAR. I do not wish to discuss any details and I did not harm any of my patients, but new grads need support and that's what a residency is for. The twelve week residency was supposed to include three week rotations on three separate floors based on which track you applied for. My third rotation was shortened to one week; they implied that we would re-interview for our jobs based on our floor preferences post rotating. Nope - they just said "you've been hired here on this shift." I thought when I showed up for my first day on day shift that it was a mistake, seeing that they basically intimidate with great attitude you when you first interview with the residency by saying "You can either continue with this interview process or not, but 99.9% of the jobs available at the end of the residency will be on night shift. So if that isn't for you, then there's the door. There are hundreds of others who would love to be in your spot right now." What's more is that once we were on the floor for maybe 3 months in our jobs, they told us "so the next residency we just interviewed - you get to be their preceptors!" REALLY? I don't think anyone with less than 6 months of experience or more should be precepting a new grad. On top of that, less than one month into the job, they fired the floor secretaries and every shift was bare bones with techs and nurses. Day shift nurses were expected to take 5 patients, night shift 6.

All I can say is get a good feel for the floors if you go through this process. I genuinely wanted to be on the floor I was hired on, but on the night shift. Usually the night crews are a little bit more relaxed and jovial with a greater element of teamwork than during the day. Day shift is every nurse for themselves, at least from my experience.

I have since left that position and don't plan on going back to the hospital setting ever again. It was THAT BAD. I won't risk my license over their unsafe work environment.

Sorry this post basically bashes the residency, but my experience was flat out awful. I'm grateful though in the end for getting enough experience to be hired elsewhere in an outpatient setting.

Best of luck with getting hired :) - follow your heart and your bliss!

Cadeli03 · May 20, 2016

Hi does anyone have any insight on the interview for the nurse residency program??

Cadeli03 · May 20, 2016

How was the interview? Did you go through the program? If yes I have lots of questions!!

NurseVerde · Jun 2, 2016

Sorry for the late reply. My interview process was very simple. They herded you into groups and then called in maybe 4 people at a time and you would sit down one on one with an interviewer (I never saw the lady who interviewed me again) and she asked maybe 3-5 questions depending on the time allotted. It was very quick (less than 10 min) and to me, a bit unprofessional. Run of the mill questions that you would prepare for with any interview - the questions escape me now. If you have a strong resume, aka any hospital experience while in nursing school or a second language, you will be a shoe-in most likely especially if you impress the person you speak to.

Yes, I went through the program but left after 6 months.

NurseVerde · Jul 31, 2016

Just found an old email I sent to a friend after interviewing for St. Thomas West in 2014. At the time, we were the largest cohort of applicants they were accepting, they took about 90 people for various floors.

It was super fast, like 10 minutes and no room for me to ask questions at the end - I literally talked about my healthcare job and then she asked 3 questions: 1) tell me about a difficult person you had to deal with in the hospital and how you handled it 2) tell me about a situation where you made a mistake /what did you do to fix it 3) where do you see yourself in 5 yrs - that's it!

Good luck to anyone applying!

Cadeli03 · Jul 31, 2016

That's pretty much what they asked me too! I'm in the program now. Trying to figure out how to organize myself and hoping everything clicks sooner than later

RN_to_NP07, BSN · Jan 2, 2017

Hi. I am looking to apply to the program for Oct. 2017 start date. Can anyone provide any advice on the interview process and how the residency program is? Thank you so much!

stell917 · Jan 6, 2017

rn_to_be07, my honest advice: Stay away from this residency. I just went through it, and it is a bunch of empty promises. They don't have enough staff to have an effective residency. Each liason has way too many people to deal with to be properly supportive and preceptors are hit or miss (mine were fine). The only upside is that you get to rotate through 3 different floors and get a feel for a few different parts of the hospital. Despite vows to place you where you "fit best", however, nurse residents are warm bodies who fill very short-staffed units. A lot of people in the program at Midtown were asked to go to West, a large number of us were not placed where we felt we fit best, and some were even permanently placed where they had never been rotated. I ended up stuck in the last place I wanted to be with no hope for advancing my career where I am. I've been told a lot of people take sign on bonuses from elsewhere and buy out their 2-year contract. It's probably worth it. The fact that they make you sign that contract is a sign that something is wrong.

As far as the interview, it's the easiest one you'll have. I don't know how in the world they decide if they want to hire you through a five-minute question and answer but they do. Just practice behavioral questions and they'll ask the stereotypical ones. You'll be offered (or rejected) on the spot. Be warned: They will pressure you to sign that contract right then and there. The good news is they shred it if you back out before the start of the residency. They gave people grief for wanting to think for a couple days before signing as well. If you go through with the hiring process, they'll get a lot of the HR and Employee Health stuff out of the way that day, so it makes for a really long day but saves time later on. Then you'll deal with the technical forms and offer a few weeks later.

Some people are very happy, but I've also met some disgruntled people too. There are better residency programs that are more effectively managed and run. This one just isn't.

Fickel77 · Jan 13, 2017

stell917, thank you for your insight on this program! Are you required to sign the contract before the start date? I know they offer or reject on the spot, but are you able to accept the offer without signing the contract?

RN_to_NP07, BSN · Jan 13, 2017

Thank you so much stell917 for the feedback. Are you from out of state? Did you have any work experience as a nurse aide throughout school? I appreciate all the info you provided. I hope things get better for you!