Staff Development Coordinator

Published

Hello,

I just had an interview to be a Staff Development Coordinator at a nursing home, however; I have only been a nurse for about 8 months and do not have much experience. Is there anyone else who has gotten a role such as this one with very little experience?

Thank you!

Awesome! Thank you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My family does not see my face. They live across the country. I wish they saw my face though...it would be very nice. I appreciate constructive feedback and there is a lot to think about if I am asked back for a second interview. We will see what happens first though!

Fair enough but they hear your voice and inflection makes all the difference. Please heed the post above mine. We hear these kind of things all. the. time.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Don't confuse your getting an interview or even getting hired with actually being qualified for the job. They aren't indicators for that and you're not qualified.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I just had an interview to be a Staff Development Coordinator at a nursing home, however; I have only been a nurse for about 8 months and do not have much experience. Is there anyone else who has gotten a role such as this one with very little experience?

I wrote about staff development coordinators several years ago. Click on the link below if you have a few minutes to burn.

https://allnurses.com/nursing-educators-faculty/nursing-professional-development-910548.html

Several years ago my best friend was hired as a staff development coordinator at a nursing home without any prior experience in staff development. She was a brand new RN on the date of hire; however, she had four years of LPN/LVN floor nursing experience in LTC.

In the neck of the woods where I reside, it is common for certain corporate nursing home chains to use inexperienced 'warm bodies' to fill the staff development role.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks! I will give that a read! Thanks for your help

Up Vote Up Vote ×
In the neck of the woods where I reside, it is common for certain corporate nursing home chains to use inexperienced 'warm bodies' to fill the staff development role.

And then abuse the heck out of them! No thanks...I'm rather fond of my license.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

As an RN, I had a staff development coordinator (outpatient practice) who had no experience in healthcare whatsoever. She was actually a family member of the lead physician, which is surely how she got the job. She was not very well-liked by the nurses. Part of that was because she was very unreliable (schedules would always come out late, her hours were all over the place, etc.). However, her lack of experience, and strong sense of entitlement that she exuded, also contributed. I don't say this to persuade you not to take the job (if you get it) and I realize this situation is not the exactly same as yours. However, just be aware that you will need to be very humble to those nurses with more experience than you. You will also need to grow some very thick skin.

I'm a new NP who also happens to be very young looking (not in the desirable way... more like I have a baby face and never really went through puberty). I've seriously been asked by people who don't know me where I go to college, or even where I'm thinking about going to college... yikes. Anyway, I'm used to having my knowledge and authority questioned. I just respond very humbly and politely, and eventually I gain their respect over time. I am just waiting for the day when I'll finally look old enough that patients will stop asking me, "are you even old enough to be a nurse?"... the looks on their faces when I tell them that "yes I am old enough to be a nurse. I am actually a nurse practitioner and I will be doing your physical today." :roflmao:

I give you these two examples to illustrate that delegating to people with more experience than you (or even to people who are just older than you) is not easy. If you take this job, you will have to work extra hard to earn the respect of your staff. And even if you are very kind to them and do an excellent job, they still might not like you. Will you be able to withstand this?

Finally, if I were you, my biggest concern would be that this is a SNF. It is already a risk that you are taking this job with so little experience. It is even more of a gamble that it is in a SNF. Because they typically have very high turn-over rates, you may end up with a lot of work on your plate and very little support. I've known a lot of new RN and NP grads who've taken their first jobs in SNFs thinking, "hey if it's terrible I'll just stick it out for 1 year and then find something better"... only to leave 3 months later. They had very little training and no support. Sometimes you have to settle on a job you don't want to gain more experience, but you have to draw a line for yourself somewhere. For me, I would be very cautious about taking a management job with so little clinical experience in a SNF.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Wow - that escalated rapidly.

I'd advise OP to first, review the scope of the job & compare it to her qualifications & skill set. If it's primarily focused on administrative tasks rather than on activities that require clinical and educational knowledge, it's probably a good fit. Staff development is one of those "iceberg" jobs -- it looks relatively simple unless you know what is required to keep the top part afloat.

Staff development is actually crucial to the liability/risk of any health care organization. We're usually responsible for the mechanisms that validate and maintain clinical competence. So our work is fundamental to ensuring patient safety and the quality of care. - IMO, these records are ALWAYS in the first batch of subpoena/e-discovery requests by plaintiff's attorneys. Careless actions (not aligning training with current EBD, failure to follow FLSA standards for home-grown tests and assessments, etc.) can also trigger EEO & FLSA lawsuits against the employer & the educator. If OP has no experience in these areas, she'll need an experienced mentor to help her avoid all of the minefields.

There's nothing wrong with acting quickly to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. As professionals, we're continually engaging in self-development to address our own skill/knowledge gaps. Accepting a 'stretch' job can be very invigorating.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The best thing is to make sure you take a refresher CE course. You need to be able to run the department in compliance with State and Federal Regulations.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you so very much for your feedback! This really really helped me a lot!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you very much! I appreciate your objective feedback very much! I am going to look in to all of these things

Up Vote Up Vote ×
There's nothing wrong with acting quickly to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. As professionals, we're continually engaging in self-development to address our own skill/knowledge gaps. Accepting a 'stretch' job can be very invigorating.

Yes but there's "stretching" and then there's biting off more than you can chew and choking to death.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion