Surgi center skills HELP!

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Hello! I had a question I need help with, trying to find a new job and having a hard time getting interviews. I have been a nurse for 10 years, worked at a same day ambulatory surgical center with one specialty for three and a half years. I've applied to many surgical centers and ORs to try to expand on this experience but have not received any call backs. I received one interview which I thought went very well but after telling me they had "stuff to work out on their end" I never heard from them again.

I recently heard that my experience counts as neither OR nor surgicenter experience and I was wondering: what else should I try? Any ideas? I'm running out of places to apply for in my area and just need some advice. Thanks in advance!

-NN

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I assume whatever the specialty your ambulatory surgical center did may be limiting your qualifications for the jobs you are applying for? Just curious what was the specialty?

It sounds like you have exhausted your options? I don't have any great ideas.

Have you offered, applied to work part time just to get your foot in the door?

Where I worked we often ran late, sometimes staff was there, on overtime, till 9 or 10 PM, would you offer to cover these late shifts? We even had patients scheduled for overnight stays 4 to 8 times a month, would you offer to cover this? But honestly for these late shifts and overnights they wouldn't want a nurse with "limited" acute care skills when there is little support staff around.

You may need to spread your search outside your geographical area or start looking into med/surg or skilled nursing facilities?

Maybe find a job counselor who could help you with interviewing skills or resume skills, or give you more ideas of where to apply?

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I work at an OBGYN facility and supposedly that limits my experience because there's no sterile techniques or scrubbing or procedures.

I worked for 3 years in an LTAC and I'm ACLS certified.

My only hit right now is contract work but I'm hesitant because I'm not sure how eager places are going to be to grab me since I'll need some training wherever I go.

I actually had an interview today about an hour south of where I live. I think it went well but I can't be sure. I really didn't want to go back to med surg (I hated it) and my old LTACH job didn't want to hire me back for some reason...

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Good luck, sorry I wasn't much help.

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Update: so I had an interview at an endoscopy center last week. I thought it went very well! The DON was very nice and seemed eager to work with me. She even gave me a rate and it was better than what I asked for!

And then when I asked when I should get my labs done, she told me she was interviewing other people for the position still.

Back to square one.

I don't understand. This is the second time this scenario has happened. Do places mislead like this on purpose?

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