Terrible Transcript = Terrible Nurse?

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Hello all!

I have a serious question about grades factoring into potential employment... I am in a 4 year BSN program, but am going into my 6th (and final!) year. I did not take the full course load (I only took 9-12 credits per semester instead of 15 credits), I withdrew from classes (I think I have 5 withdraws... Yikes. One of them was due to a rescheduling of a clinical placement, beyond my control). I bombed my freshman year... My idiotic 18 year old self couldn't figure out how to balance school, work, and a stressful family life, and I failed almost the entire semester, and had to retake three classes due to it. I obtained good grades after my freshman year (my freshman classes were not nursing courses, they were pre-req's), and had to retake one nursing course due to getting a C-, which has been my one lowest grade since my freshman year.

Now that I've laid out to you the horrible mess that is my transcript... How many hospitals actually look at your grades when they hire you as an RN? By the time I graduate, my GPA should be well over a 3.0 (it is a 2.9 as of right now). Do hospitals tend to only look at you RN license and GPA, or do they actually sift through your transcript for your class grades?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

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Specializes in Going to Peds!.

Well, 6 years ago, before the glut of new grads, my facility didn't even look at my transcript, ask about my gpa, etc. All they cared about was I graduated and I had a temporary license. The hiring of new grads has gotten a LOT more stringent since then.

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From what I've seen in Florida, hospitals only want to know that you graduated from an RN program. Grades don't enter into it.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

My organization uses GPA as a hiring factor for new grads. Not for experienced nurses (> 12 months of full time work).

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

My hospital also looks at transcripts for new grads -- and yes, there are consequences for the choices we make when we are young. However, they don't (or very rarely) look at them for experienced nurses. Once you have proven that you are a good nurse and good employee, they stop looking at the details of your student activities.

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What's generally a baseline hiring salary for hospitals (I know this is varies for every facility, but I'm trying to get a general idea). Do they take account the type of program, length (accelerated vs. regular track), pre nursing grades if you have another degree? Just wondering how much trouble I'm looking forward to :)

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Specializes in Med/ Surg/ Telemetry, Public Health.

It just depends on what state or area you are in and what the facilities want. In my area the hospitals only want to see that you have your nursing license they don't care what grades you have. As long as you have your license and pass a background check.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

Depending on your area cost of living, pay starts at around $20-30/hour. Then they figure in shift and weekend differential (weekend night? $$!).

Every hospital has its own hiring practices but generally they are not interested in your transcript. They want to know what school you graduated from and if you passed your NCLEX. Occasionally your GPA.

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Oops, I wrote salary when I meant GPA (that'll teach me not to type before coffee) - thanks for the response!

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