Thinking Ahead about References

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hi, I'm finishing up my pre-reqs while also being a stay at home mom to 4 kiddos. This means that I have a gap in my resume for *traditional* employment. I've been self-employed for the last 3-4 years doing transcription work from home. I'm trying to think ahead to having references on my resume. For me, references aren't as easy as just putting down a clients' name because they almost always require strict confidence (as in, I'm not even supposed to mention their name in any way- police departments, lawyers, insurance companies etc). The other client is a large multinational transcription company, and I'm just one typist of thousands from all over the world. I'm just a number to them, the support team there doesn't even know me by name. I literally just have an ID number, and that's how they contact me. I don't even have a regional contact person who I could contact. When I need to contact someone there, I submit a support form online and someone e-mails me back.

What are some non-traditional ways I could build up some references? I'm working on my ASN and then will go directly into a ASN to BSN program, so I was thinking that I could start volunteering once I get my ASN. Do volunteer references help? Otherwise, I really only have personal references ...

Thanks in advance!

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Specializes in ICU.

I am a SAHM also and have been for 8 years so I will have a large gap on my resume. I will work that out when I get an interview, I am hoping. I have kept in touch with some of my previous employers so I am hoping that won't be an issue. Are you an employee of a company or are you self employed? If you are a transcriptionist for a company I would use them as the reference instead of the people. Or, you could talk to some of the people that you work for and just have them write some recommendation letters for you. That way they can disclose what they want and they have the choice of putting what they want into writing.

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I'm self-employed. Unfortunately I have to sign confidentiality contracts with all of my clients. They specifically say on the forms that I am not able to put their name, or their company's name out there, and that they will not provide references to their independent contractors. This is mostly due to the volume of the work that they send out to be transcribed. They have hundreds of transcriptionists and would have to have a department just for providing references if they allowed us to use them. Hope that makes sense.

Also, the nature of the business is such that I usually hop and skip around to different clients. Work flow for different industries ebbs and flows, so I might work with one client for a couple of months, and then I move on to a new client. Sometimes there are repeats, but there's never a substantial enough amount of time for me to really build relationships. They send me their files, I transcribe them, send them back, and usually don't hear back from them (unless there's something wrong, which rarely happens). Then I move on to the next client. Rinse, repeat.

I've been with the multinational company for 2 years, but like I said, I'm just a number to them. They have no clue who I am. They have something like 10,000 typists working for them from all over the world. I'm a productive nobody who hands her work in on time and gets good metrics.

Aaand this is why I'm eager to move on to employment. ;)

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

References are not always required, particularly if they are not very relevant to the job for which you are applying. Everyone in healthcare understands the concept of client confidentiality and non-disclosure. If anyone wants proof of employment, you could assemble documents validating your sources/amounts of income. But frankly, I don't think you need to worry about references. Employers who offer jobs to new grads know that they are starting off with a blank slate. OTOH, many organizations in my corner of the world require new grads to submit GPA & HESI scores. One of them doesn't accept anyone with less than a 3.5 GPA.

It will all work out.

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HouTx, thanks for your reply! Very helpful and made me a feel better. :D

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

You'll be able to get references from instructors and potentially from nurses you work with along the way. A personal reference that you've known for a long time and that's familiar with your work history can be good to have, but like HouTx said, most nursing employers aren't overly concerned with non-nursing positions unless they are somehow related (like I have prior management and healthcare experience, so I'm guessing employers will call about those, but not about my retail sales associate experience).

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