Trying for PCA job.. any suggestions?

[LBale11]

I had my CNA license from May 2009-11, but I never had any work experience with it because I accepted a job with better pay. Now, three years later, I despise this job. I'm looking to land a PCA job or Unit Secretary at one of the local hospitals. I don't have any medical experience other than my clinicals in 2009. (I have taken college courses such as med term and biology)

I haven't had any interviews yet, but I want to make sure that if I get one, I at least have a chance to get the job. Any suggestions/tips/advice is appreciated. (In the job description is says that hospital experience and CNA are desired but NOT required, if that helps.)

[FirefighterDoug]

Apply and apply often,know the department and facility your interested in. Your education will help but it all comes down to the interview,are you ready to set yourself apart from the pack. Remember its somewhere around 200 applicants for each position at least in the ER.

[northernguy]

I would say get a job in LTC to gain experience and build a resume, then try to get hired at a hospital. All the full time techs where I work started out in LTC. There are some float pool and part timers who never worked in LTC and it shows, they struggle sometimes when it gets busy or they have really hard patients. I recently had to show a tech how to use a hoyer lift to transfer a patient, even though they worked in a hospital way longer than me. Not many patients on a med/surg unit are gonna be 20 year olds with appendicitis who can do everything themselves. Most are gonna be geriatrics and sometimes the floor looks like a glorified nursing home.