Unable to land a job X 3 yrs....please give me advice

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

Dear Nurse Beth,

Since becoming an RN, I have been unable to get a job. My final week of clinical before graduating, a patient complained and I failed the clinical that day. Therefor the school failed me for the semester. I would like to know as a student nurse, could I have been placed on a "do not hire" list? I graduated 3 years ago and have continually been turned down. I know you said to ask HR but I assume they are in no way obligated to tell you in order to protect themselves against discrimination.

At this time, I have no experience in order to get hired by anyone, no even as a shot nurse. Do they need me to take a refresher course? I would really appreciate being giving an opportunity or to know if my efforts are futile. Please give me some guidance here. I would appreciate any advice you can offer. By the way, I have already bought your book and maybe there is something I am missing here.

Dear Unable to Get a Job,

In answer to your question, you were not placed on some universal "Do Not Hire List" by your college. Even if an instructor verbally told a colleague at a hospital, for example, that she did not personally recommend you, it does not account for 3 years of being turned down for every position.

Thank you for buying my book "Your-Last-Nursing-Class-how to land your first nursing job...and your next!" It is targeted specifically to nurses and is full of insider tips only known to someone like myself, who has worked as a hiring manager in acute care. It covers everything from resumes and interviews to how to successfully cold call a nurse manager.

But I think you have a different problem.

Something else is at play here. You say you were failed for an entire semester because of a patient complaint. I have a hunch this is significant, but not in the way you suspect. Is it possible you do not fully know how you come across to others? If so, it could account for failing interviews time and again. Ask someone you trust to be candid and tell you how you come across. It's important to be be seen as open, teachable and safe.

When you say 3 years, do you mean 3 years of full-on applying for a job, no holds barred? Have you applied everywhere? It would be highly unusual to apply to dialysis centers, skilled nursing facilities, corrections for 3 years...and not land anything.

To help narrow down the problem- if you are not landing interviews at all, the culprit is your resume. If you are landing interviews but not the job, the culprit is interviewing skills.

The most important thing here is to correctly diagnose the underlying problem.

Nurse Beth

Start your job search today!

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

If you are in Texas it is very possible you were "black listed" on Group One. Group One is a company that keeps records from medical facilities and schools of learning in order to provide information intended to keep "bad practitioners" out of the local market. It falls under the credit reporting act and, as such, there isn't much people can do to clean their reputation up after they have landed on that list. If you are in Texas, I strongly suggest you look to see if you are "Group One'd".

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

On 4/6/2020 at 10:37 AM, Nurse SMS said:

If you are in Texas it is very possible you were "black listed" on Group One. Group One is a company that keeps records from medical facilities and schools of learning in order to provide information intended to keep "bad practitioners" out of the local market. It falls under the credit reporting act and, as such, there isn't much people can do to clean their reputation up after they have landed on that list. If you are in Texas, I strongly suggest you look to see if you are "Group One'd".

WOW!, I'm not in TX, but this is awful. Reputations can be very subjective. Realistically, though, unofficial networks in nursing exist like this as well. If you tick off the wrong person in the small world of nursing, it can haunt you for long periods of time, and be hard to overcome