What ?'s to ask a future employer....

RacheloneRN · Jan 12, 2008

Ask what the retention rate is and what is the reason that most employees give for leaving. That's a pretty good thing to know, it helped me make my decision between 2 facilities.

Good luck in your job hunt, I hope you are able to find what you're looking for. I had some other good questions, I'll post them when I think of them.

OR male nurse · Jan 12, 2008

Graduation is in May and the search is on for employment. I'm trying for the OR and I have read a bunch of threads regarding possible questions the EMPLOYER may ask but how about suggestions regarding questions to ask the employer? When is it OK to bring up $? Not to mention what is the current starting salery for a new RN in the OR around the country? I'm looking for suggestions and I know of NO better place to ask. Thank for all your help!! :redpinkhe

If you are looking to work in the OR, make sure you ask about the call schedule and how they rotate/share the holiday call. Also ask about "stay late" teams or who gets the choice job of staying after hours. Do they rotate this, or is it just the unlucky person assigned to that 6 hour bowel resection starting at noon. Ask about call pay premium and called in pay as to how is it payed. Ask about how they pay overtime because you'll be working a lot of it. Do they pay after 8 hours/day 40 hours/week or do they really rip you off and pay only after 80 hours/pay period. Ask about uniform policies, lunch and or/coffee breaks. Ask about their profit sharing and or/ 401K or 403B plans. Ask if they have a "match" for their 401K or 403B. Ask about health insurance and how much you'll have to pay out. Ask if you don't take their health insurance will you get anything for it. Ask if they have a 24 hour health facility/gym where you can work out your stress after a hard day at work. Ask about premiums for working on a holiday. It's probably not the best thing to ask about how much $ they pay/hour. If you are looking to work in a certain geographical area, most hospitals are in about same dollar area for starting RN pay. When I graduated nursing school, I asked all my friends what they were making, we all worked at different local hospitals within an hour of each other. We were all making within a dollar of each other. You can't just look at how much per hour they pay, unless it's like several dollars. It's the little perks and side benefits that I'm finding make the difference if you're looking at staying around where you live.

Some hospitals have very nice benefits and some give you next to nothing.

Hope this helps.

oldcop · Jan 12, 2008

Wow...now THAT is the answer I was looking for!! Thank you for taking the time to answer so completly! There are things in there I wouldn't have even thought of asking. Now I know I'll be prepared for the interview.