Who to address in the cover letter.

[Kitty Hawk, ADN, RN]

I am applying for an outpatient facility connected to one of the mega system's community hospitals. To confuse matters more, in the job description, the 3 letters that tell you the hospital's identity are different than the actual location.

This could be because that main hospital (the i.d. letters) are the ones that actually run things, in that case it's going to be a different HR group than the actual location's HR group.

I know from experience it wouldn't necessarily give me an advantage to try to figure out who the actual hiring manager is at the outpatient, I did this once for an unrelated specialty and nothing came of it, which could have been a blessing in disguise as it wasn't a good fit. This position I do have experience, so I don't want to screw things up!

Generic advice on the net says "dear hiring manager" is okay, but in our field should it be "Dear Nurse Recruiter" or "Nurse Manager" even if it's going to HR?

Also with bypassing the HR system this particular hospital frowns on that big time, there are rules and they expect you to be able to follow them. Thanks

[elkpark]

When I don't know who I'm writing to, I use "Greetings:"

Generic, but, IMO, sounds a little friendlier and less stuffy than "To whom it may concern" or "Dear Sir or Madam" (another classic). I didn't dream it up myself; I ran across it years ago in a how-to article on professional correspondence.