There is an excellent article today on Scrubs Magazine Weekly Best. It’s a frank discussion with HR about why they didn’t hire nurses and provides a great checklist of the top reasons for not hiring candidates.
Anyone looking for that new or next job should take a long hard look. Just a few years back nurses were writing their own ticket to almost any job they wanted because employers were desperate to hire nurses and sometimes just a warm body would do. Today the scene has changed radically and employers can be and are being very choosy.
Year after year nurses have been voted by the Gallup Poll to be the most trusted honest and ethical professionals. And nurses are being held to a very high bar. Nurses have much more responsibility now for patient’s health care and need to come to job prepared to provide the best care possible. If you can’t show up to an interview with all of your paperwork in hand, you probably won’t get the highest points for being hired. If you come dressed for exercising or lounging on your day off, you’re not going to make your best impression. And if you have been careless with your own life in the past, you’re going to be very hard pressed to prove that you can value the lives of others.
These are hard cold facts and not always easy to swallow, but nursing is serious business. It can be great fun and very rewarding, but it’s long hours and hard work.
One great point they made in this article is that it costs $40,000 to train a new grad nurse. It is also quite expensive to hire experienced nurses, and if they don’t work out, the financial losses can be overwhelming. If you really want that job, make them know you are the best fit and you’ll do your part to make it work out.
