I learned about this, I believe, two weeks ago that I definitely got the hospital job I applied to! I have been wanting to make some posts about this process because so many things are going through my mind. Can I handle 12 hour shifts? Will I do okay when situations come up? Can I retain all this new knowledge? Will I have a good group of people working with me?
Of course, even more questions and thoughts are in my mind but those are the ones running in my head over and over again. I just haven’t had the time to put my thoughts to paper (okay well wordpress haha). I have been working at the assisted living place each weekend and then going to school during the week. On top of that I have been going to the hospital for training in between work and school. If I find any time between all of that, I am probably with my boyfriend or family. (My dad’s girlfriend is in the process of selling her house and moving in with us so we see her more, and my brother has been over lately because he just got a new job and is transitioning due to his jobs being mainly near us which is two hours from him. My boyfriend works and goes to school so I barely see him so when we can match our schedules up, we always try to hang out.)
I applied to a bunch of CNA positions at the hospital I got hired to (and when I say a bunch I literally applied to every single opening that was not full time, so over 20) probably a month ago. I still talk to my Health science/CNA instructor and babysit for her. The other two babysitters she has works at this hospital as CNAs and told me to apply a certain way to be sure to get an interview. They told me to open every single tab up with all the different positions available and to fill each one out. After that, I pushed submit to each one as fast and at the same time as I can. I thought this was crazy! They told me it would flood the system with just yours so some directors should see it better. It freaking worked!
I got a call about two weeks later from the secretary at the Cardiac Medical unit asking about an interview time! I honestly did not expect the call within two weeks, knowing hospitals can take forever! I got an interview for the following Monday with the nurse director. I got there super early (unfortunately the commute is about 40 minutes long) and waited in my car so I did not seem too eager. I have always been told in business classes and presentations that 15-10 minutes is the right amount of time to be early at an interview. Any earlier and you seem too eager, any later and you seem like you don’t care.
I waited about 15 minutes in the nurse’s station until the nurse director came over. She was super nice! She told me how she was really new there and it would take her some time to pull papers up for the interview. She took a bit of time to get around the computer system to print papers and then asked me a bunch of questions. She seemed genuinely happy to hear that I worked in the memory care and said it must have been hard. She also gave me a bunch of advice with nursing and explained a new system (not sure if it is named the same everywhere but here its called HCAHPs). It mainly effects nurses and doctors because through the Medicare system in the United States, the government gives over quite a lot of money to hospitals through the insurance. Due to this they decided to regulate it by putting in surveys that patients fill out. These effect how much nurses and doctors may get paid because if a patient does not put they always did xyz for the patient or that the hospital rated a 9 or 10 (out of a scale or 1 to 10) then the government will not pay the full amount of money for the bill. Also if the hospital does not rate a certain percentage throughout the United States then the government fines them (I believe). Its a crazy system that I keep hearing about because now the hospital is trying to change to more of a customer service type place because they want to get paid.
Anyway, she told me that her secretary would call me about setting up another interview but that it would be a peer interview. I got called a day or two later about setting up the peer interview at 10 o clock at night. I was surprised to be interviewed by the night shift but was also delighted because to be completely honest I am not a morning person. I had to go through the emergency room and buzzed in because after like 8:30 the hospital locks up every door except the ER. It was a bit confusing to get around the hospital but I managed to get to the right unit! I waited in the nurse’s station again and later was met by maybe six different ladies. They were really relaxed and talking with each other before everyone got there. They all seemed really good with each other. They asked me about myself and just a couple questions. They told me how they would train me there for a lot of different things and how if the nurses know you are in nursing school they will show you as much as they can to prepare you. They talked about making me a monitor tech. It was short and sweet and a lady who was a CNA showed me how to get out. She talked about what it was like to work there and assured me that if I could do an 8 hour shift that I could do a 12 hour shift. She did say it is a big change but that once I got used to it, it would be nothing.
I waited almost two weeks after and heard nothing back so I called the secretary and she said I was on the definite hire list and there must’ve been a mix up with human resources. I was super delighted but had to wait a weekend before hearing from human resources. I was told probably 11am that day and filled out all kinds of paperwork that I printed off an email and faxed it over. I also gave my official two weeks notice to my supervisor over in memory care. It was awkward. This is only my second ever two weeks resignation letter. I also wrote thank you notes to the two supervisors I met when I got there and two the of employees I liked working with the most. I will miss my residents, even though it was tough at times. This past weekend was my last weekend. I told them I would come back to visit and I do plan to. I worked at a restaurant before this and said I would come back and visit but never did (there was a lot of drama going on besides just leaving though) but this time I really do plan to. These people have been in my life for 6 months. Time flies by but they will always have a place in my heart. Some have passed away while I was there. It’s tough getting to know these residents and for them to slowly lose weight and to mentally decline. I have been told that as time goes on that you need to harden up emotionally but I can’t see that happening working in memory care when I see a beautiful lady become skin and bones and forget how to eat.
Working in the hospital will show me if I want to be a nurse still or go a different route. I have a lot of training ahead of me. I hope everything works out.
Hope all is going well with everyone,
D.
P.S. I did not expect my post to go from happy news to sad thoughts when I started out. Sorry about that. 😦
tearlily 