Saturday January 28th, 2012 |
Nursing Jobs |
Finding Nursing JobsEven though nurses are in demand and the country is currently experiencing an ongoing nursing shortage, finding nurse jobs can be a challenging adventure. However, with the right tips and suggestions, even people who have been searching for work for months can successfully land a nursing job. Nursing programs, whether online or at physical institutions, provide nursing students and professional nurses with a lot of education and options for their chosen nursing career paths. Finding nursing occupations is somewhat difficult however due to the fierce competition among nurses for jobs. Finding a nursing job has to begin while a student is still getting his or her nursing education in school. Even when in school, a person can build their resume, which is the foundation of what they will present their prospective employer during the hiring process. Depending on the online nursing programs taken by students, some schools may even offer lessons on resume-building. However many nursing students attend schools that do not teach job-finding skills such as resume-building and interviewing. Even then, nursing students can begin to build a competitive resume while still in nursing school simply by getting good grades, doing extra-credit work, excelling at clinical exams, and even building relationships with head nurses at hospital nursing units. To find a nursing job, after graduating from an LPN program or an RN program, sometimes means that a person has to accept less work than they would ideally want. For example, working as a PRN nurse (Latin for Pro Re Nata - which means “as the situation arises.”) can even mean that a person has to work shorter hours, filling their schedule with employment from several different medical facilities. While this may seem unorthodox or undesirable, there are actually advantages to this situation. For one, a PRN nurse can still work a good amount of hours each week to pay the bills, provided that he or she finds PRN work in numerous places at the same time. In addition, working at multiple facilities can position a nurse to be in the right spot when a full-time position at a facility eventually does open up. When full-time positions become available at healthcare facilities, high-performing PRN nurses are usually first offered the full-time positions. Finally, working as a PRN nurse provides a nurse with more work experience than simply working in one location for a time, which then also translates into building up a richer and fuller resume. Sometimes, a nurse has to rely on the old adage of “It’s not what you know, but who you know” to get a job in nursing, no matter how well said nurse did in his or her online LPN programs or online RN programs. Even if a nurse did well in nursing school, it still helps a lot in finding a job to have a friend introduce you to his or her boss (head nurse, nurse supervisor, etc.). In the nursing profession, jobs that are available are sometimes revealed by word-of-mouth communication instead of by official job postings or listings. If a nurse has friends or acquaintances who are nurses or who otherwise work in the medical field, he or she can stand to benefit by merely putting out some feelers and then having the friends come back with information on the prospects of any available nursing jobs. Sometimes, this low-key track can even result in obtaining a job interview at a nursing unit, clinic or hospital. The nursing profession is a small world, and thus it helps to use connections to get one’s foot in the door with regards to knowing about available nursing jobs and then getting the appropriate interviews when it counts. If a candidate has finally found a nursing job to apply for, the biggest challenge still remains: the actual nursing job interview. Getting the nursing job interview right and delivering a successful performance during said interview is a crucial element of the profession, though so many nurses tend to overlook this small-but-extremely-fundamental part of the process in getting a job in nursing. Whether one is a recent graduate from nursing school or already an experienced nurse who is looking to use career mobility to land even higher-paying jobs in nursing, it is wise not to underestimate the need to take extreme care during a nursing job interview. The performance during an interview is always the most significant factor in any job hunt. Performing well during an interview begins during pre-interview preparations, which consist of bringing along or forwarding numerous copies of records and documents like a nurse’s resume, references and grade reports. Another aspect of pre-interview preparations comes down to anticipating the kinds of questions that a prospective employer will ask a nurse. Some sample questions will relate to how one does as a team player; how one is able to deal with difficult doctors; how one treats patients and families that are being troublesome; and how one will handle stressful circumstances like being understaffed or tackling never-before-done procedures. Finally, near the conclusion of the job interview, a nurse should bring his or her own questions to ask the prospective employer. These can be about the patient-to-nurse ratio or the expectations of nurses on the job. Finding a nursing job can be a difficult task if one goes into the job search without any knowledge of how to conduct a successful search. For the nurse who knows some of the tricks of the trade, such as using connections to get job interviews and working as a PRN nurse if there is no other option, the task of hunting for a nursing job can be made much, much easier. Finding a nursing job is not only about actually landing the job. It is also about preparing an effective resume and making other sorts of preparations, such as readying oneself before the all-important job interview. With the right determination, finding a nursing job is doable. To find out more about finding a nursing job, go to these links. |
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