Tips for Getting a Nursing Job Interview in the Age of Electronic Applications

Illustration by the author

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, is an oncology nurse navigator and writes a monthly post for this blog. The illustration is by the author.

Twenty-plus years ago I was job hunting in Portland, without a local connection in health care. Prepared with an Oregon nursing license, I applied for the only two open pediatric ICU positions in the city, found in newspaper want ads. The positions were in the same unit. Having several years of PICU experience, I was hopeful that I’d get an interview.

Two weeks went by without a phone call for an interview. Worse, I noticed that only one of the postings remained. With nothing to lose, I called the hospital’s human resources department.

“Hi, I applied for the positions of pediatric intensive care nurse at your hospital,” I said. “I see that one has been filled. I have seven years of experience, including transport of critically ill children, and PALS certification. I’m curious if there’s a reason I haven’t been offered an interview? I know if the manager meets me, she’ll love me.”

“I’ll look up your application, and get back to you,” was the response. Half an hour later, the PICU nurse manager called to set up an interview. “I’m sorry,” she explained. “Your application didn’t make it to my desk. Apparently it was misplaced by HR.”

I was hired at the interview, and […]

2016-11-21T13:02:56-05:00February 26th, 2015|career, healthcare social media, Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Strong Nurse and Patient Voices On the Blogs This Week

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

Photo by mezone, via Flickr. Photo by mezone, via Flickr.

Here’s a short Friday list of recent smart, honest, informative blog posts by nurses, as well as a couple of interesting patient perspectives on prominent types of chronic illness and the ways they are talked about by the rest of us.

At Head Nurse, in “Yes…No. I’m Having Some Thoughts About BSNs,” an ADN-prepared nurse makes some familiar and some more surprising observations about the effects of the new policy of hiring mostly BSN-prepared nurses at her facility as it tries for Magnet status. For example, one of the effects she notes is “a massive drop-off in terms of the diversity of our nursing staff.” The move toward BSNs is obviously the trend in nursing, and is supported by research, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t still two sides to the issue, or real unintended consequences to address as this change is gradually implemented.

At Hospice Diary, the blog of hospice nurse Amy Getter, there’s a post called “Hearts, Flowers, and Bucket Lists.” Reflecting on the imminent death of a patient, the author puts the popular notion of bucket lists into perspective:

“I think about some of the things I would still like […]

2016-11-21T13:02:58-05:00February 20th, 2015|career, healthcare social media, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Paired Glucose Testing With Telehealth Support to Empower Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

bloodglucosetestingType 2 diabetes is challenging for those trying to meet blood glucose target ranges, often requiring one or more daily medications, increases in exercise, changes in eating habits, and self-monitoring of glucose level. Those who are willing and able to learn about factors affecting their glucose level and to make small daily efforts in one or more areas have the potential to radically improve their sense of control over their diabetes.

This month’s Diabetes Under Control column, “Better Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management Using Paired Testing and Remote Monitoring” (free until April 1), presents a successful story of patient engagement in diabetes self-management. It describes the case of a participant in a clinical trial who, with clinician support, incorporated paired glucose testing (self-testing before and after meals) and telehealth (remote patient monitoring, or RPM).

The article is easy to follow and gives a series of biweekly updates on the patient’s progress. Before the study starts, she’s not very engaged in self-management. For example, she’s only testing her own glucose level three to four times a month. To get a sense of how much more empowered she’s come to feel by week 12 of the protocol, consider this brief excerpt: […]

2016-11-21T13:03:02-05:00February 13th, 2015|digital health, Nursing, patient engagement, Patients|4 Comments
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Enough Rants: On Fostering Meaningful Dialogue

Karen Roush PhD, RN, is an assistant professor of nursing at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, and founder of the Scholar’s Voice, which works to strengthen the voice of nursing through writing mentorship for nurses.

Angry woman, Ranting By Amancay Maahs/Flickr

“Patients are never satisfied!” “Only bedside nurses really understand nursing!” “Management always takes advantage of you!”

These are examples of the types of statements I’ve heard recently, whether talking with other nurses or reading blogs or other social media. Often presented as contributions to discussion, in reality they are rants—more interested in eliciting rote agreement than in true dialogue. This has got me thinking about how we create dialogue, especially about topics that stir an emotional response—particularly when anger is front and center. I’m a firm believer that:

  • creating dialogue is necessary and transformative
  • strong emotions are often the impetus for needed change

But we can’t allow emotions to dominate. When they do, our discussion is no longer a dialogue; it’s a rant. And rants are not productive for creating change. They eat up the energy that could otherwise be directed to positive action.

So, how do we do create dialogue about the issues that get our backs up? Here are my thoughts:

2016-11-21T13:03:05-05:00February 4th, 2015|healthcare social media, Nursing, nursing perspective|4 Comments
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Health Technology Hazards, 2015: Alarm Issues Still Lead ECRI Top 10

hazard/jasleen kaur, via Flickr hazard/jasleen kaur, via Flickr

It’s a new year, and the ECRI Institute has released its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2015 report, highlighting new health technology hazards (and some older, persistent ones) for health care facilities and nurses to keep in mind.

Alarm hazards still posed the greatest risk, topping the list at number one for the fourth year running. But this year, the report focused on different solutions. Often, according to the report, strategies for reducing alarm hazards focus on alarm fatigue—a hazard nurses have long battled. Now, the report recommends that health care facilities examine alarm configuration policies and practices for completeness and clinical relevance. These practices include:

  • determining which alarms should be enabled.
  • selecting alarm limits to use.
  • establishing the default alarm priority level.
  • setting alarm volumes.

Repeat hazards that made the list included inadequate reprocessing of endoscopes and surgical instruments (#4), robotic surgery complications due to insufficient training (#8), and, in at #2, data integrity issues such as incorrect or missing data in electronic health records and other health IT systems. For an overview of these hazards, see our posts on ECRI top 10 health technology hazards from 2013 and 2014.

And here’s an overview of new hazards that made the cut, along with some of the report’s suggestions […]

2016-11-21T13:03:15-05:00January 12th, 2015|digital health, Nursing, Technology|1 Comment
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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