NurseWeek: Do your homework-Nurses, employers advise job hunters to research facilities and engage in some self-study

Do your homework
Nurses, employers advise job hunters to research facilities and engage in some self-study

By Phil McPeck
May 28, 2001


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By midsummer, Lynn Stewart, RN, plans to hit the bricks in Denver in search of her perfect nursing job. By then, she will have recovered from surgery and restarted a career begun late in life. At 54, she is just three years out of nursing school at Loyola University in Chicago. The question before her, though, as she sizes up her options, is the same one veteran nurses must contemplate when changing jobs: In a red-hot market where hospital recruiters and directors of nursing promise the moon and the stars, "How do I know I will fit in?"

The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver puts on its Sunday best for potential hires and eagerly opens its family album. "We’re trying to give a warm, friendly welcome," said nurse recruiter Mary Lee Mohr, RN. It works. Last year, Mohr and her staff hired 294 RNs, almost one-third of the 1,000 licensed nurses at the teaching hospital.

Interviews quickly turn to the national stature of the University of Colorado Hospital, where a video camera in the lobby watches over and televises the progress of the center’s campus at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in suburban Aurora.

But the decision to join a medical family is much more personal than a hospital’s reputation, or bricks and mortar.

Recognizing that, many of the center’s directors take candidates into the units where they can talk freely with other nurses, Mohr said. Not to be missed is "5 East," UCH’s orthopedic neurology unit. The RNs there often are in the public eye for their outreach program to high school students.

Less visible but no less telling is the camaraderie of the nurses, who ski together in their off time and create career albums for departing co-workers. "They have their parties and are socially active and we like to see that," Mohr said.

Candidates can be wowed and wooed by a staff as cohesive and successful as 5 East’s, but career-savvy nurses also know that to fit in they must take a long, hard look in one other place: the mirror.

"I’d ask myself about my personality," said Susan Ireland, a Berkeley, Calif., career counselor and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Resume. "It has to be a really honest conversation with yourself."

Ireland believes in lists and taking written questions—questions that come from that honest conversation—into a job interview. "What did I really love about my last job?" Answer that and then look for a similar situation. The reverse works, too. Create questions that will prevent you from walking back into an unhappy situation. If you were disappointed with where you stood in the hierarchy in your previous job, ask, "To whom would I be reporting?"

No one has a perfect career, Ireland said. "Above all, listen to your intuition. Sometimes you get an uneasy feeling that you can’t describe. If you get a negative feeling, look elsewhere."

Melva Steen, Ph.D., RN, chair of the Department of Nursing at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo, is confident her graduates will find their niche for two reasons: They are well-skilled and formally schooled in knowing themselves.

A senior-level class demands introspection: "Are you a people person?" Steen asked. "Do you like to be where the action is or do you like to work with the machines? Are you well-organized? Does it take you longer to do some things? Can you work the night shift or would you be better in a day job?"

The answers lead to hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitation centers, laboratories and private practices. Steen also has a sure-fire way for nurses to determine whether they belong at one facility or another and in this department instead of that one.

Put the job on trial, she said.

New employees typically go through a probation period during which performance is evaluated. An employee can turn the tables and use that time to evaluate whether a job and staff live up to their billing.

It helps, too, to have a written job description so that you know what is expected of you, as well as to define your expectations of the employer.

Temporary staffing agencies are an excellent way to explore, Steen said. If one assignment isn’t a good personal fit, it’s easy to take new assignments without the stigma of being labeled a job-hopper.

It’s never been a question of qualifications for Stewart, whose experience ranges from surgery in Denver’s city-county hospital to charge nurse in an extended care facility.

Because of her age and health considerations, Stewart said she is leaning toward a return to a long-term care setting in her next job or exploring the administrative side of nursing.

But, Stewart said, there is nothing like the experience of interviews and temporary assignments to help clarify what’s desirable and how she will fit in at a facility and with co-workers.

"It’s a learning process. I read body language closely." When someone with hiring authority fidgets, doesn’t look you in the eye or stammers, it warrants a critical look at working conditions and the scope of the position, Stewart said.

Both are big factors in her professional happiness. It’s one thing to hear, "We have excellent staffing," she said, and then see nurses aides squabbling in a hall about workload.