Nursing Home To Hospital Setting…how Can I Get The Job?
I am currently a freshman in college, enrolled into the Pre-Nursing program at college, and have been working as a CNA for about only a year now. I currently work full time as a CNA at a nursing home and have also done home health care in the past. My goal was hopefully to get a job as a PCA in my schools hospital so that i could get my foot in the door, but it turning out harder than expected. Can anybody give me any advice to boost my resume or whom i should talk to or what I could say to give me an advantage? I kinda realize that CNAs are a dime a dozen, but i’ve been working so hard for this, I HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO GET THAT JOB!! ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
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Getting into any hospital job is always tough because it is more structured, ie benefits, insurance etc so very competitive.
My advice would be:-
- On your resume bullet point the skills you have acquired and medical tools you have used
-Ask people you know working in hospitals already of any CNA opening
-WHen you apply for a job follow up with a phone call to make sure they got your resume or walk into HR personally and drop off your application materials
- Look for volunteer positions in a hospital
-Whenever you go for an interview, send a thank you note to the interviewer and 2 weeks later follow up with an email, asking if they need more info from you, that you are still interested in the job and learning a lot more from your present job, which will be an asset for them once you come on board
Good luck
Make a good objective statement at the opening of your resume, something that will reflect your experience as a CNA, desiring to take the next step into an acute care setting, as you concurrently pursue your goal of becoming a Registered Nurse.
Look up information about the hospital on their website. What is their care philosophy or “mission statement”? You should be able to find it somewhere on their site, read and understand it, and use those terms or reflect that statement back either in your resume or cover letter and during the interview.
If you submit a resume, call them back in about 5-7 days and say “I sent you my resume last week for the position of CNA in oncology and was wondering if the dept. manager has begun scheduling interviews. I am very interested in this position and would like the opportunity to speak with them about this job.” Key is, show interest. Follow up on everything, don’t just wait for them to call you – but be careful not to harrass them by calling too much, either.
If you get the interview, just be yourself. Mention that you’re in nursing school and that this job would be a step in the right direction for you, but don’t place too much emphasis on it because the job you are applying for is a CNA job and they need a CNA who is going to be focused on those tasks and not outside the scope of practice and try on RN tasks. Be prepared to answer some standard questions like describe a situation where you had a difficult patient and how did you handle it, what are your strengths and weaknesses, etc. After the interview send a thank you letter and reinforce what you talked about during your interview in regards to your plans, your strengths, reasons why you fit into their hospital and how you support their “mission”.
Sometimes it takes a while to make the transition and get a hospital job, it takes persistence. But if you apply enough times, eventually the HR people remember you and might be more apt to bring your application forward to the hiring managers and say “Hey, this guy really wants a job here”.
Good luck.