Getting the Job

ADN vs. BSN: This is the constant battle for new graduate nurses and since it's a hot topic I'd like to add my two cents (has anyone seen my soap box?). The main difference between these degrees is the amount of time you spend in school. An Associate Degree in Nursing graduate will go to school for about two years and a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing grad will have had four years in school. However, those four years a BSN grad spends in school includes undergraduate work (that are prerequisites for an ADN grad to get into the program) and they will have had a few additional classes in theory and leadership. An ADN grad tends to have more clinical hours by the time graduation rolls around. I think this is the most important difference between the degrees. When you have more time to spend in the hospital you get to actually see the pathophysiology at work and you can apply the theories you learn in school directly to your patients. Also, you have more experience with organization, time management and critical thinking. In my book, those are the skills that nurses need more than anything when first starting out their career. Since starting the RN to BSN program through Grand Canyon University I've met students with an ADN from around the country. I can see why some people have a negative view on the degree. San Diego City College does not just put a regular ADN graduate. Their program is intensely rigorous and so hard core that by the time graduation rolls around its really hard to spot any difference between an ADN and BSN graduate. They pour so much work and assignments into those two years and the requirements placed on the students are so immense that in the end we end up covering almost three and a half years worth of material in two. While I was in school I didn't appreciate this fact. The stress level was like nothing else I had every experienced (and I didn't think anything could be worse than UCSD Finals week). However, in the end I'm thankful to all the instructors we had for sharing their knowledge and passion of nursing. I still keep in touch with my professors and consider some of them to be my mentors. Not a single shift goes by that I don't have to use some insight or information I was taught by one of them and it makes me smile. I currently go back to the San Diego City College new graduate panel and speak to the upcoming graduates about taking the board exam, finding a job and experiences. I love going back and seeing the look on the students faces. I remember that look-that feeling of "this is never going to end!" And I enjoy talking to them and trying my hardest to lift their spirits and say "it's all worth it in the end."

The reason I bring up the whole degree thing is because in San Diego it is VERY hard to get a job in a hospital without the BSN. Things are getting better-the current graduating class from City College received more hospital jobs out of graduation then the year before. Yet most hospitals still only have about 100 open New Graduate Nurse positions a year and yet they receive thousands of applications. When it comes to selecting candidates to interview the type of nursing degree a candidate has can make the difference between an interview or not. I couldn't get an interview in a hospital to save my life after my first year of graduation. It was a very depressing experience. I applied to 20 or 30 jobs a week and would always get the email "thanks but no thanks" or hear nothing back. I did my best to stay positive but it wasn't easy. After all the suffering with school and no interviews made it hard to wake up every morning. But I didn't give up. With every new season of new graduate programs that became available I applied. I finally got lucky and got a call from my current hospital. *Darius says it wasn't luck he said it's meant to be. However, he works at this hospital and for the last year has spoken to almost every nurse manager at the hospital about me and had me email each and every one with my resume. I personally think the managers were sick of getting hounded with emails that they finally thought "might as well interview her." Little did they know that I was going to bring my A-Game. I spent weeks preparing for my interview-researching and studying and doing mock interviews. It all paid off.

The interview itself was intense. It was a panel interview with seven people and lasted one hour. Each person asked me three very difficult questions and I answered them to the best of my ability. At one point, while talking about nutrition I made the interviewers laugh  and that made me feel good. When I left the room I felt that I'd done everything that was in my power to make a great impression. Then I played the waiting game....for THREE WEEKS!!! That's a long time to wait. It honestly felt like three months. I had my cell phone on my 24 hours a day. Whenever I'd get a call from a number I didn't recognize my heart rate would increase and I'd get all sweaty-only to answer the phone and hear "Can we interest you in a seven day cruise to the Bahama's?" When the call finally did come I almost passed out. I was shaky and sweating and I felt like I couldn't breathe. My dream to work in hospital was becoming a reality. And not just any hospital-the same hospital as Darius. While we were in school and doing our externship we always said how cool it would be to work together-now that it was going to happen made this dream an even better reality.

The program I'm in is called a New Graduate Nurse Residency Program. They include clinical hours and classroom hours as a part of the program. It's honestly a lot like nursing school except you get paid for everything. I have a preceptor on every unit I rotate too and the classes we take relate directly to the unit we're working on. There are ten people in this New Grad group-we call it a cohort. My next post will be about the basics of the program and getting started.