The Challenges of Recruiting Nurses

Applying for a nursing position can become frustrating. You submit your application and then wait, sometimes with no response at all and other times receiving an automatic response generated by the application tracking system. You call Human Resources only to be told that your application was received and is being processed. And you continue to wait. Weeks or even months go by before you hear back. The response might be a general thank you for applying but the position has been filled. If you get lucky, you might get a call from the nurse recruiter – the beginning of a long onboarding process that can stop at any point along the way.

Let’s take a moment to see what might be happening with Human Resources. Typically, there is one nurse recruiter who might also be recruiting for nursing assistants and technicians. The nurse recruiter’s job is to find, vet, and hire qualified candidates after the nurse manager receives approval to fill a position. There are likely many positions that the nurse recruiter must fill – not just your position. At times the nurse recruiter may feel caught between a rock and a hard place. Qualified and unqualified candidates are knocking on the door trying to get a few minutes to pitch a resume. Nurse managers are knocking on the door wanting to know why the nurse recruiter hasn’t filled positions for the nurse manager. In addition to locating the right candidate, the nurse recruiter must coordinate the onboarding process – collecting paperwork, background checks, scheduling pre-employment physicals, and scheduling orientation for applicants who received job offers.

The application tracking system is a computer program that handles the chore of sifting through the hundreds of resumes and applications (more on the application tracking system later in this chapter), assisting the recruiter in identifying seemingly qualified applicants who will be invited for interviews. The decision of whom to invite is coordinated with the hiring nurse manager who also reviews resumes and applications. The nurse recruiter does this for all open positions. Coordinating applications can be a nightmare. The nurse recruiter plays endless email tag and phone tag getting the hiring nurse manager to agree on which candidates will be called for interviews. Then it is finding time to schedule those interviews. Juggling these tasks is likely the reason for the many delays you encounter after you submit the application online.

Once the first round of interviews are completed, the nurse recruiter and the hiring nurse manager decide who to eliminate and who should be brought back for another round of interviews (sometimes there is one round) and for pre-employment testing (i.e., skills testing). A few days or weeks may go by before a decision is made. At this point the nurse recruiter schedules follow-up activities. All this goes on while applicants and nurse managers are knocking on the nurse recruiter’s door asking for a status on their applications and when the nurse manager will fill the opening. This is why you receive an abrupt and cold response from the nurse recruiter when you finally get through to her.

Finding a qualified nurse isn’t easy. The nurse recruiter works with the hiring nurse manager to define the qualifications for the position, salary, shift, full- or part-time, and other information the nurse recruiter needs to advertise the position. The position may have to be posted internally for ten days before the position is available to nurses outside the healthcare facility. The nurse recruiter must field inquiries from current employees who tend to stop by unannounced or call. Others in the organization suggest candidates – informal recommendations – and not just for one position, but for all open positions. Current employees expect to be treated as a colleague and as a friend – a level above someone from outside the organization. The nurse recruiter tries her best to meet these expectations while trying to respond efficiently. This is a nightmare.

The Ideal Nurse

Nurse managers and nurse recruiters all look for the perfect nurse. Who is the perfect nurse? Probably the nurse who the nurse manager felt was doing a great job – and who transferred or resigned from the position. The nurse manager and the nurse recruiter must define the characteristics of the perfect nurse in words and use them in the job description as a guide for interviewing potential candidates.

Although each nursing job is unique to the patient care unit, there is a tendency for the nurse manager and the nurse recruiter to develop a general description of the ideal nurse and use it to describe every nurse position. You’ll find this at the beginning of the job description. Unique requirements for the position are found toward the end of the job description.

So what are the nurse manager and nurse recruiter looking for? Intuitively you may think “nursing skills,” but often that’s not at the top of the list. Team player and stable work history lead the list. If you are not a team player then you probably won’t fit with the culture in the healthcare facility. Unless you have a unique skill not widely found in the market place, you’ll probably be knocked out of the running by a nurse who fits in.

Stable work history is critical even if you are a team player. A stable work history implies that other organizations found your work acceptable– you showed up for work and performed a decent job. Each of us has our own definition of a stable work history and you’ll see indications of the nurse manager’s and nurse recruiter’s definition in the job description. Your goal is to show that you don’t jump around from job to job – including within the organization. For example, spending a year in med-surg then moving to the O.R. for another year and then working in the E.R. for the past year may seem like you widened your experience, but this may also imply that the med-surg job didn’t work out. Instead of terminating you, they sent you to the O.R. – and when that didn’t work out you ended up in the E.R. – which does not seem to be working out either because you are looking for a job outside the hospital. On the other hand, you might be a great talent who was urgently needed to fill hard-to-fill jobs. Now you are tired of jumping around and you want to settle down in one position, but that opportunity doesn’t present itself within your current organization. Each of these scenarios is supported by your work history; however, the nurse recruiter is likely to assume the worst without a clear rational explanation in your application.

Next, do you have the skills to do the job? This does not necessarily mean that you can give medications, insert an IV catheter, or assess a patient. The nurse manager and nurse recruiter are looking for a candidate who has critical thinking skills, can solve problems, deal with conflicts and work independently. They want you to be patient-centered and an advocate for the patient. You see nursing as a profession and not simply a job. These are just as important as being competent in administering medications to patients.

Strong communication skills are high on the list of requirements. The nurse manager and nurse recruiter want a nurse who can express him- or herself logically, actively listen to patients and colleagues, and respond appropriately using both written and oral communication. Your resume, application, and cover letter are the first clues of your communication skills. Each conversation with the nurse recruiter and the nurse manager demonstrates your oral communication skills as you follow directions they give you throughout the recruiting process. Each encounter with the nurse manager, nurse recruiter, and other staff helps them learn who you are.

As you move down the requirements list you’ll find basic requirements such as current nursing license and current CPR card. Education requirements may appear as basic requirements or “nice to have” depending on the healthcare facility and position. Healthcare facilities who have or strive for Magnet designation have specific educational requirements such as possessing a BSN degree for all nurses, MSN degree for all managers, and DNP degree for the executive nurse. Magnet status is recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for hospitals who have quality nursing programs as established by the ANCC criteria. A healthcare facility that does not seek or is not qualified for Magnet designation may accept less than the ANCC criteria for education. They may prefer that the candidate has a BSN, but candidates with an associate’s degree or diploma are also encouraged to apply.

The “nice to have” but not required items typically include bilingualism and computer literacy (functional knowledge of how to use a PC and the ability to use an electronic medical records system). At times these are basic requirements for the position. Other “nice to have” items might include use of specialized equipment, flexibility of schedule, and leadership roles within your current or previous organizations. Leadership roles typically are memberships on committees such as nurse leadership, quality improvement, or employee safety and not necessarily management positions.

The nurse manager and the nurse recruiter are looking for a competent nurse who shows up to work, can work independently, think on his/her feet and is willing to help the team care for patients. The nurse should have realistic expectations of compensation, work schedule, and their role on the team. Your job is to convey these requirements in your resume, job application, and during each encounter with the nurse manager and nurse recruiter.

How Decisions Are Made

After breaking through the application tracking system; passing interviews with the nurse manager and the nurse recruiter; and passing pre-employment tests; a decision is made to offer you – or someone else – the position. It seems to be a simple decision. Pick the candidate who is most qualified. Sometimes it isn’t that simple.

Human Resources makes sure that the candidate is qualified based on policies and regulatory requirements imposed on the healthcare facility. Employee Health decides if the candidate is physically capable of doing the job. The nurse manager decides if the candidate is a good fit for the team. Although the nurse manager makes the hiring decision, Human Resources and Employee Health can veto that decision.

The process of determining who is hired is similar across healthcare facilities; however, each healthcare facility has its own quirks in the process. For example, a nurse manager noticed that a new nurse hired for her patient care unit started orientation. She didn’t remember hiring the nurse, although Human Resources said she did. The nurse manager had interviewed many candidates for the position and told human resources the candidates she wanted to hire: Yes candidates (plural). The nurse manager whet through this exercise a few times because not every candidate she selected could pass the pre-employment medication administration test. Months went by until a selected candidate passed the test. By that time, the nurse manager had lost track of who she had selected.

The Flow of Interviews

There is a lot of planning that goes into interviewing candidates. Interviews performed by the nurse recruiter are well-organized. Time is slotted for the interview and the nurse recruiter has a proven strategy for conducting the interview. The same may not be said about the hiring nurse manager. The hiring nurse manager may not be available for the interview at the scheduled time because of operational issues – or simply because of conflicts related to poor planning. You may be asked to reschedule the interview or, more likely, you are interviewed by another nurse manager who is not the hiring manager. The nurse manager steps in for the hiring manager. Whether this is a good or bad thing is debatable. Will a hiring nurse manager agree to hire a nurse she did not interview? It depends on the hiring nurse manager.

At times, you might be interviewed by two or more nurse managers in the same interview. This happens when the hiring manager is a relatively new manager and is not comfortable with interviewing nurses. At other times, it just so happens that the other nurse manager is in the room. For example, the interview may take place in the nursing office rather than the hiring nurse manager’s office and other managers may happen to be there. This tends to be a good thing because you have a chance to impress multiple nurse managers. Hopefully one of them will advocate for you in discussions with the hiring nurse manager and with the nurse recruiter after the interview concludes.

A few healthcare facilities encourage the hiring nurse manager to arrange a group interview with staff on the patient care unit. You get to meet your potential colleagues and they get to meet you. On a positive note, you get to ask questions about how the patient care unit works and they have an opportunity to set realistic expectations. Focus on the patient care unit (i.e., types of patients, schedules, workflows of shifts). Your colleagues can’t hire you. Instead they will let the hiring nurse manager know if they think you are a fit. The downside of a group interview with your possible future colleagues is that information contained on your resume may have been shared with them before the interview; information you may not want to have been shared.

Getting Lost in the Shuffle

One of the horrors of applying for a position is that your application may get lost – and it does happen. A nurse manager shared her frustrations with the hiring process: A nurse manager has a million and one things to do and hiring is just one of them. They must deal with staff schedules; conflicts on the patient care unit; rooms that are too hot or too cold; leaking pipes; complaints from patients that they’re not being treating properly; practitioners complaining about nurses; nurses complaining about practitioners; going to meetings; auditing charts; budgeting; staff evaluations; and the list goes on.

And, yes, the nurse manager must find time to hire a nurse. Resumes and applications arrive electronically once the nurse manager arranges for Human Resources to post the position. In some healthcare facilities, Human Resources takes the lead by looking through applications and then suggesting a few candidates to the nurse manager. In other organizations, the nurse manager sifts through online applications to find likely candidates. In this case, the nurse manager can sometimes forget to check the application tracking system for applications. Weeks might go by without checking the system. He remembers when the staffing office complains that they are having trouble staffing the open position with float nurses.

He states that he doesn’t arrange the interview. Instead, he sends an email to the nurse recruiter who contacts the candidate. The nurse manager’s request gets placed somewhere on the nurse recruiter’s to-do list – and the nurse manager focuses on other things until the nurse recruiter gets back to him. All this time, the candidate’s frustration level increases to the point where the candidate stops sending emails and stops calling Human Resources – the candidate simply gives up, assuming that the position was filled and they had not yet taken the job posting down.

Things get worse when the nurse manager interviews several candidates over a few days, according to the nurse manager. The nurse manager admitted that sometimes he gets resumes and the candidates mixed up in the few days following the interviews. He is left with resumes and must try to remember his impression of each candidate. He can easily tell Human Resources to hire the wrong person and not realize it until the person begins orientation.

A nurse recruiter reported a mix up that left a new hire frustrated. The job was posted as a float pool nurse on a night-shift job (nurses worked eight-hour shifts) and a candidate was hired and onboarded. During orientation, the staffing coordinator realized there was no night-shift float pool position. That particular position had been filled several months ago. Withdrawing the job offer was problematic since the employee gave up his full-time nursing position to accept the night-shift float pool nurse position. The solution was to explain the situation and offer a hybrid schedule – two night shifts and three day shifts – until another night-shift float pool nurse position opened. It took a year before such as position was available.

Can you get lost in the hiring process shuffle – yes, and there is little you can do about it.

The Dreaded Application Tracking System

Yes, you must deal with the application tracking system (ATS). With hundreds of resumes and multiple nursing positions – not to mention other positions – open there is no practical way to manage applications without using the application tracking system. Nurse recruiters will admit that the application tracking system removes the human factor from the initial recruiting process; however, there is a benefit. The application tracking system helps to sift through hundreds of resumes and applications to find candidates that seem to qualify for a specific position. “Seem to qualify” is the key phrase. The application tracking system is likely to overlook qualified applicants primarily because their resumes and applications don’t match the search criteria. Think of it this way: a nurse recruiter quickly scans resumes to filter unqualified applicants and so does the application tracking system. However, the application tracking system literally matches applications and resumes with the words in the job description. It usually doesn’t recognize synonyms for those words, so qualified candidates can be overlooked.

The application tracking system also helps the nurse recruiter manage applications. The nurse recruiter can quickly display your resume on the computer when you call instead of having to sift through a large pile of resumes. The hiring nurse manager can also review resumes on the computer without having to obtain copies from human resources. Chances are slim that your resume will be lost. In addition, the application tracking system helps the healthcare facility comply with anti-discrimination laws in hiring and assist in compliance reporting.

The application tracking system works by searching resumes and applications for contextual keywords and phrases. Simply inserting keywords probably won’t help get your resume selected. Keywords must be used in context. Each keyword and phrase is assigned a value sometimes referred to as a weight. Words and phrases considered more significant to the job qualification receive a higher weight. Sometimes the weight is based on the number of times the keyword or phrase is used in the resume.

For example, you may write in your resume...

“I care for up to eight patients a day in the medical surgical unit with oversight from the charge nurse.”

The ATS is looking for the following words and phrases:

“Provides direct patient care by assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating care of assigned patient.” Your resume scores low because you’ve left out “provides direct patient care...assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating”. The resume implies that you provide direct patient care with the assumption that you assess the patient, plan and implement interventions and evaluate the results of the interventions. However, the ATS may not recognize the implications in the resume.

The search result appears as a score based on relevancy to a specific open position. Applicants with the highest scores are sent to the nurse recruiter. Human Resources determines qualifying scores. It does not necessarily mean that applicants with lower scores are not qualified. It simply means that the application tracking system was unable to find a match for contextual keywords and phrases in the resume or application. The resume or application may have been poorly written or poorly formatted.

The nurse recruiter, with input from the hiring nurse manager, determines the contextual keywords and phrases used to identify resumes and applications of potentially qualified candidates. This information will not be shared with you. You must anticipate the search criteria and make sure those keywords and phrases appear clearly in your resume and application. Furthermore, you must avoid things that might confuse the application tracking system such as fancy formats on your resume. This may work well with humans but it can confuse the application tracking system. Here are some tips that may help you to catch the “eye” of the application tracking system.

Keep your resume simple – no graphs, tables, illustrations, no headers and footers, no columns, no special characters, no multiple fonts. Use standard resume formatting with sections such as Work Experience and Education. Use commonly used fonts such as Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman no smaller than 11-point size. Start your work experience with your employer’s name then your title, and then dates – each can be on its own line, making it easy for the application tracking system to read.

Use bullet points to highlight key information. This helps when the nurse recruiter needs to call you in for an interview. Uploading your resume in a Word document or rich text document may work better than using a PDF file. Some application tracking systems may have difficulty parsing through a PDF file. Typically, the application tracking system will display your parsed resume in the application tracking system’s format. Carefully review the parsed document and make any corrections. This is the document that will be searched and scored by the application tracking system – and this will probably be your last chance to tweak your information.

You’ll need to guess at the contextual keywords and phrases that will be used in the search. Chances are pretty good that verbiage found in the job description on the healthcare facility’s website will be incorporated into the search criteria. Therefore, use that exact verbiage in your resume and application. Use both acronyms and the full spelling of words that make up the acronym. The application tracking system may search for one and not the other. Make sure that your resume doesn’t have typos and misspellings and that you use proper capitalization. The application tracking system doesn’t use a spell checker and will give you a low score if it is unable to understand what you are trying to say. Furthermore, the nurse recruiter is likely to reject your misspelled resume should it get through the application tracking system.

Keep in mind that the resume parsed by the application tracking system will be read by the nurse recruiter should it be selected. Therefore, don’t simply stuff contextual keywords and phrases from the job description into your resume. This will be too obvious. Sophisticated application tracking systems may pick up on this and give your resume a low score. Instead, use contextual keywords and phrases no more than three times. The length of your resume doesn’t matter because the application tracking system will parse resumes of any length.

When the application tracking system identifies your resume as a good match, it brings your resume to the attention of the nurse recruiter. Depending on the application tracking system, the nurse recruiter may be presented with information that the application tracking system retrieved from the resume – and not the entire resume. Key information may be inadvertently excluded by the application tracking system, especially if you don’t use a standard format for the resume. Some application tracking systems also automatically email the applicant if the application was rejected; however, this could be sent in error and the applicant may later receive an invitation to meet the nurse recruiter.

Application tracking systems typically are position-oriented in that it searches resumes of applicants for a specific open position. It doesn’t search resumes of candidates who applied for a different position. Therefore, you need to indicate what positions you want to apply for.

Application tracking systems use optical character recognition (OCR) technology that scans your resume, and Statistical Natural Language Processing (SNLP) to score your resume. Here’s how some application tracking systems work:

1.Removes all formatting from the resume

2.Locates contextual keywords and key phrases

3.Organizes the resume into specific categories based on contextual keywords and phrases:

–Work Experience

–Education

–Contact Information

–Skills

4.Matches contextual keywords and phrases to the healthcare facility’s job requirements

5.Gives the resume a score based on matches

6.The nurse recruiter selects the highest scored resumes to review

Avoid gaming the system by using such gimmicks as white words – copying the job description to the bottom of your resume then changing the color of the type to white. The application tracking system will be able to read it but not the recruiter because words in white blend in with the white background of the screen and paper. Newer application tracking systems are aware of such tactics. Your resume may receive a lower than expected score for trying to manipulate the system.

Job Fairs

Job fairs are gatherings of nurse recruiters who are looking for nurses and nurses who “might be” looking to change positions. Some nurse recruiters are there to support the sponsor of the job fair.

Here are some tips when you attend a job fair:

In addition, perhaps the nurse recruiter is not looking to recruit nurses at the job fair. Instead, the healthcare facility may have sent the nurse recruiter to the job fair to support the organization sponsoring the job fair. The goal was not to recruit nurses but to keep the name of the healthcare facility in front of nurses, other healthcare facilities, and to support organizers of the job fair.

The Background Check Anxiety

It isn’t over once you’ve beaten the application tracking system; impressed the nurse recruiter and the nurse manager during interviews; passed pre-employment tests; and received an offer – and possibly a start date. You still must pass the background check. The background check isn’t a “from birth” background check that potential Federal agents must pass. Yet it can be more involved than those that candidates in other industries experience because healthcare facilities typically have stringent legal requirements – you care for patients and have direct involvement administering medication. The primary goal of the background check is to protect patients.

Human Resources typically does not conduct background checks except to verify your nursing license (which is verifiable online), and drug screening (which is performed by Employee Health). A vendor is hired to perform background checks. The vendor uses multiple sources to verify your background. For the most part, the background check verifies everything you have on your application, resume, and sometimes what you said during your interviews. The best advice can be summed up in a line from the award-winning movie Moonstruck: “Tell him the truth. They find out anyway.”

The background check cannot be conducted without your written permission. One of the documents that you are asked to sign once you are offered the position is a consent form authorizing the healthcare facility to conduct the background check. You have the right to refuse to sign the consent form; however, the job offer will probably be rescinded. Your arm is not being twisted to sign. It is simply that the healthcare facility is protecting patients.

A background check typically includes searches of:

Nearly all background checks are conducted electronically contingent on whether the data is electronically available to the vendor. Results are usually presented electronically to Human Resources within a week. The report typically identifies discrepancies between your application and resume and what the vendor found. The report also identifies derogatory results that came up during the background check. A derogatory result is when someone said something negative about you. Human Resources determines if any negative result from a background check warrants disqualification from working at the healthcare facility.

The nurse recruiter carefully follows the healthcare facility’s policy before taking steps to rescind your job offer. The nurse recruiter doesn’t want to start the recruiting process over if you are an acceptable candidate. The nurse recruiter verifies that the vendor’s background check was reported on the correct candidate. The nurse recruiter typically uses a decision matrix to decide if negative items on the background check report are within hiring criteria for your position. The decision matrix ensures that the healthcare facility has consistent hiring practices.

If the job offer might be rescinded because of a negative background check, Human Resources will send you a pre-adverse action letter, a copy of the background report, and a copy of the summary of your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You will be given a reasonable time to explain elements of the background check report that could disqualify you from the position. The nurse recruiter realizes that a background check is not always 100% accurate. For example, you might be the victim of identity theft – and you don’t know it yet. You will be given a reasonable amount of time to address discrepancies with the nurse recruiter and/ or the vendor who conducted the background check.

If you don’t make any attempt to explain discrepancies or your explanations do not satisfy Human Resources, then you will receive an adverse action letter. The adverse action letter states that the job offer is rescinded based either in whole or in part due to the information provided in the background report. The letter will contain the vendor’s contact information so you can further explore the matter with the vendor.

A criminal conviction may or may not disqualify you depending on the nature of the crime. If you hold a valid nursing license and the criminal conviction occurred before you received your license, then the state licensing board apparently determined that the conviction would not impede you from receiving a nursing license. A criminal background check is usually performed as a requirement for getting your nursing license, therefore, Human Resources may also have such an opinion.

However, you may have a valid nursing license if you were convicted of a crime after receiving your nursing license and the state licensing board has yet to find out about the conviction. This is problematic. Even if you have a criminal conviction that would impede hiring, you may be able to have that conviction expunged depending on the nature of the crime and regulations within your state. Some states offer rehabilitation programs for nurses and other medical professionals who have an addiction problem. Their medical license is suspended until they complete the rehabilitation program, subsequently, their license is restored. Healthcare facilities are aware of such rehabilitation programs and may give nurses who attend a program a second chance.

Lying on your resume is a common finding on a background check. What is a lie versus an exaggeration? The nurse recruiter must determine this. Where you worked, your title, and dates of employment and compensation are hard to exaggerate. Likewise, schools you attended, dates you attended, and degrees earned are also factual. The actual work you did can be exaggerated to some extent. Lying reveals your character. The nurse recruiter and nurse manager expect a little exaggeration on your experience knowing that pre-employment testing will objectively measure your abilities. Outright lying implies that you are dishonest – and that you can’t be trusted. Remember that the nurse recruiter and nurse manager decide the extent to which an exaggeration is a lie. What might seem minor to you could be major to them.

Will your current and former employers say something that will prevent you from getting another nursing job? Possibly, but not necessarily. Many healthcare facilities have a policy of verifying employment by confirming your job title, dates of employment, and salary. Characterizing your work performance may expose the healthcare facility to libel claims and lawsuits by trying to prevent you from finding work. Some nurse managers may still give an opinion about you when requested, regardless of policy.

References that you supply the nurse recruiter will be contacted and presumably will give you a good reference. However, the healthcare industry is a relatively small network where nurses know one another. It is not uncommon for the hiring nurse manager to call a friend who may know someone who works in your current healthcare facility and ask for an informal reference – “How is she?” The response – or lack of a response after acknowledgement that they know you – may weigh heavily on the hiring nurse manager’s decision about you long before a decision is made on a candidate for the position.

Be aware that your Facebook account, tweets, blogs, videos, and other things you post on social media may end up in your background check. Some healthcare facilities find that your Facebook account and other online postings provide more insight into your character than other items in the background check. References to heavy drinking, violence, or sexually offensive material on your postings can quickly eliminate you from contention for a position. However, employers must be careful doing so because your online content might reveal political leanings, your religious views, your ethnicity, or your existing medical conditions and other things about you that legally cannot be revealed to your employer until after you are hired. Some employers pressure candidates to provide ID and passwords to their online accounts. There is legislation pending in several states to ban this practice. It is important to be aware of your on-line presence before your job search begins.

You are entitled to receive a free copy of your background check report even if there is no adverse action expected. It might be wise to ask your Human Resources for a copy of your present background check report to get an idea of what your employer sees. If you see any problems that weren’t brought to your attention, you may still want to explore why they occurred – even if you don’t share it with Human Resources, although once the background check is completed and you are offered the job, there is no real need to address anything negative in your background check because it did not stop you from getting the job.

Be prepared to honestly explain items in your background that are hazy during your initial interviews with the nurse recruiter – well before the background check. No one has a perfect background – and the nurse recruiter knows this. Being honest – not elusive – goes a long way to show your true character. If you worked for three months and left a position, point this out to the nurse recruiter and explain what occurred and why it probably won’t occur again. For example, you may have had a negative experience at your first nursing job and so you left the job. You could say this was too much too soon and you and the nurse manager realized you were over your head. Since then you have been successful in more appropriate positions.

Why You Didn’t Get Hired

You were perfect for the job. Interviews went well. Both the nurse recruiter and nurse manager gave you the feeling that you were a good fit for the job. So why didn’t you get it? Let’s begin with the interviews. A good interviewer will leave you with a positive feeling after an interview unless you are obviously not qualified for the job. If you are unqualified, the interviewer is likely to describe what the nurse will be doing by painting a mental picture that lets you discover for yourself that you are probably not well-suited to the particular position. If you might be qualified for the job, then the interviewer wants to keep you motivated to continue to explore the opportunity – even if the interviewer realizes you are, say, the fourth most qualified candidate for the position. The first three may not accept the job offer and they don’t want to be too quick to discourage you.

So what are reasons for not getting the job? It might be something you said during the interview. You may have narrowed your requirements such as shift and clinical area that gave the perception that you are not flexible. Furthermore, you might have trashed your former employer and manager during the interview. No matter how true it might be, this is not a good idea, and the nurse recruiter and nurse manager may feel you are too negative. Be sure to keep the discussion on a professional level when speaking about your current job.

Failure to communicate effectively during your interview is another reason some nurse recruiters reject applications. Your background on the resume might be perfect but you are unable to effectively discuss your background with the nurse recruiter or nurse manager. The nurse recruiter is hiring a person – not your resume. Your goal is to tell your story within the first ten minutes of the interview. Hit the highlights only. Save the details for when the nurse recruiter or nurse manager asks questions. Don’t focus on one factor of the job such as compensation or schedule. Prepare for the interview. Research the healthcare facility. Ask questions about issues that might affect the healthcare facility, such as potential takeovers.

Dressing inappropriately can scuttle you as soon as the nurse recruiter sees you. Explain in advance of the interview that you are coming from work and will be in your work attire, if that is the case. Ask if this will be a problem – and, if so, reschedule the interview. Your work attire is likely acceptable but it is always wise to make this known ahead of time – and restate this at the beginning of the interview – “Excuse my attire, I’m coming directly from work as I mentioned during our phone call.”

Not having documentation is another reason why you may not have been offered the position. Always bring your nursing license, board certifications, valid CPR cards, and any other document that is required. Offer them to the nurse recruiter during the interview so copies can be placed in your application. Eventually you’ll be asked for them if you don’t bring the documents to the interview.

And sometimes the nurse recruiter or the nurse manager just didn’t feel you were a fit for the job. What that means is they didn’t like you well enough – not that you can’t do the job. Something turned them off about you during the interviews. You might have said something inappropriate, lacked motivation or failed to express yourself. Some nurse managers place themselves in the position of a patient and ask, would I want you as my nurse? If the answer isn’t a solid yes, then you probably won’t get the job.