anything you say

You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can, and will be used against you...

In a job interview you don't exactly have the right to remain silent. What you do have is the right to say things in support of yourself. That being said, in an interview there are those instances where you can incriminate yourself as if you admitted to committing a heinous crime. Like when you're asked about teamwork, and you use an example of being the student who has been taking classes primarily online for several years, but when you started nursing school you had to work to reintegrate yourself in the classroom setting, you just might shoot your own self in the foot. Or say you're asked about disagreements with previous supervisors, and you give a real world example stemming from experiences with a previous supervisor (of long, long ago) being Korean-American, and one of the other medics you work with was also Korean-American. Nothing I did was good enough in my supervisor's eyes. I didn't work hard enough, or do enough, or anything....enough. I had to work under the umbrella of a sort of discrimination. I pressed on and did my job to the best of my abilities. Again, you shoot yourself in the foot. Your answers are used against you. You lose a job/externship opportunity because you thought you were giving honest, real answers.

You are thusly labeled "not a team player". How incredulous--in fifteen minutes you are summed up by isolated answers.

It doesn't help that "I actually have great news for you. They were on the borderline with you. They wanted to hire you, but..."

I'm the person who got together a group study session...who stepped forward to help a classmate study because she'd received one of those letters (the kind of letter that tells you to bring your grades up or you're out of this program)...who would be the first to stand up, volunteer and work with anyone to help them succeed.

Yes, Monday I received the email seen in the previous post. I texted or called some of my classmates to find out if they'd heard anything. No one had by Monday night. Yesterday morning people started getting calls...or emails. You see, there were six of us from my school, who interviewed in hopes of being one of the chosen five. Three were chosen and three were not, including moi. The three of us that were not chosen have all had some medical experience, on one level or another. The three that were chosen have not. It may be a big coincky-dink, or the elixir of justification I'm choosing to swallow, but I think that may have been a deciding factor.

I mean hello, if these people liked me so much why didn't they call my references? The other two girls thought their interviews had gone very well, and were just as shocked as I was to read their rejection email. Yeah, the ones who were chosen received phone calls, the rest of us got the form-letter email.

Being me, I couldn't let it go. So I emailed the HR rep the obligatory thank you and also asked for feedback. I just received the call prior to heading to Blogland, and well you know the rest.

Oh well, I still have the decision from Hospital #1 to look forward to, and tons of studying to do.

a slap in the face of sorts?

So I'm online trying to figure out summer class schedules in conjunction with externships, and decided to email hospital #2 to find out the schedule. This is what I received in reply:

Me:

Hello,

It was great meeting you on Friday. I forgot to ask, what does the schedule look like for the externship program? Will it be a day shift position? I know at the meeting we had in our class you weren't completely sure. I'm flexible, but am in the process of signing up for a summer class and wanted to have an idea of my schedule should I be chosen to extern at Hospital #2*.

Thanks,

KLS, Student Nurse*

Them:

Dear KLS, Student Nurse*,

We appreciate your interest in the Nurse Extern position here at Hospital #2*. At this time the decision has been made to continue interviewing candidates for this position who more closely meet the skills and requirements of the unit.

We wish you every success in finding a position commensurate with your career objectives. Again, thank you for your interest in Hospital #2* as a prospective employee.

Sincerely,

Human Resources
Hospital #2*

heroes and blossoms

Being prior military you could guess, and correctly so, I am pro-military. I'm also a bit of a history buff, having minored in it for my Bachelor's. Minoring in history enabled me to study certain areas of history that I find fascinating. The classes I took include Classical Greece, World War II, Pearl Harbor-Midway, Modern America: 1900 to 1945, and Europe's Bloodiest Century (this course detailed the 20th centruy, WWI, WWII, and the Cold War), along with a couple of prerequisite courses. I wrote my term paper in the World War II class on women in the military during that time. I have a special affinity for the subject, in particular in the field of nursing. In my complete ignorance I didn't even know that there was a memorial dedicated to women who served in the Vietnam War, until pretty recently.


Yesterday we went to Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. To the boys' utter and complete dismay (they were already pretty bent out of shape with having to go to the Festival) their father and I dragged them to see the Vietnam Women's Memorial. We also took in the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. If you ever have a chance to visit DC you should take the time to visit these very special works of commemorative art. Pictures do not even do them any justice.

this is from the WWII memorial

a section of the wall from the Korean War Memorial


statues of soldiers from the Korean War Memorial



Vietnam Women's Memorial

of all the weird things

Yesterday I had my second nurse externship interview. Let's do a brief dissection of the two interviews and prospective employers, shall we?






First Hospital:

~about 15 minutes from home
~70 bed facility
~opportunities in ED, family birthing, ICU, stepdown, med/surg
~40 minute interview with 6 nurses including department directors, guy from HR, and education specialist
~asked questions about teamwork, problems/challenges and how they were handled,workload, etc. In other words they asked several regular interview questions.
~interview held in a ground floor, service hallway conference room

I walked out of the interview in good spirits, but unsure of how I actually did. I answered the questions authentically. By this I mean that I gave examples from my experiences, rather than robotic, "best" answers. I really hadn't taken the time to come up with manufactured answers, so they got me. good, bad, indifferent...

Second Hospital:

~about 15 minutes from home
~over 80 beds, Planetree Facility
~opportunities in ICU, med/surg, and a unit that is primarily telemetry (best way to describe)
~20-25 minute interview with 3 nursing directors
~they asked siilar questions
~interview held upstairs in a unit conference room

Yet, I walked away from the interview pretty unsure of the chances of me getting the position. This wasn't because of the interview itself. It's because of a request that was made by the HR person beforehand. After escorting me upstairs, she'd stepped into the conference room and then came out after briefly speaking with the directors about the previous applicant. She comes up to me, "Do me a favor. They're going to ask you a question about group projects, setting up a scenario where one of the people in the group didn't pull their weight. They are going to want to know how you would or did handle that situation. I want you to have been that person. I want you to say, 'Oh that was me. I was the slacker. I totally dropped the ball...' Only do this if you think you can. Do you think you can?"

WTF???

I politely told her I didn't think I could pull it off. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that. Being the slacker in that situation is not in my nature, and if I wanted to become Julia Roberts I would have a long time ago!

In her defense...since that is in my nature-to give the benefit of the doubt...I can say this goes with this woman's personality. She seems like a very gregarious, slightly eccentric individual, who would love to play jokes on others. I can get in there with the best of them, I assure you. But during a job interview? Where you don't know any of the people sitting there and how they'll react to such a display?

uh, uh no way...not me, no how...no can do!

One of my classmates, with whom I've become friends, was interviewing next and walked up as I was walking out. The HR person goes into the conference room in between the interviews, so while she did that I chit-chatted with my friend. Out comes the HR person and she makes the same request of my friend. My friend has a "WTF?" look on her face, but she was more willing to give it the ole college try. She said she'd do her best to do it, but didn't want to promise anything.

It had already been a troublesome morning as I'd watched the DVRed ER finale....bawling throughout (nope never got around to studying yesterday morning). After the show I intended to study for a bit, but by this time a migraine had set in. I decided to take the time to take my meds and lie down for a bit, hoping to relieve the pain from my being. The phone interupted my solace after about 20 minutes and never gave up. Between Big B and LB the phone rang about 5 times.

The boys had a half-day of school for exams yesterday, and LB had stayed after for a club activity. He was calling because he needed a ride home. By this time it was time to get ready for the interview, with about an hour to spare before I wanted to leave. I commenced to yelling at them ("them" because both Big B and LB called concerning this after I had deferred LB to his father...) over the phone. Sorry, not the most effective way to handle things, but I was in pain, the nerves were wracking up, and time was a tickin'!

And you want me to come get you???

Evidently I was his only option as Dear Ol' Dad was still up north, about an hour away. Now I had to rush through getting ready so I could go pick him up, and head to the interview. Luckily it's ok to leave a 16 year old out in the car. Can you imagine me walking into the hospital with my kid, and there stands the HR rep?

Who knows? She might have flirted with him!

what is it with April?

Seriously. I am saddened now after logging on to Facebook and reading a friend's status message. It said something about a shooting that happened yesterday at Radford University, only about two hundred miles from where I live. I hadn't heard about it, but didn't watch the news last night, and hadn't heard a thing during the day.

Isn't this the time of year where people should be coming alive with happiness since it's Spring? Instead they're coming alive with morbidity.

Radford University April 2, 2009

Virginia Tech Aprl 16, 2007

University of Washington April 2, 2007

Roosevelt High School April 5, 2006

Those are just of the recent school shootings. Here's a timeline for school shootings occuring since 1966. I'm not usually a big fan of Wiki-anything, after having it beaten out of me by numerous professors, but it does offer good timelines for events such as these.

One I will never forget is Columbine High School.

We were stationed at Langley AFB, Hampton, VA, at the time. We happened to be outside enjoying a warm Spring day. One of my friends came running up to me and asked if I'd heard about the shooting that had just happened in a high school in Littleton, Colorado. She knew that two of my cousins attended high school in Colorado, in Littleton. Panic set in. I had no idea what high school they went to so I immediately got on the phone. My fear was assuaged upon hearing that they went to a different school. They had friends attending Columbine though. My cousins knew people affected by this tragedy.

I can thoroughly understand the pent up frustration felt by this time of the school year. I know the feeling all too well. I just don't understand how people can resort to such horrible, drastic measures as taking another's life. There's no excuse.

Sad, very sad.

Now I really must get to workon my studies.

oh patriotic one am I

Not that I had time for it, but I attended my first American Legion meeting last night. Yes, you read that right. I am the newest, and proud to say, only female member of our local post. I thought I might be the youngest member, and may still be as far as active members go, but there was an active-duty marine present. His father is the post chaplain. He's not an extemely young marine, but I would bet I have a few years on him.

Admittedly it wasn't something I was looking forward to since I have so much studying to do. Do you ever end up enjoying yourself at something you completely dreaded attending? It occured to me that it would not only be nice to be a part of something meaningful, but who else can say she has multiple dads and grandpas? The meeting only lasted about 45 minutes and it was actually an awesome experience.

As official meetings go they had to discuss old and new business. They're an endearing bunch of old guys, and it was hilarious at times to watch them mull over their/our current goings on. They're planning on having someone come in and clean the post, and of course it took a motion and acceptance, and it's a done deal. They have a bunch of other things in the works. Two items of interest that I'll be directly involved in are the baseball team, since my son plays on it, and the upcoming yard sale.

So yes, to my post listing several of my own current goings on we may add this yard sale. It's actually a bit of a necessity though, since there are a bunch of things in the house that need to go. What better way to get rid of them? Whatever doesn't sell will be donated to the local Goodwill. None of the junk will return to the casa, that's for sure!

Have I mentioned I've also not had the time to go grocery shopping? It's part scheduling and part avoidance. I really don't want to go all the way to Quantico. Quite frankly there just hasn't been time to go lately. I'm thinking of shopping more locally at least until after the semester's over. Normally I'd go to Quantico on a day like today, when there's no class or clinicals taking up the better part of the day. Since I have my interview to look forward to this afternoon it's a no go, literally.

Is it May yet? Seriously. May 6th is the day I have determined to be my own personal Mayday! Finals will be over, as will my second semester of nursing school! It won't come soon enough!

back. to. the. books...

come all ye faithful

Let's start off by celebrating my 200th post! I'd like to thank all you who stop by and read my blog. If you've been with me since the beginning and have read my whole blog, can you believe it's 200 posts long? I can't. It's great having the world-wide support from all of you!

It's also been a day, not only that, let's say a week, of firsts. Yesterday during clinicals I witnessed, sort of, my first "nurses eat their young" incident. I say sort of because I only caught the aftermath. It happened so quickly. One of the nurses stopped for one moment at the nurses station only to be chastised by another for "just standing there". The reason she was "just standing there" was because my instructor had taken her medicine cart and was passing meds with some of my fellow students. They had just taken the cart when the nurse stopped for a moment and was talking to some of the other students, and then bitchy-nurse, whomever she was, called her out on "just standing there". Just because the students took your cart doesn't mean you have to just stand there. There are other things to be done. True, very true, but come on. Let's retract the claws and not belittle someone for something you've probably been guilty of yourself! Puhleasse! Tears were shed momentarily from the nurse who was "just standing there", but she soon got over it and went on with her work.

So far I've done accuchecks, insulin injections, PEG tube care, a patient shower, charting, of course vital signs, pulse oximetry, bed-to-geri-chair transfers, unoccupied bed changes, assessments, adult brief changes, care planning, and today I passed my first meds! Because my resident has a PEG tube I have to crush the tablets, so that was fun. One of them didn't crush finely with the crusher so I had to break out the trusty hammer and bash away. Then it was onto the patient where I checked for placement and residual, and administered the meds by gravity.

I'm really enjoying clinicals. So far it's been a great experience. I actually find myself wanting to go back!! This actually astounds me since I was so nervous about not actually liking nursing, if that makes any sense.

Oh, today we had a couple of interesting events. The LTC I am doing my clinicals at has a locked down dementia/alzheimer's unit. One of the CNAs from over there managed to nearly become one of the resident's lunch since the resident tried to take a bite out of her! It was bad enough to where you could see a full circle of teeth impressions, and there was only the tiniest bit of skin breakage. They made a big deal out of the whole situation since they had us students as an audience.

I've been meaning to get over to meet one of my classmate's residents because this person has schizophrenia and bipolar. Evidently this person has been in a manic state. Just last night in the middle of the night she switched and is now delusional claiming that the FBI and others are out to get her. Although I don't plan to go into psych nursing, having a background in psychology, I am intrigued by mental disorders. Now I'm kicking myself for not taking the time to meet her. It would be fascinating to see the differences first-hand.

Well rather than spend anymore of my strained time blogging I should get back to the books!

Tomorrow's the next interview in my hopes of externing over the summer!

caving in

Ever feel like everything's caving in on you?

Yeah, that's about how I feel right about now! For one, I've been awake since 0250. At this point in time we have just over four weeks left of this semester. I have the first components of my care plan due tomorrow. It's a matter of just typing it up, but I have yet to do that. Again...due tomorrow. We have ATI testing to do sometime before the end of the semester. This would include a proctored exam for fundamentals and one for mental health. And we're supposed to fit that into our schedules? As if! We have an exam left in both classes, not including finals, and we also have another assignment due for MH. Then we're supposed to study for finals!!!

My house could use a really good, thorough cleaning.

My garden's need to be opened up for the year, not that the weather has been extremely cooperative on that front.

LB has baseball games it seems like every other minute..

AW still beats away at his drums that we have yet to get him lessons for.

I have another externship interview this coming Friday.

I also have considerable amounts of reading and studying to do.

I feel like a mountain of stress is about to cave in on me! Help!

Merry Maids anyone?

spring blooms

from my garden, crocus in bloom

mother nature's mess

After the baseball game last night I texted my friend, who happens to be the team manager's (as in the high school girl who assists with various team related needs) mom (yeah, we're friends), to let them know the final outcome of the game...which wasn't pretty. We ended up falling, 8-0, and you could see the heartbreak in each of our player's eyes as they exited the school to depart with us, their parents. My friend let me know that on their way down to NC for a cheer competition that they had come within a half mile of a tornado. Friends of theirs, who were about a mile ahead caught it on video.

During the game one of the moms, who hails from North Dakota, and with whom I have a small bond with because of her hometown, (since we'd been stationed there and LB was born there), informed me that her brother was notified to evacuate (within ten minutes of notification) from Fargo, to get away from the flooding.

Another friend put up her Facebook status as something to the effect of preparing for the blizzard they were about to be faced with, in Oklahoma of all places.

Floods in ND, blizzards in OK...?

I have family in Colorado who was snowed in the other day due to blizzard conditions, and a friend up in Winnipeg, Canada who told me, via Facebook that they'd had something like 25 inches.

Here in Virginia we've only had brief encounters with the sun.

In fact we were supposed to be going to a baseball game today, but it was cancelled because of wet fields from the rain that poured down throughout the night last night. You don't find me complaining because I have gotten a little bit behind this past week, with the new schedule, in my reading. That's what I've been doing today, and am now taking a bit of a break to ponder how depressing the weather has been lately.

Tonight Big B and I are going to a dance that the high school booster club is putting on as a fund raiser. We got our tickets free being that we're both American Legion members and the AL supports the boosters, so they'd bought a block of tickets from which members were able to take from and go to the dance on behalf of the AL. The dance should be interesting. It's being held at some building in our local fairgrounds. The fairgrounds are surrounded by dirt....and in rain that means mud. Oh joy. It's a casual event though, as in jeans, so at least there's that!

I better get back to the books since I did make some pretty good headway earlier!

If you're reading this I hope you're staying warm and dry!!