November 3, 2011

Getting up and moving...in a few aspects

I packed up Meriwhen the RN and moved it here (moved it back here, actually) to Blogger. I have more control over the HTML and layouts here than I did at WordPress. I was also able to import all of the posts from the blog I had as a nursing student (carryonnurse.wordpress.com) so everything is all in one place. I like that :)

No news on the job hunt front. I'm going to give the first place a call tomorrow after my coffee date just to touch base and see if they need anything else for me...and basically to remind them I exist. This is my number #1 hospital here and I'd really like to work for them, if not in psych then in some other way, shape or form. I also applied to a couple more jobs on the hospital chain's website--all psych but at different locations than where I interviewed. Then something caught my eye in one of the listings generated from my job search agent at hospital #1. They were posting about a critical care nurse training program starting in January.

Really?

I read some more. Twelve hour shifts, but I'm starting to reconcile myself to the fact that I'm probably going to end up having to work 12s--I'm just going to take charge of the childcare issue on my own and if the better half doesn't like it, he can step up to the plate or shut up. You need to have at least a year's acute care experience and BLS/ACLS, both of which I have (and I even have PALS too!)...of course, critical care experience and a BSN preferred. I'm debating about throwing my hat into the ring. It would be a great chance to scratch the medical itch as well as get some great training, but I'm also coming from a psych background so I'm not sure how much of a chance they want to take on me.

I can sell myself the best that I can though...but I didn't have a good cover letter selling myself as a specialty crossover candidate on hand, so I decided not to apply today while I work on one. I did drop an e-mail to both the nurse recruiter and my contact person in HR (the one who does write me back) to ask if they had other training programs and that I'd be interested in them. Nothing to lose there, right?

And since I am feeling so spirited, I am going to write another hospital chain's nurse recruiter to ask about their training programs, since I've seen them mention them in their job listings: "X year's recent experience or completion of our training program required." So let's find out how to get into one of those training programs...if I can find a contact address for me to send a message to, that is. And to help increase the odds that my e-mail does make it through, my first sentence is that I'm an experienced nurse, lest they think it's yet another new grad.

This spirited feeling won't last long though. I still miss my cat.