We recently had the opportunity to talk with a hospital decision maker about what makes one RN candidate stand out over another during the candidate selection process. We asked “Help us look through your eyes when you review the RN candidates that have been submitted to your open jobs from agencies”. Here is what we were told:
First, in today’s environment, having at least 3-5 years current experience in a specialty is just a ticket in for consideration. If nurses don’t have that, they will likely move to the bottom of the stack of profiles. Attention gets focused on 3 critical points:
1) The Nurses Resume. Nurses need to remember that a resume does the talking for them. Unit Managers don’t have the time to call and pre-screen candidates. The resume is what speaks on the nurse’s behalf. Many resumes that we receive from agencies are outdated, lack dates (we like to see month’s and years…not just years), and often do not contain all the necessary data such as the patient population the nurse has worked with, equipment used and procedures familiar to the nurse. The nurse needs to be able to summarize in her resume the reasons we would want her to work at our hospital.
2) Skills Checklist. A nurse’s skills checklist should be current up to the date of submission. Nurses typically update their skills checklist annually. However, we like to see skills checklist that are a true reflection of the nurse we are going to get. What a nurse can and can’t do is a determining factor if we are going to select them or pass on them.
3) References. We like to see references from supervisors. While our hospital policy does allow references from fellow nurses, we still prefer supervisor references. The reason being is that it is too easy for a nurse to have a couple of her friends give her a glowing reference based on their friendship vs. what the nurse is capable of clinically. If it comes down to two like candidates and one has supervisory references and the other has references from co-workers…well the supervisory references will get the advantage. That being said, we also realize that some nurses don’t want their supervisor to know that they may be moving on and that is why we don’t rule them out.
Well, there we have it…straight from the person who selects agency / travel nurses for her hospital. Whether you agree or disagree…it was an honest dialog and we appreciate her sharing her selection practices with us. What do you think?
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