0:01

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening,

0:03

good whatever time it is that

0:05

you're listening to this podcast, whether

0:07

you're driving around in your car,

0:09

walking, or just relaxing as you

0:12

prepare for bed, whatever it is,

0:14

welcome to the nursing podcast. My

0:16

name is John Haas, our in,

0:18

founder of nursing.com, and today we're

0:20

going to continue with my journey.

0:22

This is part four. Where we

0:24

left off was me quitting nursing

0:26

school and then eventually going back.

0:28

So we're going to pick up

0:30

the story. of getting back into

0:32

nursing school and then how I got

0:34

my first job in the neuro-ICU

0:36

at a level one trauma center

0:38

in Dallas. So I ended up

0:41

going back up to nursing school

0:43

right after Kai was born. I

0:45

drove our car back up there

0:47

by myself, had a little apartment,

0:49

and the plan was for Sandy

0:51

to come up with the kids

0:53

about a month or so later

0:56

after she had time for our

0:58

daughter to kind of... get

1:01

herself accustomed to being alive

1:03

or I guess whatever it is

1:05

our brand new born daughter. So

1:07

at the time we were living

1:09

on Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, all

1:11

of that to help cover child

1:13

care costs or taking care of

1:15

our kids feeding our kids to

1:17

give us some sort of insurance

1:19

and so we were living on

1:21

all of that. And in fact

1:23

when it was time to go

1:25

back to school I wasn't going

1:27

to be able to be working.

1:29

And Sandy was home with the

1:31

kids. And so she went and got

1:34

a bunch of frozen food and

1:36

things from Walmart, made some meals,

1:38

and packed them in a cooler

1:40

for me, so that I wouldn't

1:42

have to spend any money on

1:44

groceries. And so I go up

1:46

there, and I find our apartment, this

1:48

is the day or two before

1:51

school's gonna start, but I didn't

1:53

have a bed. And I really don't

1:55

know what my plan was. I don't

1:57

know if I was going to... Sleepable.

2:00

floor, I don't know, because we

2:02

didn't have money to buy a

2:04

bed. So I get my suitcase

2:06

or two into the apartment, and

2:08

I'm driving around the apartment parking

2:10

lot, just probably going to school

2:12

or something or coming home from

2:15

school. And out of the corner

2:17

of my eye, I see, you

2:19

know, apartment complexes have kind of

2:21

communal dumpsters. I see leaning against

2:23

the dumpster close to my apartment.

2:25

a king-sized mattress. And I think,

2:27

oh yes, score. So I back

2:29

the Honda Civic, which is the

2:32

car that we had, I back

2:34

it up to the dumpster, put

2:36

the mattress on top of the

2:38

car, and drive it over to

2:40

where our apartment was, which was

2:42

on the second floor, and I

2:44

lug it up the two flights

2:47

of stairs into the apartment complex

2:49

where we're going to be staying.

2:51

So yeah, for the last semester

2:53

of nursing school, I truly did

2:55

sleep on a dumpster mattress. We

2:57

lived off of very, very little.

2:59

We had no other furniture. We

3:01

ate on the floor, we, except

3:04

for beds for our kids. And

3:06

so it was a really interesting

3:08

time as we were finishing that

3:10

up and having that hope of

3:12

becoming a nurse. And so my

3:14

last semester, I was with a

3:16

new cohort at this time because

3:18

I had... you know, dropped out,

3:21

they're withdrawn. And so during that

3:23

last semester, it was clinicals, kids,

3:25

clinicals, kids, that's all it really

3:27

was. But I knew that I

3:29

needed to find a job. I

3:31

needed to find a good job

3:33

to be able to pay for

3:35

having two children now. So I

3:38

really wanted to work in the

3:40

ICU. I really wanted that experience

3:42

because at the time my plan

3:44

was to go. CR&A. And so

3:46

I really wanted to work in

3:48

the ICU. So I want to

3:50

give you guys some tips that

3:53

I used to get a job in

3:55

the ICU right after coming out of

3:57

nursing school. So I'm going to talk

3:59

you through some of those tips and

4:02

then tomorrow we're going to get into

4:04

my experience during that first year as

4:06

a nurse and what it was like

4:08

to have an internship and how that

4:11

all unfolded but today I want to

4:13

tell you guys the path that I

4:15

took to actually get that job in

4:17

the neuro ICU. So as a new

4:20

grader in with no experience whatsoever I

4:22

was offered interviews in the following ICUs

4:24

in Duke University, Baylor University University of

4:27

Arkansas Medical Center, Methodist Dallas Medical Center,

4:29

and many smaller ICUs, ORs, and emergency

4:31

departments. Now I'm not saying that to

4:33

brag. In fact, I spent hours and

4:36

hours and hours looking for and researching

4:38

new jobs and new grad ICU jobs,

4:40

and now I want to share some

4:42

of those tips with you. So starting

4:45

in the ICU can be really tough,

4:47

but within a well-structured internship or residency,

4:49

it's the best place to start for

4:52

a new grad. because it's going to

4:54

expose you to so much. The problem

4:56

is many ICUs want two to three

4:58

years of experience. So here's some tricks

5:01

to get that. I'm going to give

5:03

you four no-fail tips to get a

5:05

spot in the ICU as a new

5:07

grad are in. First of all, you

5:10

got to become familiar with Google, indeed,

5:12

and all nurses. I know you know

5:14

all those websites, but let me talk

5:16

to you about how those work. All

5:19

three of these sites are essentially search

5:21

engines, meaning they're designed to find answers

5:23

for you. So new positions for graduating

5:26

nurses are called, I'm gonna give you

5:28

five different ways that they're commonly called,

5:30

but any variation of these. So new

5:32

grad are in, new nurse residency, nurse

5:35

internship, nurse residency program, nurse graduate program.

5:37

Now any variation of these new nurse

5:39

resident internship graduate, you're gonna want to

5:41

go over to Google and type in,

5:44

for example. new grads are in residency

5:46

or any variation of that. And you're

5:48

going to get a screen that is

5:51

loaded with results from Vanderbilt. Indeed, you

5:53

pin OHSU, Wisconsin, Rush, UCSD, a lot

5:55

of these are going to be educational

5:57

facilities. But the results are going to

6:00

include some of the top residencies. So

6:02

within 30 seconds, you already have a

6:04

huge list of new grad residencies. Next,

6:06

I want you to use the above

6:09

search terms on Indeed. as a way

6:11

to narrow it down geographically. If you

6:13

really want to find ones that are

6:15

in your area, use all those different

6:18

search terms, but on indeed. So once

6:20

you have a list of residency programs

6:22

and know which ones offer ICU programs

6:25

or OB or whatever it is you're

6:27

trying to work in, head over to

6:29

all nurses, which this is still helpful

6:31

even as we speak in 2025, but

6:34

also this might work on TikTok. But

6:36

I like having the broader. scope of

6:38

more people telling me what to look

6:40

for. So at all nurses, so you

6:43

can learn a little bit about these

6:45

positions. So you can enter in a

6:47

search term there on all nurses, and

6:50

these positions are going to be very,

6:52

very, very competitive. So in fact, the

6:54

job that I got, I had 800

6:56

applications for 22 spots into the critical

6:59

care spots. So this is how you're

7:01

going to find these positions. The next

7:03

step goes into step number two. which

7:05

is your references and your connections. These

7:08

don't lie. These mean so much especially

7:10

in nursing. So one of my favorite

7:12

quotes is, you are the average of

7:14

the five people you spend the most

7:17

time with. I love this quote because

7:19

one of the fastest ways to learn

7:21

about someone is by knowing their closest

7:24

associations and friends. This carries over into

7:26

your job applications. If you're applying to

7:28

a residency program at one of the

7:30

country's top hospitals, don't offer a reference

7:33

from your mom or from your childhood

7:35

babysitter babysitter. These are great people, but

7:37

this says something about you. And it

7:39

says that you don't have connections and

7:42

you haven't built those connections, those bridges

7:44

that are needed to get these positions.

7:46

So here's a. list of people I

7:49

would ask for references for and as

7:51

we talk through this, this is going

7:53

to tell you a little bit about

7:55

what you should be doing while you're

7:58

in nursing school to build those references.

8:00

The first would be the dean of

8:02

your program. Second would be the president

8:04

of your college, the highest-ranking individual, you

8:07

know. Number three would be the most

8:09

difficult professor of your program, even if

8:11

you didn't get an A, but you

8:13

worked your butt off, that's going to

8:16

speak volumes. A clinical instructor who's actually

8:18

seen you working, a the highest up

8:20

manager at your job, not your buddy,

8:23

even if it's not a health care

8:25

job, a friend, if they're a good

8:27

worker who's a nurse who's working on

8:29

the floor, you're applying to, that would

8:32

be optimal. So do you see a

8:34

pattern here? Basically, you want individuals that

8:36

have a proven themselves as hard workers

8:38

and dedicated individuals. Ideally, they already have

8:41

some sort of relationship to you so

8:43

they can speak to you, but also

8:45

to health care and to what you're

8:47

trying to do. When I was applying

8:50

to jobs as a new grad, they

8:52

did require references. So mine came from

8:54

the two deans of my College of

8:57

Nursing, the director of my program, and

8:59

a physician friend. I built these connections.

9:01

I didn't have no conflict with these

9:03

people. In fact, the deans of my

9:06

college, I had a lot of conflict

9:08

with about how my views on the

9:10

program and their views on the program,

9:12

but that didn't matter. They saw this

9:15

as someone who was driven and motivated.

9:17

Now that I have experience, my references

9:19

have become my manager, the director of

9:22

the ICU, a co-worker that is also

9:24

a preceptor charge nurse and CRNA. So

9:26

that shifts as you get further and

9:28

further into your career. It shifts from

9:31

being the directors of your nursing programs

9:33

to the directors of the floor that

9:35

you're on, etc. Now we move on

9:37

to the resume. So you found a

9:40

job. You've asked for references. Now let's

9:42

talk about your resume. Your resume and

9:44

job application are really the only picture

9:46

a hiring manager has for you. Remember,

9:49

they spend seconds, if that, looking at

9:51

everyone, they have a... 800 of these

9:53

to go to to find 22 people.

9:56

So how can you stand out? Now

9:58

I'm not a resume writing expert by

10:00

any means, but for assistance, you can

10:02

actually, a lot of colleges will have

10:05

resume writing experts that you can go

10:07

to, so check on that, see if

10:09

they have that, and take full advantage

10:11

of these things. But here are a

10:14

few things that nurse managers are looking

10:16

for. They're looking for a history of

10:18

hard work, history of dedication, unique skills,

10:21

demonstrates, the demonstration that you have. some

10:23

sort of interest in nursing, whether that's

10:25

in clubs, work history, certifications like BLS,

10:27

ACLS, or published work, and location, even

10:30

if that published work is like guest

10:32

blogging on, like nursing.com or something like

10:34

that, and then location and hours for

10:36

clinicals, have you actually been in the

10:39

ICU? Do you know what it's going

10:41

to be like, or are you just

10:43

hoping that you get this random job?

10:45

Now it doesn't all come down to

10:48

experience in health care, but this is

10:50

invaluable. When I landed my job in

10:52

the ICU, I only had six months

10:55

of paid hospital experience. And that was

10:57

many years prior to this, and it

10:59

was as a patient transporter, not in

11:01

an ICU. But are you a member

11:04

of the Student Nurse Association? I know

11:06

this is just an extra thing to

11:08

do in college, but it can help.

11:10

Have you gone above and beyond and

11:13

obtained ACLS? If you have BLS, you

11:15

can get ACL? Did you create a

11:17

club, a group, or a research group?

11:20

Did you do a research paper? And

11:22

how many hands on hours do you

11:24

have an ICU? Even if it's through

11:26

your clinicals, you can say, you know,

11:29

48 hours of ICU experience at this

11:31

hospital taking care of these kinds of

11:33

patients. If you haven't done any of

11:35

these things, start doing them now. It

11:38

can be as simple as forming some

11:40

sort of club on your campus or

11:42

enrolling in any CLS course or whatever

11:44

it is, but they want hands on

11:47

experience. So if you don't have this

11:49

or you don't have a way to

11:51

make it, make it, make it. Let

11:54

me tell you what honestly happens with

11:56

online applications. First of all, you're going

11:58

to be pre-screen to see if you

12:00

meet the minimum requirements. requirements. If you

12:03

don't have BLS, if you don't have

12:05

your RN yet, that's the first thing.

12:07

This is often done by a human

12:09

resources employee who's never worked a day

12:12

in their life as a nurse or

12:14

never even gone to nursing school or

12:16

anything like that. To get past this

12:19

first-gen, you need to fill everything out.

12:21

Do every single piece of the application.

12:23

Otherwise, it's just going to go through.

12:25

Don't think that your God's gift to

12:28

this job. Think that they're a gift

12:30

to you. And what can you do

12:32

to make sure you get past this

12:34

first round? Okay. So, when there's a

12:37

chance for free text, talk about yourself.

12:39

How are you different from other nursing

12:41

students applying for the same job? If

12:43

you aren't sure how to answer questions

12:46

that ask about yourself, you're talking about

12:48

how you're different from your classmates. Are

12:50

you better higher than everyone in your

12:53

cohort? If you really believe so, think.

12:55

about how that and how to quantify

12:57

that. Maybe start thinking about that now,

12:59

put a little note in your phone,

13:02

but how can you put that into

13:04

words? So once you know what that

13:06

is, think of some examples in your

13:08

life, school or work that show that.

13:11

You can't say, I'm a really dedicated

13:13

worker, say, you know, I've held the

13:15

same position at this company for this

13:18

many years, worked my way up in

13:20

this way. All right, and then make

13:22

sure you add on there your clinical...

13:24

experience, how many hours you rotated, at

13:27

what hospital, how many beds, what sort

13:29

of stuff did you do. Okay, that's

13:31

going to be really important than any

13:33

real clinical experience you have, and that's

13:36

going to be kind of the resume

13:38

part. The last thing, step four here

13:40

is if you're just thinking about it,

13:42

it's too late. If you're in that

13:45

last semester, if you've already got your...

13:47

authorization to test or whatever or you've

13:49

already passed the inclex it's too late

13:52

you got to start looking out this

13:54

earlier I'm sure you can tell if

13:56

you have a diploma in hand it's

13:58

It's too late. You really need to,

14:01

you can start this now. Now if

14:03

you haven't started it, that's okay,

14:05

start now. But the best time to

14:07

start is now. So the journey become

14:09

a standout nurse really begins before you

14:11

even step into your first class as

14:13

a freshman. To be honest, to be

14:15

honest, to your first class as a

14:17

freshman. To be honest with you, I

14:19

never wanted to work medsurge. I knew

14:21

that. I just knew it wasn't gonna

14:23

be for me. My goal before nursing

14:25

school was to become a C. So during

14:27

nursing school, my entire focus was

14:29

on learning the material as deeply

14:31

as possible so that I could

14:33

start to make those connections quickly.

14:35

I met my professors. I built

14:37

connections with every preceptor I had.

14:39

I went to the dean during

14:41

her office hours and discussed things

14:44

and that should change even. I had

14:46

my sight set and I had no

14:48

intention of settling for anything less. I

14:50

didn't want to work anywhere but the

14:52

ICU. So this relentlessless focus began to

14:55

show. in my grades and my performance

14:57

on clinical floor. Before too long I

14:59

had the GPA, I had the references,

15:01

I had the skills needed so that

15:04

when I found the job, when I had my

15:06

resume, when I had my references, I

15:08

was ready to apply for these. So

15:10

what I'm saying is start today. Now

15:12

a bonus tip, we've talked about all

15:14

these different things that you can do

15:16

and that you should do, but a bonus

15:18

tip and this one is just as important,

15:21

is be sociable. If you do get an

15:23

interview, the hardest part. of landing

15:25

the job is over. You've got

15:27

that face-to-face time with the manager.

15:29

The managers brought you in. They think

15:32

you're a good fit for the job. And

15:34

their whole role is to say, you know, why

15:36

shouldn't I hire this person? At this

15:38

point, it's really your job to lose.

15:40

So be very sociable. And this can

15:42

be scary, but don't let it be

15:44

too scary. Take a deep breath. Don't

15:47

try too hard. Be yourself. Crack a

15:49

joke or two. It takes all kinds

15:51

to be in the nursing field, some

15:53

more sociable another, some less sociable, different

15:56

interests, show who you are as a

15:58

person, and of course ask a lot

16:00

of questions, but make them questions

16:03

that you've researched. Say, I saw

16:05

the mission of the hospital is

16:07

this. Can you tell me how

16:09

this floor is doing that? Say,

16:12

what kind of patients will I

16:14

be taking care of on a

16:16

day-to-day basis? And then smile.

16:18

I'm not a really like bright

16:21

shiny smiley person, but try

16:23

to smile a little bit while

16:25

you're there. So that's step

16:27

five of my journey. And we're going

16:30

to keep continuing with the journey

16:32

now that I've, so I ended up getting

16:34

a job in a neuro ICU,

16:36

an internship, a 13 week internship,

16:38

and a neuro ICU there in

16:40

Dallas at a level one trauma

16:43

center and absolutely loved it. But

16:45

we're going to continue that tomorrow

16:47

and I'm going to talk to

16:49

you about how that went and where

16:51

my career eventually went as I

16:53

worked on the nursing floor. So

16:55

I hope that helps. you know,

16:57

hearing part of my story helps

16:59

going from sleeping on a dumpster

17:01

mattress to getting a job in

17:03

a neuro ICU right out of school.

17:05

I hope that helps give you some

17:08

motivation today. If you're, if you are

17:10

struggling to pay the rent, to pay

17:12

the bills, if you are, not sure if

17:14

this is ever going to end, it

17:16

does, and you will be able to do

17:19

these things. And my story is proof of

17:21

that, and I know that you can too.

17:23

I'm not special in any way, and I

17:25

know that you can do this. So tomorrow,

17:28

tune back in, we're going to talk about

17:30

the beginning of my journey as an actual

17:32

RN and where I went in those

17:34

first couple of years. All right? So

17:36

with that said, go out and be

17:38

your best self. And as always, happy

17:40

nursing.