The last update in the Get To Work series wasn't too long ago, but it finally feels like it's moving forward again. I'd gotten stuck in the 'wait wait wait' mode and that just doesn't help anybody.
I left off after applying to the authoritarian federal prison system with its 'how are you going to help the Presidents executive orders' questions. The answers I left were not going to be helpful so I most certainly wasn't going to hold my breath. I'd also applied to the VA mental health facility nearby.
I then stopped to make a plan. And.... yeah, I didn't really make a plan. Instead I got stuck in another round of feeling sorry for myself (yeah yeah, I'll be addressing that with my NP tomorrow morning). When my pity party ended I just jumped in and applied to the local mental health facility. They HAD a couple nurse positions but evidently they closed already. Instead I applied to a nurse care manager position. I wasn't nearly as confident in that though.
A couple days later I looked at Indeed again just to get an idea of other jobs out there. One that immediately called out to me was a contract agency who I've worked with before. Not the one that got me my first job in the prison system, but the one that I used to hire nurses INTO the prison system. And lo and behold, they were advertising a specific position for that very prison. The very prison that I applied for and someone else supposedly got. Yeah, it was BS when they told me someone else got the job.
I waffled back and forth for a bit on this. They actually had two positions that could work for me. That prison and one in my home town. It's suck working for a contract agency. I left the prison system in July of 2022 as a Nurse Manager and then come back in January of 2026 as a contract nurse? I'd be lower than low man on the totem pole as I wouldn't even be IN the seniority pool.
But, it would get me in the door. And it DOES pay. In fact, it pays $64 an hour. Now that's no health insurance, no sick days, no paid time off, no benefits whatsoever. But I could pay for insurance out of pocket and either look for work elsewhere or work at getting hired in as a state employee again. It's also be the easiest job back in as I've done that job before.
To be honest, I was about 50/50 on whether or not it would be worth it to even apply as I'd still have to interview. But then something hit me that put it over the edge... it'd put my name in their face again. If the HUM isn't doing this to be a pain, she'd see that it's hurting me. And knowing her, that alone would hurt her. I hate to say it, but that fact, the fact that it might hurt her, put it over the edge. So, I put my application in for both positions.
While continuing to peruse Indeed, I saw another job that shone brightly. A nurse manager position at a behavioral health hospital. This isn't a state hospital though, it's in a local hospital group. I've heard of the hospital group and knew they had a behavioral health department, but I didn't know they had a whole behavioral health hospital.
Quick aside, in general Mental Health and Behavioral Health are the same thing. It's like the difference between Manager and Supervisor. If a place has both then there is a slight difference but if they don't, then they mean the same thing. In this instance, it may as well be a Mental Health Hospital... just like the one I worked at before.
I was curious about there being a behavioral health hospital that I hadn't heard of before so I put the address of the hospital into google maps and was pleasantly surprised. It was most certainly new. New new! On the google maps satellite image, it was a construction site. In other words at most, it's a couple years old.
So, satisfied that it wasn't something strange, I put my application in for that.
The next day I got three very good signs.
The first came from the contract agency. They immediately hit me up for my email address (I'd had to apply through Indeed so they didn't automatically have that information). When I sent that along to them, they hit me right back, asking for more information. We went back and forth for a bit and she sent me some paperwork to fill out. Paperwork that gets me inside a prison's secured perimeter. That's paperwork that's needed for an interview.
Once I sent that to her, along with copies of my drivers license, I told her I was going to get my updated BLS certificate soon and I'd send that to her as soon as possible (more on that in a bit). She said she didn't need the BLS certificate right now and could send the rest in to the department of corrections for my background check. She said that should take 7 to 10 business days and then she could forward it on to the hiring authority (the HUM). Obviously, I'm going to pass the background check as nothings changed since I worked there and nothings changed since I last passed this check at my last interview. In two weeks, the HUM should get my name on her desk.
The BLS certificate. It's standard practice for almost all nursing jobs to require them to have basic life support knowledge. CPR classes used to be the standard but in the last couple decades the Red Cross has set up specific training for health care providers called Basic Life Support. You take the classes and get certified for two years. I had to do this in 2013 when I first got hired. Every year after that, my employer got me re-certified. Well, even if I could find my last certification from the State Mental Health Hospital, it would have expired by now. The good thing is that the classes are offered through the Red Cross so they're easy to get.
I checked online and saw the soonest I could take the class in my town was on January 30th. That would probably work, but I'd rather get this done now. It might be required for other jobs and not all jobs move as slow as the state or the federal government. So I searched within a 100 mile radius and found a place about an hours drive away. I registered for that class Thursday night. It took most of Friday to do the online classwork and then had the in person class Saturday. Literally eight minutes after I walked out of the classroom, I was emailed my new certificate. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.
The next good sign sounds bad. I got an email from the Federal Bureau of Prisons saying that I wasn't qualified for a nursing job with them. At first I was pissed off and all WTF!!! But when I read the email I saw that I was disqualified because the transcripts I uploaded didn't include the school's name. That struck me as odd because they were the same transcripts I'd used for any job I'd applied for since... well, since I graduated in 2011. But lo and behold, when I looked at them they did in fact NOT list what school they were from. It's kind of funny that the State fully accepted them. Twice.
Anyway, that was easy enough to fix. Back in 2012 when I got these copies, it was a pain but now it's just a matter of asking online and paying $10. It was emailed to me an hour later. An hour after that I had it uploaded to the BOP site and it showed that I was now qualified again for the job.
The last good sign was from the behavioral health hospital. They wanted to schedule a 15 minute call with their HR department to go over my resume. I didn't get TOO excited about that one because it was more or less a pre-interview. I'd heard about these before. It's an interview to make sure I'm the real deal and not just BSing my resume. I went ahead and scheduled that for 2:00 on Monday (today).
These were all good signs, but I gave myself the weekend off from applying and set a goal of applying for several more jobs after the phone interview today. I'd actually planned on having this post written up before the interview and then add its details afterward or even as a comment. But I didn't get it done, and I just now finished with the phone interview.
I HAVE AN INTERVIEW TOMORROW!!!
This is an interview with the COO and CNO (Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer) of the hospital.
I may be reading too much into it, but I am VERY excited about the interview. For one thing, I know they move fast on hiring. I'm interviewing with the CNO who the HR specialist I was talking to said is 'new'. Well yeah... her job position is still up on the website! The CNO is new NEW! It's also a BIG company. The hospital group I thought it was associated with is one of the smaller healthcare groups in Michigan, but the company that actually runs the hospital specializes in mental/behavioral health hospitals and have over 200 facilities nationwide. This was also more than just a check on my resume. This HR rep was doing the groundwork of selling ME on the position. She sounded almost apologetic when she confirmed that it was an evening position (3PM to 11PM) and was genuinely relieved when I told her I preferred that shift. She told me that they're licensed for 96 beds and that's divided between 4 wings. One each for mood disorders, thought disorders, "DD", and geriatric. No adolescents. Size wise, to put it in perspective, it's just less than half the size of the state hospital I was last working at. That hospital had 270 beds and at times I managed the entire hospital by myself. I think, however, that she was selling their facility as Big! I'll try not to giggle at the interview!
The final straw that got me excited was asking what I was expecting for compensation. I'll admit, I was NOT prepared for that. I'd done NO research for it. The problem is that it's an immediate question/answer that can affect getting an interview (she asked before offering an interview) and getting a job offer. Ask too little and you're undervaluing yourself. Ask too much and you're not even worth bringing in. In my head I went through the numbers I'd seen so far. I'd seen positions for RNs starting as low as $50,000 a year. I think the highest I saw for a non specialized RN was $80,000. I know I saw one RN Manager position for $130,000 a year, but that was a temp contract job and they always pay high since it's not technically full time. I then remembered I was getting just under $100,000 a year when I left the state as an RN Manager. So I told her that. That I was making $100,000 a year when I left the state and wouldn't expect at least that.
And then there's the way she talked about the interview with the CNO and the COO. She called it an interview once. The rest of the time it was having an 'in person conversation'. She even said once when she was talking about the COO "Yeah, he likes to sit in on these."
Maybe I'm just too used to the State way of doing it where it is highly regimented. A three person panel, asking standardized questions of a group of people whom they'd make a decision on at a later time. Not, "Hey, can you sit down and talk with our CNO and COO tomorrow?"
She wasn't even firm on the time or day. She took a moment to get both of their schedules up and then said we could meet tomorrow and... she paused... and... Thursday would be good... during her next longish pause I told her that tomorrow would be fine. She seemed surprised "Are you sure that gives you enough time?"
I almost wanted to say "You know, I could be there in a couple hours if that's better!"
Instead I told her it was fine.
So, I'm going to research the hell out of this company, get some good questions in mind, write down some anecdotes about both the state hospital and the prison's mental health treatment teams. I'll be ready for a more thorough discussion on pay including benefits (they won't be able to match the state, so the pay should actually go up significantly). I'm going to be ready for a tour and ready to put my smile on and sell myself. And I'll be ready to accept the good... I'll be ready to accept a job offer!
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