Job Obtained!

I finally got a job working as an RRT! It's a relatively small hospital--let's call it Hospital X on the internet for privacy's sake. I had my interview about 2 and a half weeks ago and found out I got the job about 5 days ago. My interview consisted of 3 tiers, for lack of a better word. The first part of the interview was with the human resources representative. She asked all the standard questions you'd expect to hear in an interview. After I was done interviewing with her, she wanted me to meet with the manager of the respiratory care department. Now, I had my very first clinical rotation at Hospital X and had met the manager once, but other than an introduction that one time, I didn't know him. His interview was different from the one I just finished. He mostly asked me what I would do in certain situations that could come up. One of the questions I remember was, "You're doing a treatment on a patient when you get three urgent calls one after the other. What would you do?" Another question involved how I would compromise with physicians. That part went well. He told me I did a good job and said he wanted me to meet with some of the other people in the department. I figured I must have been looking good to have me spend so much time there.

The third tier of the interview was the most nerve-wracking of all of them. Three people came into the room. Thankfully I knew two of them already. One was the clinical education instructor who was with me when I was there for my clinicals. The second person was a therapist who had taken me and my classmates when the instructor couldn't, and the third person I recognized by her face, but I had never met her. Anyway, all three of them were asking me questions in turn about anything and everything. I felt less confident when I was leaving this part of the interview because it seemed like a lot of questions were about my lack of experience. When I was walking back to my car, I honestly didn't think I'd get the job. I haven't had any formal job experience in the field, and it had been 6 months since I had any experience in clinicals. I thought that if anything held me back from getting the job, it would be the experience factor.

Needless to say that when I got the call this week (which was right before my shift at the store), I was very surprised. I think what helped is that I made a good impression during my clinicals there two years ago. It must have been a good impression because I was remembered by 2 of the 3 people in that third part. The job is only contingent, so I probably won't have any set hours, but it's still valuable experience for me. I'm extremely terrified to start the job, but I have to just trust that they wouldn't have hired me if they didn't think I could handle it. I'm extremely grateful to them for giving me this chance and I have to give it my best shot.

Clinical Simulation Exam Passed!

I passed my Clinical Simulation portion of the RRT about a week and a half ago. I failed 2 of the cases, and I'm sorry I'm not allowed to say anything real specific because of the agreement I signed, but one was because I misinterpreted an EKG and then chose the wrong medication and the other dealt with cold exposure. I don't remember talking about that in school. Oh well. I still passed. I immediately came home and applied for the new jobs I was qualified for and sent in the paperwork for my Michigan respiratory license. I got a call from a hospital 3 days after I applied and was offered an interview! The interview is tomorrow morning and I've been going over my practice questions. I'm borderline terrified about how it's going to turn out, but I've been trying not to stress it too much. I'll update again when I have some more news, so until then, wish me luck ^.^~!