Author Archives: Damaris

You found a role you’re interested in.. Now, how do you land the job?

You found a role you’re interested in.. Now, how do you land the job?

I last posted about leaving the bedside and transitioning into a healthcare tech role and things you can do to land an interview. You found a role you’re interested in. Now, how do you land the job? First of all, the transition from the bedside to healthcare tech or remote role can be exciting and anxiety producing all at once, “anxi-excited” I call it. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing.) Choosing a company whose values and mission you really care about or resonate with is pretty major. It will make it so much easier to be genuine when interviewing for the job and, trust me, employers will notice that.

I recently connected with Veronica, founder of StellarNurse. StellarNurse is a tech startup who focuses on travel nursing salary data. Their goal is to “help travel nurses find the best paying jobs fast using objective & unbiased data.” She recently hired a new member, a nurse AND content creator, to her team. I’m very excited for her, and naturally, I had some questions to pick her brain with.. Like what she looked for in the candidate and some insight into how the process looked on her end. So here we go!

She used a job board to post the role. In her posting she gave a brief description of her company, a detailed description of what kind of person she was looking for the role, and what the job entailed. An experienced person with *insert tech/apps.* She used words like “awesome,” “rockstar-levels,” and “fun & valuable.” She had over 20 applicants email her! But she interviewed only THREE. So how exactly did she determine WHO she wanted?

Her new team member quickly made her case. In three sentences she expressed her interest, listed her experience in nursing and content creation, and used keywords mirroring what the company was looking for. More about building your resume here.

When it came to her interview, Veronica was impressed by several things: Her candidate’s comfort using the technology, proactivity in showcasing the value she’d add to the team, and her support for the company’s vision/mission. So what questions exactly do tech startup companies ask and what are they looking for in the answers?

Their questions will ask about your teamwork, how you handle challenges, customer service, commitment to learn, your flexibility, and adaptability. And most like to know that you have familiarized yourself with the company and their values/missions. They want to know they are hiring someone that will support their company’s goal and that will bring value to the team.

Questions they may ask:

Towards the end of your interview, ask relevant questions. This is your opportunity to interview THEM. To ensure that they are adding value to your life as well. Ask questions about the company’s culture, the orientation process, and if it’s a remote role ask about the support you’ll receive in this setting. Ask about the position, company, “AND propose new position-specific ideas.” To Veronica, the latter was quite impressive as it showed her the candidate’s creativity and innovation.

Post interview, Veronica recommends:
  • Sending a thoughtful email thanking them for the interview and highlighting again why you’re interested in the company, the value you can add, and sending them and their company well wishes, Doing this shows that you care about the company and regardless of the decision, you wish them all best. Keep in mind, editing your written responses prior to sending is crucial. “Your grammar, writing style, language, and greetings used are all taken into consideration.”
Other recommendations:
  • Familiarize yourself with the tech the company uses BEFORE the interview. It is likely you will be asked about your experience using these during your interview. If you are not familiar, be sure to be honest about your experience, but highlight your willingness to learn, if you’re a fast learner, or other strengths related to learning and growth.
  • If the posting is for content creation or social media manager, or something along those lines, having a portfolio with relevant and entertaining examples of your work will make it easier for both parties. Employers are typically busy, and being proactive and having this readily available for them shows them you’re serious about the job. It shows you have initiative.
  • Research the company you’re applying to. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.. When applying to companies, I go to their page, review their values, mission, and vision. I read reviews, what clients and staff are saying. Look into what kind of “vibe” they’re putting out and what words they use often on their site. Following the company’s social media accounts can be super useful for this search! Then, find ways to accurately present yourself as close to these qualities as possible.
  • Use a cover letter. “This is your opportunity to show your personality, what strengths you’ll bring and why you’d be a good fit in the company. Highlight how your bedside experience would translate into value for the company.” For example, in healthcare and with the current situation, things are always changing and policies and procedures are often being updated. Highlight your adaptability, how you make the best of the situation, and how you quickly learn and implement these.
  • Last tip, use LinkedIn! You can use your profile on your resume or application. LinkedIn is a perfect place to network and explore non-bedside nursing opportunities. Veronica recommends, “Find nurses in jobs you’re interested in and inmail them questions on how to break into their field. I’ve gotten good responses in the past!”

Huge thanks to Veronica and StellarNurse for their first-hand insight into the tech startup world! Check out the StellarNurse Travel Nurse Salary Guide here.

Make sure to check them out on Instagram too!

Post Shift Check In

Post Shift Check In

After shift thoughts..

  • Promotes awareness of stressors and triggers
  • Helps put things into perspective: Was it really a “bad shift” or was it a bad hour?
  • Helps with processing of challenging shifts
  • Assists with increasing self-compassion and leaning into grace
Download here

Mental Health Resources

Mental Health: Therapy Edition 💞

The purpose of self care is to promote physical and mental wellbeing. It’s no doubt self-care, now more than ever, is important to us as healthcare providers. Regardless of the role you play in patient care, it can wear on you. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. Working in the ER, I saw where we ended up treating several symptoms because the cause was not addressed in time or appropriately. It often felt like we’re just putting bandaids over the real issue. I sometimes think self-care can be the same way.

Download: Mental Health Resources

Yes, the massages, facials, and the relaxation techniques feel nice and they do help. However, some distress requires more than these simple techniques. And that’s ok. It’s ok to seek help. Keeping the budget friendly theme going, I put together a list of resources that offer free or low cost professional services, including peer to peer resources.

If you’re struggling, please seek help. You are important and cared about. You are loved, and we need your light. As always, I’ll leave the feedback form down below. Feel free to use it to share your experience if you’d like too.

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Self-Care on a Budget: Kindness Edition

Kindness Edition 💖

The purpose of self care is to promote physical and mental wellbeing. This can be done through various methods. A big one I often forget about is being kind in the way I think of and speak to myself.

Being kind to ourselves doesn’t have to be a big, expensive event. The small things matter! Speaking in a kind manner to yourself. Do kinds for yourself. Value your alone time. It can be as small as lighting a warm vanilla scented candle. There’s something so magical about the way you feel when you light your favorite candle. Or the emotions that come up when you realize how many wins you actually had over the week. There’s power in learning to love your alone time and buying yourself the flowers that spark your joy or creativity.

Give these a try and let me know what you think! As always, feel free to download this page and leave your feedback down below. 👇🏽

DOWNLOAD: Self Care on a Budget: Kindness Edition

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Healthcare Tech

Leaving the Bedside: The Transition into a Healthcare Tech Company

I recently shared a post on my Instagram stories regarding healthcare applications and startup companies. I didn’t realize the amount of people interested in this option. I received several great questions and I’d love to share what I know and things that helped me land this job!

*This is my first healthcare tech job. My knowledge of this world before was very limited, almost nonexistent. Please keep in mind there is more than one way to land a job in this industry, and this is what worked for me.

How did you get started? How can I get started?

I honestly don’t have the best answer to this as I stumbled across my job accidentally. I saw an ad of theirs on social media targeting nurses (completely unrelated to my current role). I clicked on their page, scrolled to careers, and applied to a couple of their roles. It really was that simple! I heard back from them within a week. The time frame from when I first applied to when I got the job offer was about 2 weeks. At the same time I had applied to another company, but it was a little over a month before I even heard from them. This is just to show how the hiring timeline will vary by employer.

Where can I find jobs like this?

Look directly on the company’s career page and read the job requirements. Do you have a tech company that comes to mind? Do you see ads for companies you may be interested in? This could be on Facebook, Instagram, nurse blogs… Search the company’s career page! You never know what you can find.

You can also search on LinkedIn. Search “Healthcare Technology” or “Remote Registered Nurse.” Adjust other filters as desired.

Lastly, check out The Remote Nurse and Nurse FERN. They are constantly posting remote jobs. While they are not all at healthcare tech companies, they do occasionally throw some in there. I believe The Remote Nurse has both a free job board along with a paid membership, and Nurse FERN’s job board is free.

But, I just love when nurses grow and expand outside of a traditional bedside role… So I have included some pretty cool ones here. These are active posts as of today and all remote from what I can see. I tried to add companies I’ve heard of or had good reviews online, but please do your own research too!

StaffingOther
CareRev – Several RolesClinical Educator RN – ROLE FILLED
Medely – RecruiterClinical Informatics– ROLE FILLED
Nomad – Account ManagerProfessional Development Specialist
Trusted Health – Several RolesTelehealth Nurse (in person reqs too)
Credentialing Specialist ROLE FILLEDWriter – Nutrition/Integrative Medicine

What is the pay like?

Pay (isn’t always), but can be less than what you’re used to at bedside. Try to negotiate ALWAYS. Follow Whole Life Nurse for tips and negotiation scripts & keep an eye out for when the CDYC Community opens up. Here you’ll find a supportive and knowledgeable community to cheer you on. (You can join the waitlist here.)

Determine what’s important for you! Are you able and willing to take a pay cut? For me, personally, I made a plan, paid off most of my debt, and set myself up to be jobless for 9 months if need be. I was struggling with my mental health, and pausing travel nursing to work from home made the pay cut worth it.

I took 3 months off of any work, so I did dig into my savings for those 3 months. Since then, my finances have been manageable. It has certainly been an adjustment, but the bills are paid and my mental and emotional wellbeing continues to improve. Best of all, I have the time and energy to work on things that bring me joy.

Do you have any tips to land a job in this industry?

Yes! One of the big ones is resume building. I feel like people don’t think about their resumes much, but it really does make a difference. Here are some tips when it comes to building your resume:

  • Make sure to incorporate adjectives they use in their job posting. Energetic, fast learner, tech savvy, collaborative, detail oriented, etc.
  • Highlight your strengths as they related to the role(s) you are applying to.
    • If you’re applying to a remote position in a tech company. They may not care about your IV skills or how familiar you are with tube feedings or reading EKG strips.
    • Do include:
      • how you consistently met and/or exceeded metric expectations (scanning compliance, patient satisfaction scores, admit times, discharge times, standard goal times, etc)
      • your time management skills and the collaborative approach you took while managing the care of multiple patients at once.
      • your leadership skills. Did you serve as charge or train others? Did you manage the scheduling needs of the unit or prepare them for JCAHO/DNV? Did you help with audits? Did you assist with hiring?
      • your organizational skills. Did you help set up organization systems for staff education and certifications in the unit?
      • your willingness to learn. Were you in any committees? Describe what these did for the hospital/staff. Did it work to create/enhance current practices? Did it empower and encourage staff to engage in changes?
  • You don’t want to submit the same resume for every job you apply to.
    • If they are looking for a medical writer/content creator, you don’t want to use the same resume you used for a recruiting/telehealth posting because the roles are completely different and the strengths/skills they’re looking for are likely not the same.

** Pro tip: Invest in building your resume. I bought templates from The Resume Rx. They were clean, beautiful, and ATS friendly. Click here to see the different bundles she offers. **

I believe how you interview is very important, too. & in the next few weeks, I’ll be working to put an interview guide together, specifically for healthcare tech companies. In the meantime, feel free to leave any feedback or other questions you may have in the form down below. You can also follow me on Instagram for more!

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Self-Care on a Budget: Date Night Edition

Date Night Edition 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Date night is one of my favorite nights of the week, and we always try to switch it up. Earlier this year, I quit my job and took a 3 month break from working. During that time, I tried to be more creative with our date nights while staying conscious of our costs. We tried many of the recommendations I listed and had so much fun! We still did things we both enjoyed and some in the comfort and privacy of our home!

I am back to working now, but being in the kitchen together and having outdoor dates remain some of my favorite budget friendly date night ideas. There’s just something wonderful about being outdoors to me, whether it’s homemade lunch at the park or a sunset (take out) dinner by the water.

What are some of your favorite date nights? Is there a way to enjoy them while staying on a budget?

Hope these ideas give you a nice alternative if you do have a budget you need to stick to. As always, feel free to download. The sheet is in PDF format and completely free!

Download: Self Care on a Budget: Date Night Edition

Why are new grad nurses feeling burnt out and stressed?

Why are new grad nurses feeling burnt out and stressed?

I was talking to a friend this last week, and we talked about how it’s been working with new grads over the last year. We talked about some of the dangerous situations we’ve seen them involved in and how we’ve seen them respond. Now more than ever, new grads are feeling stressed and burnt out, and with great reason. Not only are they dealing with the stresses of being a new nurse, add to that all the changes healthcare has recently gone through.

Education has been quite different from what I experienced. I had in class training with professors readily available for questions. I was able to practice skills with them watching me and correcting me as needed. I was able to walk into a facility and watch the nurses during their day. I watched how they handled themselves with challenging situations, how they collaborated with providers, and how they interacted with families. I got to speak to patients and ask questions to nurses who were currently working the bedside. 

With many campuses cancelling clinicals, the hands-on experience was very limited if not gone. Even the little things like watching nurses interact with providers, patients, and families.. That wasn’t available. Not to mention the education once on the job. Many new grads were robbed of a full length training or were trained by new nurses too. Just to be clear, I’m in no way trying to discredit new grads. You are valuable and an asset, but there are just some things that are learned by experience and years on the job. And it’s simply not fair to either party. Of course, this has not been the experience for all. But to those of you who did experience this, I’m sorry.

You deserve proper training. You deserve to feel prepared, confident, and supported in this new role. Know this is not normal. Know nursing was not always this stressful or dark. I’d like to think that once this all settles and is over, it’ll get better. I wish I knew when this will happen. I hope this will happen. Please know that whatever it is you’re feeling is valid. Just because you’re “new” doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to feel burnt out. 

I had a vision of what I wanted my nursing career to be like, I was devastated that I felt so disillusioned and out of love with nursing at about 2 years in. I was upset at myself and felt defeated. At that time, I was working as Charge Nurse in a busy, short-staffed ER. I reminded myself how I handled x amount of high acuity patients alone this shift, how I worked 12 days in a row, how I was stuck in an airport halfway across the world and managed to make it back into the country an hr before my shift just to get home, change and go to work because I couldn’t leave the unit short staffed. I wore my burnout as a badge of honor until that “honor” became unbearable. So unbearable I quit my job. 

I don’t remember burnout being covered in nursing school. I wasn’t aware of the symptoms or how to manage them then. I also thought I was “too young of a nurse” to even feel disillusioned with nursing, too young to want to leave it. “That’s something older nurses feel,” I told myself. I ended up taking a month off to rest and reset, and when I went back to the bedside I switched specialties. I also learned that I had a voice and that in order for my voice to be heard, I had to use it. I made my expectations clear with administration, I set my boundaries, and I kept them. I got a $10/hr pay increase. I went from working 20+ shifts per month to working 8, and I basically made my own schedule. You too have a voice, use it to advocate for yourself. Whether it’s by refusing to give up your off days, requesting a raise, bringing awareness to unsafe practices, negotiating your time off, or negotiating other benefits. Use your voice, always in an assertive but respectful manner. Remember, you’re an asset to the team. Don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise. 

Self-Care on a Budget: Mindfulness Edition

Mindfulness Edition 🧘🏻‍♀️

Today’s self care sunday is all about mindfulness and the practices you can use to give you that boost! When you hear the word “mindful,” it may sound boring. You may also think, “How do I achieve mindfulness?” When you search the definition for mindfulness online, it is defined as “focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.” This requires intention, attention, kindness, acceptance, and non-judgemental thoughts of one’s self. It may not always be easy, but every time you notice you’re drifting away from this mindful state, bring yourself back with kindness. The more you practice, the easier and more enjoyable it gets. 

I’ve added art here. It’s something we don’t always think about when speaking mindfulness, at least I didn’t and tbh it may not be considered a mindfulness practice lol. But I sometimes find it easier putting my thoughts and feelings of the present moment into shapes and colors as opposed to words or silence.

Give these a try and let me know which ones you like or work for you! 

As always, download the pdf to have access to the links!

Self Care on a Budget: Mindfulness Edition

Self-Care on a Budget: Spa Edition

Spa Edition 🧖🏽‍♀️

This is one of my favorites! Relaxing and getting pampered is one of my all time favorite forms of self care. With the COVID lockdown, my nail salon, massage therapist, and lash/skin care artist were all shut down. It was easy to ignore and let go of these “first world problems” at first, but it was honestly such a major part of my monthly self-care routine and I started missing these tremendously. So in true lockdown fashion, I went online and made a few purchases (Yay for Target and Amazon deliveries!) Details are attached under each heading with links to the items. Feel free to download this free worksheet down below. 

Even though I didn’t find a consistent budget friendly massage therapy alternative, I have seen some massage cushions on Amazon for as low as $50. I personally just used my boyfriend Haha. Thankful he didn’t complain.

Download: Self-Care on a Budget: Spa Edition