097: Should I apply for graduate programs - Grad Nursing Success Series
Should I apply for graduate programs - Grad Nursing Success Series
Welcome to the Graduate Nurse Success Series, a new podcast episode series on High Performance Nursing. If you're a graduate nurse or a third-year nursing student, then this is the series for you. In each episode, I will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to succeed in your nursing career.
These episodes are packed with value and will cover everything you need to know about landing your dream graduate role, whether that's in a graduate program, international nurse specialty program, or nursing on your terms. Each episode is tailored specifically to your needs as a graduate nurse.
In this first episode, we're discussing the different career options available to graduate nurses. You'll learn about the four key pathways and how to identify the one that's right for you. So sit back, relax, and get ready to take some notes. And don't forget to share this series with your fellow nursing peers who may benefit from this valuable information.
Key takeaways:
02:48 - The Pros and Cons of Nursing Graduate Programs in Australia
10:49 - Debunking Myths About Nurse Graduate Programs
12:25 - Don't Discount Your Previous Career Experience
15:04 - Applying for Competitive Jobs and Graduate Programs
Thanks for listening!
Loved the episode? Leave us a review!
5 Ways we can support you in your nursing career ✅
Join our Nurse Career Academy and work with us to help guarantee your next nursing role!
Book a free Career Clarity Call with Liam to discuss your career situation!
Join our private FB community to surround yourself with like minded nurses!
Check out our Youtube Channel for more nurse career support!
Looking for awesome comfy Scrubs? ❤️
We are so grateful to BizCare for sponsoring the High Performance Nursing Podcast!
Click here to snag some scrubs!
PS: this is NOT an affiliate link, meaning I do not make money if you use this link and the upside? You get AWESOME scrubs!
-
**This transcript was automatically generated using Descript.**
Liam Caswell: The perfect route and the perfect path is the one that you create and the one that you choose doesn't matter which path you take, you do what you want. Make your own decision. Then you can hold yourself accountable to no one else.
Liam Caswell: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Nurse Success Series here on High Performance Nursing. This is something new that we're offering every week until who knows when. Dedicated purely to just you, amazing graduate nurses. So third years students will benefit from all of this as well. First and second year take.
All of the things, all of the peeps. But predominantly those of you that are finishing up this year, you're ready to rock and roll, dive in to start your nursing career. I hear you. I see you. , you're struggling. There's lots of things happening, and nurse career coach team is here to help . Okay? So the first thing that I want you to do is just sit back, relax.
These episodes are gonna be short and sweet, and they're gonna be jammed packed with value. No one else on the internet that I know. In Australia has experience like I do in helping graduates like you land your first dream role. So sit back, get your notepad at, grab a wee coffee. Or if you're out walking, get your notes on your iPhone ready cause we're about to drop some absolute truth bombs.
Okay, good bombs, , non bad bumps. So without further ado, The purpose of these episodes is for me to share with you everything that I know about how to land your dream graduate role, whether that's in a graduate program, all of the things, international nurse, specialty program, nursing, on your terms of whatever the heck you want to do.
We got you covered and we're gonna dive into all of it here today. So each week, every Thursday, I will drop one of these episodes for you and it will be specifically tailored to everything that you need to know. Being an amazing nurse, setting yourself up success as a graduate nurse, And the only thing that I ask of you, because I'm sharing my deepest, darkest secrets here, and all of our top trick tips tricks, and I can't speak today, but that's fine. I ask that you share this with a graduate nursing peer who is either third year ready to rock and roll, or is finishing up their TAFE degree and they're an EM or somebody that's already a graduate nurse that's just gonna benefit from this.
Anyway, that is the only ask that I have , please share it white with all of your people cause I know that the unis, the TAs, they don't offer this. They don't go into the depths that we do here at High Performance Nursing. I want you to have everything that you need to succeed. Without further ado, today we are talking about what are my graduate career nursing options.
Let's dive in and explore them. So it probably doesn't come as a surprise to you that there are maybe four kind of key pathways that I'll like to identify for graduate nurses.
So number one your first pathway is the tried and tested graduate program, these graduate programs that open up all over the country Australia, across Australia, foreign wide, and you can apply for a graduate program and you can dive in and get everything that you need within one kind of hospital.
Now, graduate programs are perfect for people that love consistency, they love the hospital that they're working in or the local hospital, or they want to stay locally. And they just want all of the support to be able to thrive in their career. Graduate programs are not for everybody but they are a good option as a stepping stone into the nursing world and into the career.
Now, graduate programs are a little bit made up, right? Like, I get it. You need the support, you need the help. It's great. But graduate programs, I'm just gonna be totally honest with you here. Graduate programs really depend on the people running them. You know, don't be fooled in believing that the graduate program is the perfect route or the perfect path, because it doesn't exist.
The perfect route and the perfect path is the one that you create and the one that you choose doesn't matter which path you take, which is quite a different opinion to what most unis and TAFEs tell you that like, if you don't get a graduate program, you're not gonna succeed. I'm calling bullshit. Okay.
Total crap. You do what you want. I've worked in graduate programs that have been amazing, that have been really excellent and have been in some that have been led and run by lazy ass. People, , they're not good, and you suffer. So you know, it's like everything. It's 50 50. It's good and it's bad. We just don't know until we're in it.
What you can do is you can suss out from other people whether or not it's gonna be a good option for you, but ultimately you have to make your own decision. Should you not apply based on what I just said. Absolutely not. Just apply. Use the processes that I teach you in this series and suss it out for yourself.
Make your own decision. Then you can hold yourself accountable to no one else. Okay? So graduate programs are great. Now, a lot of people say what happens in them, it depends on the state and territory, but most of them you
Should I apply for graduate programs_ - Grad Success Series : apply.
Liam Caswell: They put you through what I call survival. For nursing graduates nursing survival by they, but you jump through every hoop, back flip, do the splits, all of the things on path to getting your graduate job.
If you thought that getting a degree was enough to get your nursing job, it isn't new slash you've gotta be able to do the splits, back, flip, all of the things. I just . But they seriously do make you jump through ridiculous hoops. Hopefully you don't have to and your program is much better. But one thing that I am noticing is that these programs, the graduate programs across the country, because hospitals are so short and tired on money and staff and they're psyching educators, left, right, and center are paying people off.
I know it's crazy. Either outsourcing a lot of this to recruitment companies, which is good and bad for all of us. The good thing is that graduate programs, if they're outsource to recruitment companies, they tend to make it a little bit easier to apply in the first instance. But they're ruthless in culling.
Okay. And when I mean ruthless in culling, they won't call your application for the smallest little thing. Okay. cause they're just not gonna waste the timers. Nurses and nurse managers, nurse educators tend to sit there and look at the application and they're like, oh, it sounds like they put a lot of effort in.
You know, even if you haven't, cause we're nice people, recruiters, all they care about is making. All the care. I did recruitment for a while. All it's about is. Getting the right people into the job or getting a bum on the seat. It's not always the best person. It's not always the right person. So just be aware of that.
The bad that I want you to talk about is the recruitment process. So the fact that, yeah, they make it easier up upfront, but they make you jump through more hoops over time. And like I said, they're ruthless. A case of the smallest little detail might get you.
Okay. So just keep that in mind with this, this evolution of nurse recruitment. It's what we're starting to see this year. The other thing that I want you to think about with graduate programs is, or learn about is the fact that you're gonna get multiple opportunities in a graduate program if you're successful, to then explore different pathways, right?
Now, this is what people say to me, but I need emergency. I need critical care. I need peds because that's my goal. No rubbish. I don't care if you start in aged care, mental health, rehab, palliative care, surgical periop, whatever, wherever you start, it doesn't matter in a program. Just think of your graduate years, just a foundational year.
It's a consolidation year. It's the year where you pull it, al. Okay. It's the year where you start working out what it is that you want. If you already know what you want, amazing. If you don't, just look at your graduate year as an exploration. Give yourself permission to play and get curious in your nursing career and make no decisions until you finish the year and then you decide what you want to do.
And even then, in some of you won't know. And that's totally fine. Don't beat yourself up. Don't think that you need to know because John in your class, or Jane in your class knows and they're so clear and you're not, so maybe there's something wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with you. Okay? They might actually have a really clear path, but when they test it out and they do it, they might find out it's not a fit for them or they might love it.
That's their business. You stay in your lane. Okay, so graduate program's really good. I've got a list here of things that you want to think. . Pros and cons of graduate program, structured program, study of days are normally included, right? So you get study days if you can get off the floor.
Should I apply for graduate programs_ - Grad Success Series : There's
Liam Caswell: professional growth opportunities.
They do make you do things right. So the nursing survivorship, like the survivor program doesn't end when you get the job. It just elevates, like you've gotta present, you've gotta do all these things. If you're cool with that, run with that. Each program is different and it's designed to support you. It's designed to help you grow as a clinician.
It's not just for the sake of doing it. You get support from graduate coordinators. Now again, great added benefit. Not every graduate program is gonna be amazing. Not every coordinator is in it for the right reasons, but that's across the board, right? So same, same anywhere you go. And there are also amazing graduate coordinators, and I have to mention that it's good if you want stable work, right?
You're in it for a year or maybe two years and you've got that clarity, you've got that structure. And of course you can get multiple specialty exposure. If you're somebody that doesn't know. Grad program's a great path to take because you're gonna get to try different things. Now, if you're somebody that's like I dunno where I wanna go, but I definitely don't wanna go here.
I would challenge you to just be open to it, challenge you just to go to rehab and do the thing. Like if it's rehab that you don't want to do, but, and you get it, just do it. Just explore what's the worst that can happen if you're looking at your graduate year as a foundational year where you build your skillset.
It doesn't matter where you're going. Okay. Like that's what it is. You're not meant to have all, of it worked out by now. Now, the cons are support is dependent on the team and the people offering the support. You might not get the specialties and the rotations that you want. This happens all the time.
So just be aware of that. Okay? You might not get the thing that you want. They can change or move your rotation. We've had this happen to people where they get their dream rotation and then they come back to them and say, oh, sorry, we over. You know, prescribe people to that rotation. So you've gotta go to H Care, it happens.
Then you get to decide, okay? That's why options are good in your graduate process. They can move you at any point in time if they have multiple sites. So if your program has multiple sites, , I want you to be aware of the fact that they might actually come and they might say you know, you're on this site and our graduate program team just really work on this site, so we're only gonna see you once a quarter.
This happens more frequently than I'd like it to happen. And people that are in satellite site hospitals are units like palliative care, maybe off campus. They tend to get disadvantaged in the graduate program. So just go in knowing that. Don't expect. You know, heaps of support. If you're in a satellite site, it's likely that that educator or the local staff will be your best support mechanism.
And then the grad team will show up when they can be bothered. Sometimes graduate programs are typically offered part-time. Okay? So it may not suit those of you that want full-time. I think part-time is good. It's usually 0.8, right? So like four, four shifts a week and depending on where you work, and usually there's some rules around rostering and things like that.
That's for all. And obviously there's a limited positions. , not everybody's gonna get a job. And sometimes there are poor recruitment practices that happen. So I mean, what I mean by that is that they will favor locals, they'll favor nationals, they'll favor people that live in the state over other states.
Now, there's pros and cons to that, right? But I always think that we should be hiring the person that really wants the job, not just because. Postcode. So, you know, just something to consider as you move forward. Now, there are a couple of program myths that I want you to be aware of. Like graduate program myths that are here all the time and they're total bullshit.
Okay. Number one is international. Nurses cannot land a graduate program in a public hospital. It's absolute tripe, , it's crap. Please do not believe that to be true, especially if you're an international nurse. Last year we worked with a number of international nurses who were offered multiple public and private graduate programs in specialty programs.
I'm talking pediatrics critical care ed. It happens maur students, seasoned humans. You will not be disadvantaged because employers only want young people. That is not true. As an employer, as a nurse unit manager, I was looking at people that were the best fit, that had amazing life experience. You have such valuable transferable skills.
Don't let that thought, cause that's what it is. It's just a thought. There's no evidence to prove it to be true. And even if you know someone, that has experienced that. They probably blocked themselves from the job because they thought the same thought. , okay, stick with me. They believed that they wouldn't get the job because they're a mature age student.
It is your superpower, it's your advantage. Do not see it as your deficit. Okay. The other thing I hear all the time is you need to have worked as a A I N. You send Russon to get accepted or to be consider. Absolute cramp. You don't, if you worked in customer service at Burger King, amazing. If you worked in Kmart, great.
If you're in property management before you did this transition and you're a mature age, amazing. What can you bring from your previous life and career experience and show them why it's valuable. If you're somebody that's worked in healthcare in another capacity, incredible or do not discount it. I can't tell you how many times people tell me, oh, I've come from India or the Philippines, or I was a pharmacist in a past life, but I didn't think that that would be.
You kidding me? Of course it's relevant. Make sure you include all of that information in there. You do not need to be an A I n. If you can and you want to and you want to add that to your suite of skills, for sure run with it, but it's not necessary. This is where. I would argue that poor recruitment practices come in cause they might favor you.
And I'm just saying that based on my experiences being on panels, if somebody already works for the organization, it's easier to bring them in. It's easier for HR to process them. It's easier for a lot of ways that shouldn't be considered in the process, but they are because nurses are humans, nurse managers are humans and they make easy decision.
Okay. Remember, we love easy things. We don't like it to be difficult, so that's an advantage I guess that could come up. Is it correct? No. Doesn't happen. Yes. Having a bad GPA means you won't be considered. Okay? Nursing is a vocation. Doesn't mean that this is not your permission slip to do shit . Okay? Go and do your absolute best.
Now you get to decide what a good and a bad GPA is, and to be quite honest. I don't even know what my GPA is, what it was. I have never hired based on gpa. Does GPA come into the process? Yes, it does. Where comes in, depending on the hospital, but it will be included potentially in the review, their overall holistic view of what's going on.
So they're not gonna just judge you based on your GP alone and be like, oh, li, I've got a terrible gpa. He's dumb. We're not gonna. We just see it for what it is. It's a number on the page and it becomes part of the process. Okay? So we look at your cv, your cover letter, your selection criteria, your grad application form.
We look at your video. If we've had you do a video, we look at your interview, then we pull it all together and you get a bit of a score and we say, okay, Liam got 84 and you only got three points for his gpa. If you have a better GPA, then you might get more points. panels will manage that in different ways.
I'm an advocate, of course, being academically good and getting in there and getting the work done cause it does correlate to you being able to do the work. But some people, it's not a academic and that's totally fine. But don't give yourself, don't beat yourself up if you're not as academic as other people, and do not convince yourself that you're gonna fail because of your G gpa.
Okay? It's just a. Just, it's just a number. That's it. And the final one that I'm gonna give you as we wrap up is that you shouldn't apply because it's competitive. Oh. I'm not gonna apply for that one because I don't know that I'm gonna make him . Right. Just like hear yourself out saying that. It's ridiculous.
Everything's competitive. Every job is competitive. Okay. We need you to apply. We want you to apply. I want you to operate from this belief. The panel are looking for the best person, even though I've just told you all the biase. Nurses are human, right? There's biases that exist. Panels want the best person to walk through the door.
It's like the X factor. We're sitting waiting for you and we're like, oh, is the next one the one we want you to walk in and blow our socks off? So that's your goal. As you apply for a graduate program, if this is your path, you're gonna dive in and you're gonna show them what you're the best on your applications.
You're gonna show them your cv, your cover outta your selection criteria, and you come to interviewing, you're gonna convince us that you're amazing and you've got all of the things that we need to mourn, and we're gonna be like, yes, you're gonna make an irresistible offer to us if you want, into our graduate program.
Okay. That is what's required. Now, today, we've just covered graduate program. I'm gonna do a whole series of these over the next few weeks, but I wanna keep them short and sweet and I've already gone over it, so I promise that I will respect your time more next week. But we've gone through graduate programs.
Next week we're gonna dive into Graduate Specialty Pathways, and we'll dive into that. , if you are finishing up this year, or you know someone that's finishing up this year, do not keep this podcast a secret to yourself. You are helping no one but yourself, and that's not what we do as nurses. We share this white and far and white.
So I want you to go share this with a buddy. Get somebody to come in and listen to the, the Grad Nurse Success series. And if you haven't already, come and download our free 2023 Graduate Nurse application guide where we break it down and we explore what you should be doing before. During and in for interview.
As you move through the graduate process, everything that you need we're gonna cover with you. So go and download that. The link is in the show notes, and I'll see you in the next Graduate Nurse Success series. Here's two, your Graduate Success in 2023. We'll see you in the next one.
