I was talking with a friend of mine who is a registered nurse first assistant (RNFA). That means she is an RN who can first assist in the OR. A lot of hospitals use them instead of PAs or residents.
She spends most of her time as an OR nurse and a little time as first assist. Let’s call her Amy. Amy is starting to look for a new job. Nothing terrible just starting to get a little fed up where she’s been and the position she’s in. Pretty normal stuff.
We’re talking and she starts downplaying her experience. Most of her assisting experience is in one specialty. She’s telling me how she isn’t a good candidate for a hospital position because she isn’t well-rounded enough. I started laughing. First of all, she’s selling me (and herself) on why she isn’t a good candidate when she should be selling me (and herself) on why she is a good candidate.
Here’s at least one reason: As an OR nurse, she scrubs and circulates in every specialty from ENT to plastics to GYN to ortho to whatever. Amy’s been an OR nurse for about 15 years.
Why doesn’t she think that’s valuable experience for a RNFA to have? We are so stuck on the idea that “we don’t fit”. We make up excuses why we would fall short and think that “only very specific experience is relevant.” We close ourselves right out before we even try.
So I took upon myself to enlighten her – on her resume and cover letter, there is no need to separate the RNFA and the OR nurse experience.
OR Nurse and RNFA from 2002-2017 at XYZ hospital. In this position I scrub and first assist on a wide variety of cases.
Is that a false statement? Nope
Is it misleading? Nope
Is she lying or saying she has skills she doesn’t have? Nope.
There was an episode of Friends where Joey is working on his resume with Phoebe and he thinks it’s coming up light. So they start making up things he can supposedly do. Guitar playing… Sounds good. Oh, what about horseback riding? Yeah, yeah. That’s great.
Lying about your skills is a terrible idea. It made for a very funny show, but you don’t want to be put into a bad situation.
Framing is the word you need to learn. Framing is simply how your present the facts. You want to present them in a way that makes you look good, not in a way that makes you look bad. You’re not even stretching the truth here. You’re just showing how you bring value to the team, to the position.
Don’t you think a decade of experience as a multi-specialty scrub nurse has any value to your career as a first assistant?????
I wouldn’t downplay it. I would put it right up at the top of the reasons she IS qualified. Don’t look for the reason you’re NOT good enough. Look at all the reasons you ARE! In this case (and often times), they are the same. It’s just how YOU frame it.
Amy’s resume shows all of her amazing multi-specialty experience. That gets her in the door. During the interview, she fully expects to be asked about her specific first assist experience and this is where she can shine. Why? Not only is she expecting this question but, using her resume, she set it up to get THIS QUESTION. She better hit it out of the park.
“As a scrub nurse for 15 years, I’ve gotten experience in hundreds of different cases and with hundreds of different docs. I’m comfortable in any room. That experience has also transferred really well to my work as an RNFA. I’ve spent 10 years as an RNFA working mostly in ZZZ, but the great part is that since I scrub so many different kinds of cases as an RN, I’m comfortable in just about any specialty.”
From there, if you’re a good person with decent interview skills you should have no problem. If they want you on the team, you’ve given them a way to overlook what you believe are your shortcomings.
The November edition of Physician Assistant Exam Scholars is going to be focused on the getting a job part of being a PA. We’re even going to cover how to handle your job situation if you fail your exam.
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Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace