I don't have the talent to be a nurse. I did last week, but I don't now.
I decided recently that I need a change at work. Not because I hate my job (actually, I love it), but because my current hours are putting a cramp in my style and I can't change my schedule, based on the needs of the unit.
So with resume in hand, I started pounding the pavement. I applied to all kinds of jobs that sounded interesting. Some I was qualified for, and some I was not. But, I told myself, I'm a fast learner, and I usually shine during interviews. I could surprise a manager, and possibly myself, by landing something really great and being the right person for the job.
Most of the jobs I applied to were right in my current place of employment. Great---no interruption in insurance and benefits, no dreaded housewide orientation, and if I got really lucky, I'd get to work with people that I've met before and already trust. I might even be able to pick up a few hours in the unit, which would be lovely, like leaving home for college but coming home on the weekends to do laundry. Comfy.
There was only one barrier; I had to undergo a talent assessment.
One to one and a half hours long, a talent assessment is an HR product used to, according to the company that designed the assessment, "[a] proprietary interview technology, which identifies people who have significant potential to be successful in a particular industry or profession and in a particular workplace and/or culture." Well, wait a minute. I've learned a lot since I became a critical care nurse. I've acquired knowledge and skills. I've earned the respect of other nurses, physicians, and allied health professionals. I have a reputation for being a dependable team player. I've kept up with my continuing education. I'm trusted with teaching nursing students and orientees. My evaluations are strong. What about that? According to the same company, "Talent is a natural ability not acquired through effort. It is a person’s capacity to achieve near-perfect performance. Unlike skills and experience, talent is a reliable predictor of performance excellence."
Um. So effort doesn't count. That means all the energy I've poured into becoming a skilled, safe, knowledgeable practioner is worthless because...I don't have the talent to be a nurse. And I'm not near perfect.
What the fuck is a "talented" nurse?
A meringue might be near perfect. People are not meringues.
You know what I know about talent?
As a young child, I was precocious; I was reading and writing at very advanced levels, and placed in independent study in grade school (bad idea to tell a first grader to work on their own). I was told repeatedly that I was brilliant----so young! so smart! I had talent. I blew all the testing out of the water. My response to being told I had brilliance and talent was this: I quit trying. Why? Because I had talent, that's why. I was too cool. Everything was easy, until it wasn't. In junior high, I hit an academic wall. I was asked to work a little harder, met other brilliant kids...and I did not flourish. I was, kindly speaking, fucking lazy. But hey, I was talented.
What a lot of shit that was.
Eventually, I grew up and figured out that a gift is nothing if you don't use it well. I started working harder at everything I was interested in. That's how I became the nurse I am now.
This is what happened: I took the assessment. It was a phone interview peppered generously with stupid questions.
Do you smile a lot?
Do you talk to your patients frequently? Why?
What do you think of people who only come to work for a paycheck?
Are you addicted to a positive attitude?
Do you pay your bills on time?
Do you try to do more than your co-workers?
If you were competing with two other nurses to care for a patient, what would you say to the patient to get them to choose you?
I have not been interviewed by a manager from any of the other departments I applied to, to see if I'd fit in. No one has spoken to me, my cohorts, my supervisors or my (surviving) patients about my strengths and weaknesses. I was informed that I was no longer being considered for at least one of the positions I applied to. I inferred from this news that I'm not eligible for any kind of lateral movement within our institution.
Talent fail.
If I had taken this assessment straight out of nursing school, would I even have a job now?
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