Hiring Managers can you explain this to me...

A nurse friend of mine applied for a position that was in the local paper. She went to the interview, meeting with the DON. The DON told her all about the job, etc. including when the next orientation would be. The DON asked her to meet with someone else for the 2nd interview so she wouldn't have to come back. She agreed. They makes copies of her license, etc. and had her fill out the information for background check. She was told the formal offer would come when the background check came back. She was there for a little over 2 hours by this time. After all this is done and she is getting ready to leave the DON tells her he will be in touch as soon as the position is opened by the corporate people. She was shocked and a little mad given she had spent now close to 3 hours at this interview, filling out everything, giving copies, etc. only to find out there was not really a position even though it was advertised AND she was interviewed by two people for it AND told the position was hers! This makes nnnooo sense to me. She was told it would be "a few weeks" - it's now been close to 3 months. The man she met with - the DON - keeps telling her he is waiting for "them" to decide to open the position. The draw back is she has other job offers but this one would work really well for her since she is a single mother so she keeps passing up offers but as of today has decide to take one at an LTC but it's part time. WHY would ANYONE interview - wasting their time and the applicants - if there is no job??? Is this what nursing is coming to? I am really, for a variety of reasons, tired of nursing and if I could find something else to do, I would. It has changed so much in the past 10 years or so.
Unfortunately, this is likely an HR issue. Those wheels roll slowly, when they move at all. A valid scenario would be that there was a spot to be filled and the DON knew it. He got ahead of himself and is now waiting for HR to dot all the i's and cross all the t's of the offer of employment. HR doesn't know speed or efficiency.

I don't think the scenario has anything to do with nursing. It wounds like an administrative struggle to me. I suspect it is exactly what it appears to be, a DON hamstrung by the bean counters. He needs a nurse, wants a nurse, has identified a candidate he wants and administration keeps telling him "a week or two." They can keep that up indefinitely, so tell her to take a different job.

This happened to my boyfriend at a non-nursing job. They interviewed, got copies of a license, made an appointment to do tax forms...then "oh well now we have to wait for the regional people(or whatever) to approve an open position!" I think it happens at a lot of places, and the scenario is a lot like roser13 said.

I appreciate the responses. I just got off the phone w/her and it's still a waiting game. She is so disappointed - obviously -but I didn't think of the HR angle until you guys mentioned it. She is going w/another job tho' she is still hoping this one will come through.

Sorry about your friend But when I applied to my student nurse tech position, I applied in March and I did not get a call for an interview/ start orientation until January. The manager told me they were waiting for the final approval that they could hire. It's unfortunate that they made her interview and there was no immediate position. The fact that they had her interview sounds to me like they will get the okay pretty soon.Best of Luck

Often people get interviewed and then a hiring freeze is ordered by those higher up.

I would say she should take other job offers, and if this nurse management comes through retire from that job and take the nurse management.Just my opinon

Happened to me in 1/09..home health,, same scenario except they asked me to ride all day with a RN the next day.. Part way thru the day she asked if they hired me I said not exactly, said they are but did not give me start date.. she says "you poor thing, they have no approved position" and this was a prn job. Then she took me to my car as she thought it was silly for me with tons of exp to ride with her for no pay! I got the job 60 days later,, took it as still needed job. And this is same NM who told me I was irresponsible for choosing caring from my father over staying to work for her. I swear I do not believe some have any conscience.

bug them!i think it is an hr issue also.it took me 3 months to get the job i got after interviewing and i was so desperate i bugged them constantly.the hr person got fired not long after i started.who knows what they do when theyre supposed to be working?!

I was to be hired for a job, then somewhere along the line the job just disappeared. In another situation, I got "unhired" when I went in to get my first assignment. That isn't even counting the times I've been hired and then never contacted for work, or work just seems to drift off into the ozone. Lots of people in the hiring/firing business do not know about the concept of courtesy, as in common courtesy, much less professional courtesy.

If they can't hire anyone, I don't think they should be scheduling interviews. Whether or not the DON needs a nurse, he needs to take a step back and realize that just because he interviews someone doesn't mean he'll automatically get the O.K. Unfortunately, some companies don't have a good line of communication to their corporate headquareters. He is only frustrating himself and the applicant!

in our facility all apps come thru HR who then matches them to APPROVED positions.