From Novice to Nurse: Surviving the First Year (Didn’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry) 1

Even before I officially got my nursing license, I had my first reality check. Walking past a hospital one day, I saw its sign: ***** ENT HOSPITAL. Instead of recognizing ENT as ear, nose, and throat, my brain short-circuited and read it as ‘ent’ (rhyming with ‘yent’), like it was some mysterious, oddly named facility. My friend burst out laughing, and my dad—who had been proudly thinking his daughter was now a capable nurse—shook his head and asked, ‘Did you really pass nursing school?’ In that moment, I wasn’t so sure myself.

Fast forward a few months, and I was officially a registered nurse, proudly holding a nursing license under my name.

Eager to start my career, I applied for nursing jobs and got selected for interviews. That’s when I realized that nursing school had prepared me for patient care—but not for the oddities of job hunting.

The first hospital interview was... an experience. The initial part went smoothly (minus the fact that I was interviewed in a doctor’s OPD in between her patient consultations—shocking, I know). Then came the HR room. The moment the interviewer glanced at my documents, he immediately assumed I was planning to go abroad. Wait, what?

Apparently, the notarized copies of my certificates were a red flag. I had no idea notarization was associated with foreign job processing. I had simply done it because my friend mentioned she was doing the same, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt. Big mistake. I tried explaining that I had no plans of leaving the country, but the HR person just gave me a look that said, Sure, kid. Sure.

Still, I got through that round and was sent to meet the Managing Director. He was a really kind man, but what happened next still haunts me.

"Being a nurse, what do you think is the difference between the service provided by top-rated hotels and hospitals? And whose service is better?"

Excuse me, what?!

I had never in my life considered comparing the two professions, so my brain short-circuited. In my pure, naive honesty, I blurted out:

"Well, although the professions are different, if we’re just talking about service, top-rated hotels definitely win."

The MD smiled, amused, and calmly responded,

"You’re a nurse. You shouldn’t downgrade hospitals like that. You should have stopped at ‘the professions are different’ and left it at that."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I managed to fail an interview in record time.

Although I applied to multiple hospitals, only three responded with interview offers.

The second interview felt like a real interview—the kind you imagine when you think of formal hiring processes. I walked into a large room, where the Nursing Director, Hospital Director, and HR sat in front of me, reviewing my documents. Unlike my first experience, this one went smoothly. I managed to answer their questions without embarrassing myself (progress!), and to my relief, I was offered a job.

I was excited—my first official job as a nurse! That excitement, however, was short-lived.

During orientation, they casually started mentioning an “observation period.” Without pay.

Ah, yes. A classic red flag.

Thankfully, before I could be roped into unpaid labor, I received an interview call from the third hospital. That timely escape saved me from what could have been my first experience of workplace exploitation.

Me being me, how could there not be an incident with my third interview?

This hospital specialized in neurology, and naturally, most of the questions were related to the brain and spinal cord. I was doing okay—until they asked me, 

        "How many lobes are there in the human brain?"

For some reason, my brain decided to betray me in the worst way possible. Instead of thinking about lobes, I got confused with hemispheres (don’t ask me how or why), and with full confidence, I answered:

        "Two lobes."

I can only imagine the interviewer's thought process: Does this one really have just two lobes? Maybe she’s missing the frontal one.

Surprisingly, that blunder wasn’t enough to disqualify me because I was still offered the job. They explained the pay, benefits, and leave policy, and it all seemed like a good opportunity. So, I took it.

Despite being a fresh graduate, I was placed in the ICU right away. At first, I was thrilled—after all, specialized experience sounded like a great way to build my skills. What I didn’t realize was just how emotionally, mentally, and physically draining an ICU posting can be.

But that’s a story for another Novice to Nurse post.

Note: What’s a moment from your early nursing days that still haunts (or amuses) you? Let’s laugh (or cry) together in the comments!